Vietnam

2008 started off with some workshops for 500 students in five vocational schools in Ho Chi Minh city and Quang Ninh province that Dance4Life Vietnam organised with Save the Children USA. The workshops included intensive training on HIV and AIDS, dancing and singing, games and talk with people living with HIV. The students were also provided with textbooks and IEC (Information, Education and Communication) materials about HIV and AIDS and lifeskills.

To watch a short clip about the training, Schools4Life and the Dance4Life Event in Vietnam, click here! It gives you a really good idea of how Dance4Life works.

Another Asian country joins Dance4Life!
Vietnam joined Dance4Life in 2006, their pilot year, and are starting off with 500 youths being involved. The preperations for launching Dance4Life in Vietnam started with a bang! The Dance4Life Event took place at the Hanoi University of Foreign Languages - Vietnam National University, with comedian Xuan Bac as the MC, and Big Toe, a hug hip hop group in Vietnam performing along with 2M group (Minh Anh-Minh Anh), Tan Minh, To Minh Thang, Luu Huong Giang, Tung Duong and My Dung from Morningstar.

Training!
The Dance4Life team who tour the schools had their training over four days, with peer educators, facilitators and people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWH) came together and learnt how Schools4Life works, and they practised The Drill!

Dance4Life Vietnam had a promising start with the training of the tour team and a successful and explosive try-out in one of the participating schools. On the last day of training 100 children gathered to follow two consecutive workshops in a secondary school in Hanoi. This try-out by the newly trained team was really popular with the children, who really got into the spirit of things. If you want to watch the try-out, click here.

Dancing in Hanoi!
The facilitators started with a warm-up which immediately caught on amongst the school children. Stimulated by the enthusiastic reaction and good atmosphere, The Drill was performed, followed by the moodclip which provoked a spontaneous reaction from the kids as their arms went up for the final song.

Then came the peer educators with information on HIV and AIDS, more of the Drill, and real life stories. The room was quiet while two young people living with HIV told the children what it was like to live with it and the reaction from their community towards them. During the afternoon session, the young people voiced the respect and admiration for those who had the courage to stand up and tell their stories. It was perhaps the best moment of the day. These are some reactions from the youth:
“Before the sharing [of the stories from someone living with HIV] I though very differently. But after I feel I want to do something. Maybe not a big action, but just to try and be close to them and help them to socialize”
“ ..through Dance4Life, more people will understand that it is just a disease”.
"I feel very happy to have been part of the event. I found the event very meaningful. I feel after this event, I feel respect for people living with HIV in stead of discriminating them." 18 years old Dance4Life participant.

The workshop finished with the final track, with everyone coming together dancing and singing the Dance4Life lyrics, both in English and Vietnamese, only to demand a second run of the track.

Support from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.
The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi has decided to support Dance4Life Vietnam. The U.S. embassy, through the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief has allocated nearly $80 million to fight the HIV epidemic in Vietnam since 2004, including support for HIV care, prevention and treatment programs to protect the general population from suffering a generalized epidemic. They are assisting in funding Schools4Life 2006 in Vietnam, and we are thoroughly grateful for their support.

A small media campaign will be organised ending in a national TV programme as well.

Want to know about the organisation in Vietnam? Check the National Concept Owner (NCO) of Vietnam here.