Students’ Women Empowerment Movement
Students’ Women Empowerment Movement

As part of the social enterprise programme, on 10 and 11 May 2014, a two-day ‘boot camp’ on the topic of the Student’s Women Empowerment Movement (SWEM) took place. The event was organised by the British Council in Vietnam in partnership with the Centre for Social Initiatives Promotion and partly sponsored by Diageo Vietnam.

The overall objective of the project was to encourage students to come up with innovative ideas to empower women in using social enterprise approaches. At the heart of SWEM was the ‘50/50 Movement’ competition that took place between October 2013 and May 2014. The top 20 proposals have benefited by access to knowledge and skills on how to set up a social entrepreneurial model. This includes - social enterprise business planning and networking with successful social enterprises in Vietnam and UK.

Click on the link below to read the thoughts of Kate Welch, Chief Executive, Social Enterprise Acumen CIC, UK trainer for the project; Che Phong Lan, Busines Consultant at the Centre for Social Initiatives Promotion (CSIP), Trainer of the project and students behind the top ten proposals.

Thoughts of Kate Welch, the UK trainer for the project

I’ve just returned from an amazing few days in Vietnam working with the British Council Vietnam and the Centre for Social Initiative Promotion on the final stages of the Student Women’s Empowerment Movement project that I helped to launch in October 2013. Seventeen teams of students from Universities across Vietnam gathered together for a two day Bootcamp in a hotel in Hanoi. The energy and enthusiasm was infectious. These young people had come up with ideas to tackle social issues ranging from women with kidney problems who can’t afford dialysis, women living in real poverty in rural areas and street vendors who can’t make an adequate living. Many of them had personal experiences to share of family members who had suffered from discrimination because of a drug or offending history, or had been volunteering for some time with groups such as women with a hearing impairment who couldn’t find work because of their disability. They had real stories to tell and had also researched the statistics to back up their ideas.

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Thoughts of Che Phong Lan, trainer for the project (available in Vietnamese only)