Empower Young Climate Activists in Vietnam

Dear our beloved supporters,

We would like to thank you for your trust and support for our climate campers. Finally, after numerous challenges, we were delighted to announce that we have successfully organized the first 5-day offline camp in Can Gio District, Ho Chi Minh City, from 7th to 11th January 2022. Our campers are from different regions in our country. Some already had their projects, but others were established after participating in the camp. Although they had not met each other before, they were close friends and have kept in touch until now.

During the first camp, our participants learned how to apply knowledge and experiences related to design thinking, storytelling, and fundraising in developing their projects. They also got a chance to enhance their teamwork, leadership, and other necessary soft skills through exciting team-building and sight-seeing activities. Besides receiving knowledge from facilitators, campers have supported mentors' expertise in diverse sectors like university, business, NGOs in the climate change sector, and other funds. According to Phuc - leader of Tram Eco sharing that participating four days in the camp helps team members recognize that motivation together is the best method to create endurance for the whole team working with the community, especially after the lasting period of lockdown working online.
Although they have to learn and work continually throughout five days of camp, almost all campers feel excited inspiring, exploring the potential in leading and even weaknesses. Sharing about the field trip, many campers feel so happy because this is the first time they experience walking into the forest, and they seem to refresh themselves and perceive the importance of nature. This inspires and motivates them on the progress of working against climate change.

After the camp, the participants got two more weeks to sharpen their ideas with the support of their mentors. Then, they gathered. Then, the pitching day was organized via Zoom on 23rd January 2022 due to our physical distance. The participating groups presented their projects to the board of examiners. This year, all of the projects were excellent and practical, and the campers were highly creative. They made the examiners excited and surprised because of their ideas. We can acknowledge that they much improved compared to the first time we had received their very first proposal. The examiners had to carefully consider which groups would receive the grant to run their projects. Then, they decided to select seven groups instead of only five groups receiving the grant. These seven groups will use this grant to implement their projects in their locality, and they will be trained about the skillset to run their campaigns in the second camp.

The second camp will be organized from 11th to 13th March 2022 in Ho Chi Minh City. In this camp, the participants will be trained about various necessary skill sets, helping them run their projects. The skills include event planning, financial management, fundraising, communications, event management, and other imperative skills. Then, they will implement their tasks in three following months. We all feel highly enthusiastic about meeting each other again, sharing our ideas, and especially experiencing the beautiful moments like in the first camp.
We strongly believe that the second camp will be helpful for our climate campers. We are also proud that our young leaders are more and more growing with their passion for leaving lasting positive impacts in our community. So please continue to support us!!!!

Once again, thank you for your faith in us.

Sincerely,

The project team.