VWU’s March Events to Promote Women’s Role and Gender Equality

The 30^thAnniversary of Kovalevskaia Prizeand 2015 Kovalevskaia AwardCeremony were held in Hanoi o­n 6^th March 2016. This year, the award has been conferred to 2 individuals with outstanding achievements in scientific research including: Associate Professor. PhD. Dang Thi Cam Ha, former Head of Environmental Biotechnology Department, Institute of Biotechnology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and PhD. DoctorPham Thi Ngoc Thao - Deputy Director of Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Health. Ha was honoured for her research works o­n environmental protection, especially biotechnologies to clean up contaminating oil in different eco-environments and treat soil contaminated by dioxin-contained herbicides.Meanwhile, Thao has numerous research projects in the field of hematology.Although the prize’s value is modest, it was timely encouragementand acknowledgementtowards the contributions offemale Vietnamese scientists in particular and Vietnamese women in general.

On the occasion of 20^th anniversary of the death of MadamNguyen ThiThap–Vietnamese hero Mother, late Vietnam Women's Union President (1996-2016), o­n 9^th March, the Vietnam Women’s Union in collaboration withTienGiangParty Committee organized tribute activitiesin TienGiangprovince and the workshop "Nguyen ThiThap - life and career". This’s to acknowledge her great contributions to the cause of national and womenliberationas well as to show the respect of Vietnamese women of all generationsto her contributions and foster patriotism, national pride, solidarity upholding the fine traditions of Vietnamese women in the current period.

Award Ceremony of Comic and cartoon Competition o­n Gender equalitytook place o­n 1^st March at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. This event is a part of the UN Secretary General’s Campaign UNITE toend violence against womenand co-organized by the Embassy of Belgium, theBelgian Development Agency (BTC) in Vietnam, UN women and VietnameseWomen's Museum. The contest aims to deliver a message not to toleratesexual violence and other forms of violence against women and girls across the world. 40 most outstanding pictures were displayed o­n this occasion.

Also at the Vietnamese Women's Museum,from the 7^th till end of March 2016 held the exhibition "Stories ofwomen living with disasters" - results of the project "Strengthening women’s capacity in risk reduction to cope with climate change" which is implemented by the Vietnam Women's Union in cooperation with UN women. This helped the public to get arealistic view from the stories of women who lost their homes, assets because of floods in QuangBinh and ThuaThien Hue where are known as "storm pocket " of central region.

On the 10^th March, Vietnam Women's Union and the Embassy ofIsrael in Vietnam organized a screening of"Brave Miss World" and a panel discussion o­n the theme "Speak out" aimingat reflecting the real situation of rape and encouraging victims to tell theirstories as Miss Israel 1998.

Also o­n this occasion, the Women's Publishing House organized a Month of WomenBooksincluding aWeek of 8^th March Booksin Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; Ho Chi Minh City Bookfair; Spring book fair; Month of o­nline Books; o­nline contest "Mother - daughter in law- not a difficult issue!".

And theVietnam Women's Academy organized a workshop "Women's access to resources and promotingthe development of female human resources in the cause of industrialization and modernization" to provide scientific informationfor identifying measures to realizeParty's policies and guidelineson female human resources development, creating favorable conditions for women to contribute to the cause of national industrialization and modernization.

Provincial Women’s Unions also conducted many practical activities for women such as:free health check-up and medicineprovision for over 200 poor women and women in difficult circumstances (QuangBinh province); a writing contest o­nVietnamese women in the country’s industrialization and modernization within Lao Caiprovince; propaganda o­n Gender Equality Law for women staff, members and youth union’s members working at the prison (BinhDinh province); and many meaningfulcelebration activitiesin Ha Tinh province includingInstallation of2km lightingwirelines,savings following Uncle Ho’s example,fundraisingthrough farming activities.

In response to the International Women's Day, the Embassy of Vietnam, the Vietnamese Association and the Vietnam Women's Union in different countries organized many activities under various forms with the aim of honoring Vietnamese women’s role such as: Competition “Perfect Couple”,Flower arrangement contest, Music performance (Hungary); Gala "Tam Xuan2016" (Czech Republic); meetings, celebrations and festivals ... in Norway, Romania, Poland, Germany, Laos, Russia,China and so o­n.

Award Ceremony of Comic and cartoon Competition o­n Gender equality