On Sunday, 17 November 2013, as an ambassador of TUNZA Eco-generation to Vietnam, in the collaboration with C4E (Cycle for Environment) in Tay Ninh, I had a program named "I'm young. I'm green" in which I went to Tay Ninh, South of Vietnam to talk about new global perspectives on environment to teenagers and young activists there.

Tay Ninh is a mountain area in Vietnam, has the boundaries with Cambodia. The tourism in Tay Ninh is developed and the mountain eco-system and natural environment in Tay Ninh is facing huge problems of development. Environmental activities in Tay Ninh are increasing recently. However, comparing to other region of Vietnam, it is still weak and the young activists is lack of skills and understand about environment and implementing projects. There is also lack of activities to raise the awareness of teenager and inspire them to join the change in environment and become environmental leaders.

Therefore, I wished to be there, introduced environmental projects from the youth in the world, trained soft-skills and inspired them.

We had the meeting in a green park in Tay Ninh, and the event lasted 3 hours with many interesting activities, exciting and honest discussion. Finally, after being inspired, the youth in Tay Ninh came up with many new ideas.

At the beginning, I introduced about information and projects of the youth all around the world. I talked about TUNZA Eco-generations Platform and encourage them to join and become the ambassador in next term. The competitions, events and news from ambassadors from other countries were mentioned.

In the meeting, we highlighted 3 trends in environmental activities:

1. Economical

We are talking too much about raising awareness and non-profit environmental projects in Vietnam. It is time to have a new approach – environmental economical projects. Those projects will have the ability to earn money and pay themselves instead of depending in any sponsorship. It is required for new young environmental activists will have economical thinking.

2. Sustainable                                            

We need small changes than a big revolution. We need a sustainable and compact change that young people can do it themselves even if they do not receive any support from outside parties. In Vietnam, there is lack of encouragement and support for young people. Therefore, the independence is very important. Vietnamese young people should be more active and action-orientation.

3. Localize

We are developing countries, many years far behind developed countries. If we keep follow the trend of developed countries, we will be follower forever. It is important to create a unique way of development for our own countries. We should be creative and localize besides globalizing.

After discussing about these new trends, young people in Tay Ninh have a team work to finalize new environmental ideas based on these characteristics. Teams presented their ideas and everyone discuss together. There are many interesting ideas like: banner bags for sale, eco-talking circle, eco-tour in the Ba Den mount in Tay Ninh? With the feedbacks, it is hopeful that many ideas will come into real life soon.

In the next part of the event, young people were trained in presentation skills, teamwork skills and project management skills which will be necessary for them to implement their ideas in the future. There were games and exercises for them to practice and apply into their ideas in the previous projects.

After this event, I hope the youth in Tay Ninh have a new inspiration, skills and ideas for many new environmental projects in future. It is so meaningful to go and share. Hope to have more events like this soon.