Hi!

My name is An Nguyen, in February 2019, I will be joining the team of HER Planet Earth to Vietnam to explore the world's largest cave Son Doong and exit via the Great Wall of Vietnam to raise awareness and funds for women empowerment and climate change resilience. The expedition will be in support of UN Women Vietnam for their project focused on the advancement and economic empowerment of women in rural areas of Vietnam. 

I first travelled to Vietnam back in 2002 and one of my most striking memory is watching these Vietnamese women cycle in the middle of the night with their fruit and vegetable baskets twice their size loaded onto their bicycles so they can sell it to the local market for a few dollars. I was born and raised in Montreal, Canada in a safe and loving environment with access to good schools and free medical care and I am forever grateful for that, so to see these hard-working women was a very humbling experience. This expedition is very special to me because of my connection with the country, the people and its mission to help Vietnamese women adapt to climate change.  

Vietnam is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change and women, especially the poor ones living in rural areas and/or from ethnic minorities, are the most adversely affected by it. Over 72% of women are working in the agricultural sector in the Northern Midland and Central Highlands, and 57% in the Central coastal region. Unfortunately, women have less access to information, resources, credit, markets and vocational training.

UN Women Vietnam’s initiative targets to help female farmers and poor landless women by supporting them to:

• form women-led self-help groups or cooperatives;
• participate in capacity building activities on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation;
• build leadership skills; and
• collect individual-savings to generate a pool
  of funds for security.

HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND HOW EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS

$42/year helps a female farmer adapt her agricultural production and livelihood by providing:

• Technical trainings on new farming methods adapted to climate change;
• On-the-field guidance;
• Climate-resilient farming tools and technologies;
• Access to knowledge and services on climate smart agriculture;
• Establishment of a network of contacts/cooperatives among female farmers to exchange innovative ideas to adapt their agricultural production.

OR 

$126 gives a female farmer a chance to start adapting her agricultural production and complete the transition into a climate smart livelihood in 3 years.

Please note that the full cost of this expedition is paid entirely by myself so all money raised through this fundraiser/JustGiving will go to support UN Women Vietnam's initiative. 

The actual entity collecting the money is UN Women Australia, because UN Women Vietnam are not able to set up a Just Giving account on this website, however the funds will be funnelled to UN Women Vietnam after the campaign. 

I would hugely appreciate your support and all donations big or small are gratefully received.

For more information about my expedition with HER Planet Earth and/or the work of UN Women Vietnam, please refer to the following links:

https://www.justgiving.com/teams/HPEVietnam2019

http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/countries/vietnam

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.