To enhance voluntary activities for national sea and islands

With effective organization of voluntary activities turning towards national sea islands in many years, at the 10^th National Congress of Vietnam Students’ Association tenure 2018-2023, held from 9 to 11 Dec 2018 in Ha Noi, Provincial Students' Association will make a presentation on "To enhance voluntary activities for national sea and islands - Practices from voluntary student campaign "Green Summer "in Phu Quy island district, Binh Thuan province”.

Tran Thi Diem Trinh, Deputy Secretary of Provincial Youth Union, said that in combination with the campaign for national borderland and island launched by the Central Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, in recent years, Provincial Youth Union has paid attention to and identified the development of voluntary activities turning towards national sea and islands as a guideline to strengthen patriotism of students. As one of the pioneer, Provincial Students' Association carried out voluntary movements and programs towards national sea and islands, such as students’ voluntary campaign "Green Summer" in Phu Quy island district, Binh Thuan and Nam Can district, Ca Mau province; "Binh Duong youth act for national sea and islands"; the program “Students with national sea and islands". Every year, Binh Duong students are selected to participate in the journey "Youth for national sea and islands" organized by the Central Youth Union... Movements for national sea and islands of Provincial Students' Association attracted the participation of many students.

Binh Duong students sing the national anthem at the landmark of Phu Quy island, Binh Thuan province.

To enhance voluntary sea island activities, Provincial Students' Association proposed solutions such as "Applying technology into voluntary campaign". Accordingly, popular social network applications such as Facebook, Zalo ... are a powerful tool for the propaganda and communication of campaign, information about the campaign will be sent quickly to everyone to raise the love of sea and island. At the same time, through these apps funds would be raised for voluntary programs or call for support from donors. Thanks to social sharing, the campaign will get more attention and support.

Solution 2 suggested by Provincial Students' Association was "Specialization of campaign activities". The formation of legal teams coming to border areas and islands to carry out law and sovereignty dissemination among the people will strengthen youth union members, people’s confidence and motivation to protect sovereignty. In addition to activities to clean up beaches, the Association also proposed talks and meetings between students and local people to raise awareness of marine and island environmental protection. In addition classes for children, voluntary teams would open English classes for local youth union members to show the importance of foreign languages ​​in the development of local tourism and economic growth. On the other hand, voluntary teams would also organize cultural art shows performed by students with performances about the love of the homeland, island border, the enthusiasm of youth members.

Another solution was the popularization of the sense and responsibility of voluntary students. Accordingly, each student, during and after the campaign, would be a communicator for the national sovereignty. Nguyen Ngoc Uyen Vy, Vice President of Binh Duong University Students’ Association, who participated in Green Summer campaign in Phu Quy island District for 3 consecutive years, said: "After each campaign, we drew many lessons and solutions for the following campaigns to be more successful. I also realized that it was the sincerity of voluntary students had helped local people to have more confidence in Students’ associations”.

It is important that, at the end of the campaign, students would be more mature, have more beautiful memories and love of sea island. This love has helped them try and train better with the desire to contribute youth strength to the development of remote poor islands.

Reported by Ngoc Nhu – Translated by Ngoc Huynh