With the theme “Your Dream – Our World”, the Active Citizens Day 2015 was held on 17 May 2015 at Nguyen Tat Thanh School, Hanoi. Launched under the British Council’s Active Citizens Program in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Development Studies, the event created an opportunity for young people to learn and share their community initiatives and contributions.
“With 500 young participants, the event showcased 20 youth-led social projects in Hanoi and enabled participants to explore themselves, network and engage in initiatives for personal and social development”, said Don Tuan Phuong, Director of Center for Sustainable Development Studies.
At the event, participants can explore the learning journey of the Active Citizens Program through experience rooms with topics such as “Me & Myself,” “Me & You,” “We together”. The exhibition which showcased youth-led projects helped young people connect ideas and social activities including CNN Shine - a club for community activities of the Foreign Language Specialized School, Pioneer Fish (supporting students in Hanoi to develop their presentation and job-seeking skills), Marvelous Children (supporting education and care for children with brain disabilities), Clean Eat (raising awareness for farmer on the use of pesticide) or Green Seeds (teaching English for pupils in the suburbs of Hanoi).
Ian Robinson, Deputy Director, British Council in Vietnam, said: “I am delighted to see such a great level of energy and commitment in youth projects that strive to create social benefits in such diverse areas. In an interdependent, turbulent world, our vision is to create opportunities for people to better understand each other, work together and learn from one another for a secure, prosperous and sustainable future for us all. The energy, positivity and enthusiasm on display today epitomises that vision of the British Council’s Active Citizen programme.”
Together with art performances and public areas where participants can learn creative skills (e.g. balloon arts, Sketchnote, etc), the event saw the finale of a contest to find Ambassadors of the Active Citizens Program in Vietnam.
Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to School for Kids Project, a project with an aim to build a new school for more than 100 children in Lao Lung Tung Village, Lung Ho, Ha Giang Province.
Active Citizens, which was initiated and has been run by the British Council in 40 countries worldwide, has successfully built partnerships with 450 partner organisations and created 100,000 Active Citizens.
Active Citizens Day 2015 has been updated at www.facebook.com/activecitizensvietnam.
Active Citizens is an international, social leadership program run by the British Council in collaboration with civil society organisations all over the world. Since its inception in 2009, Active Citizens has been delivered in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The program fosters community-led social development initiatives though promoting intercultural dialogue and social responsibility as key leadership competencies in the 21st century. In Vietnam, Active Citizens Programs has been run by British Council in partnership with CSDS and other organisations since 2014.