Project to Improve Ethnic Minority Children’s Access to Education

A project designed to help girls, especially those in ethnic minority areas, get access to education, was launched by UNESCO in Hanoi on April 25. Financed by the UNESCO Malala Fund for Girls' Right to Education, the “We are able” project will focus on four key fields, including raising public awareness of the importance of education for girls; building a safe and healthy educational environment through raising awareness of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), strengthening teachers' capacity to meet gender-responsive school counseling. The project will also help increase employment opportunities for girls and women through training programs on activities to create incomes and support ethnic minority children to overcome prejudices. Michael Croft, Chief Representative of UNESCO in Vietnam, said the organization will coordinate with ethnic minority communities and relevant authorities to help ethnic minority children, especially girls and women realize their dreams and aspirations. Based on consultations with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Government Committee for Ethnic Affairs, the three-year project is hoped to contribute to implementing the education development strategy in the 2011-2020 period, the Action Plan to implement UN sustainable development goal and the ethnic minority affairs strategy by 2020. The project will see the participation of about 16,000 people, including students, teachers, rectors of ethnic minority schools, education officials and parents in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang, the south central province of Ninh Thuan and the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang. (Vietnam Plus Apr 25)