Vietnam

IFP Vietnam Alumni Recent Events

Vietnam Alumni Organize Climate Change Workshop

Annual Meeting, January 2008


44 alumni from twenty-seven provinces joined the annual IFP Vietnam alumni meeting in Ha Noi from Jan 18 – 20, 2008. The meeting's agenda:

1) Welcome new returnees and rebuild a network of alumni from 5 cohorts who shared the same journey.
2) Form 6 interest groups, with each group making its own plans of action and choosing its own leader. Groups are formed around these interests: Health related; Ethnic arts and culture preservation; Education; Community Development-North, Central, South; Philanthropy and Fund raising; and IT (library expertise, managing alumni websites and newsletters)
3) Create Charity Fund with alumni members contributing;
4) Agree on a group of alumni to manage IFP Vietnam Alumni website;
5) Continue contributing money for alumni Administrative Affairs;
6) Form a Hospitality Committee to represent the whole group to care for alumni members’ matters, welcome newly returnees, send flowers/cards to congratulate happy events as well as wishes/condolences for sad times

The Philanthropy and fund raising group was able to mobilize alumni members to contribute money on the spot for form this fund. The Fund expects each alum to contribute $2/month following this first contribution. The first activity this group proposed, and was wholeheartedly supported by all alumni members, was to provide 10 kilograms of rice (per person) to a number of HIV-AIDS patients in Bac Lieu province. These patients received plenty of medicine from the NGOs and State health services, but as they are not allowed to work to earn income, they do not have enough food to eat. Vo Minh Phuc, an alumnus who could not complete his master’s degree in public health under IFP due to his prostrate cancer and has been living in this province, was asked to implement this fund.

To date, 56 alumni have returned to Vietnam. Alumni have contributed money to create 3 Funds; each Fund is managed by a committee:
Water lilies Fund to help keep college students from dropping out;
Hospitality and Admin Fund to take care of alumni members’ concerns
Charity Fund to provide food to HIV AIDS patients in Bac Lieu province


Dec 2 – 8, 2007 -Training in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)

25 Alumni (6 Thai and 19 Vietnamese) attended this training at An Giang University in the Mekong Delta. Three alumni who are currently working at this university managed all local logistics and field practicum for this event. Professor Buapun from Khon Kaen University and Mr. Jaruwat, IFP Thailand Program Officer also attended this training. The workshop provided updated information and experiences in how ABCD had been applied in Vietnam.

Participants practiced skills using tools and methods of inspiration, motivation and mobilization such as Appreciative Inquiry, Identifying assets and opportunities, Mapping Institutions and Associations, Mapping Social Capital and Social Networks, Mapping Individual Skills and Capacities, Mapping Physical Assets and Natural Resources, Identifying economic opportunities, Linking and Mobilizing Assets, Sustaining the process, etc.

Besides indoor class activities, participants visited the Khai Tri Residential School in Phu Hoa village, Thoai Son district, a Giang province where we shared and exchanged with the local people information and experiences on the ABCD approach.