Vietnam

Four years... 18 schools... over 9000 students involved!

It’s been quite a journey since dance4life came to Vietnam in 2006…

In our first year, 500 students were educated by the first school tour team (STT), many of whom are still active in dance4life. Two years later, the global event held on 29 November 2008 brought together 3,000 agents of change to celebrate, to inspire, and of course, to dance for life. Students from all over Hanoi became involved as agents of change, taking action to sell home baked goods and recycled paper cards and design stunningly creative posters for the 2008 art competition.

“Without a doubt, this is the greatest HIV prevention event that I ever took part in. It is exciting and very innovative. I always feel overjoyed when I join the team to perform somewhere." Hoai Anh, school tour team

Starting 2010, dance4life Vietnam is bigger and better than ever before! For the first time, we have reached students across Vietnam, inspiring a national network of agents of change. From Hanoi to Danang to HCMC, private high schools to reform schools, more and more young people will be dancing4life this year. And we’ll be doing more than reaching an approximate 5,000 students. This year, dance4life Vietnam is excited to be holding a number of public events, working more closely with our fantastic team of ambassadors, and learning from every one of our workshops!

“This dance4life workshop is totally different. We participated in lots of activities: group discussion, play and dance. It helps me to openly talk about HIV and AIDS.” Chu Thi Huyen, student at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school

The heart connection tour started in May 2009 with 12 workshops in Hanoi. We then continued the tour in June and September, reaching out to another six schools throughout Vietnam. This year we hope to enable over 3,300 agents of change, many of whom will be ‘at –risk youth.’ With over 25% of students attending dance4life workshops classified as ‘at-risk’ this is a challenging, rewarding and vital year for dance4life Vietnam. In 2009, we also trained and educated new teachers and two new school tour teams in Danang and HCMC! Teachers are invited to join us to learn about the important life skills they’ll be sharing with their students. Everyday, we work hard to inspire people to get involved and help us reach our goal of 75,000 agents of change by 2014.

Check out www.dance4lifevietnam.org or facebook *nmvcs vietnam* to see what our amazing agents of change are up to and to hear more of what they have to say!

Achievements to date
• Reached out to over 9,000 in-school youth in Vietnam with information, skills and tools to become actively involved in the pushing back HIV and AIDS.
• Organized two art contests and exhibitions in Hanoi showcasing 200 of the most creative and meaningful art works of agents of change.
• dance4life Vietnam event in 2008 saw 3000 Vietnamese youth dancing together with their peers in 15 countries worldwide, celebrating their achievements and making a statement to national and international leaders to keep their promise in the millennium development goals.

Our sponsors:

dance4life Vietnam is supported with a subsidy from the KPA, a Dutch programme financed by the Minister of Development Cooperation.

We are thoroughly grateful for the support of all our sponsors.