Written by Nhu Ho
On March 21 2015, 350 Vietnam in collaboration with the University of Natural Resources and Environment (UNRE) in Ho Chi Minh City organized an event at the university. The event was intended to introduce the grassroots climate change movement 350 Vietnam and its ongoing projects and campaigns, particularly the new Divestment campaign. More than 300 students registered to attend the event, although the hall could only accommodate 200 of them, so they had to squeeze themselves to leave space for others. The movie “Do the Math” was shown and gave the environmental students and teachers a whole new way of looking at climate change. The event organizers opened up the space after the movie for Q&A and open discussion, when the young participants raised ideas on how divestment campaign could be best organized in Vietnam.
“Divestment” was such a new concept for me, when I first learned about it while joining the Global Divestment Day campaign in HCMC in February. Then I decided to organize this movie screening in my university, so my friends can have the same understanding like me. It is critical that UNRE students are aware of this global movement, and have opportunities to discuss how young people can also contribute”, said Pham Ngoc Diem Thi, one of the members of the organizing team.
As part of the activities, a group of 40 students took 350 configuration photos, to send the solidarity message from Vietnam to 350.org. After the event, many of the students signed up to be 350 Vietnam’s volunteers.
To prepare for this exciting activity, a group of volunteers had spent a whole week for making banners and flowers from recycled paper, to send a friendly message about the environment.
This is one of the activities of 350 Vietnam as part of their Divestment Campaign. Similar events will be organized at universities in the coming period, to introduce and engage Vietnamese youth in the Divestment campaign and encourage them to take action on climate change.
