Through these activities, the students confidently differentiated the definitions of gender and sex and identified gender stereotypes and gender norms in their families, schools, and the surrounding community. Hence, they practised together to come up with solutions to break the gender prejudice circle.

The students had some exciting moments when participating in the experiential activities

“After today, I clearly understand that occupation does not depend on sex. For example, there are not only male police officers but also female ones,” said Hoang Thi Tuyet Nhi, a fifth-grade student at Ban Lau Primary School.

Vietnamese minor ethnic students pioneer for gender equality

More than 10 teachers of the school were directly involved in decorating the game booths and facilitating the programme – the ones who participated in the training course Gender Sensitivity in Education organised by the VSF in July. The Autumn Camp is an opportunity for them to practice the knowledge and skills learned to organise communication activities at school.

The most notable activity of the programme was the improvisational theatre, where six teachers and all students participated. The children were very enthusiastic and excited when they had the opportunity to play as characters in situations where they encountered gender stereotypes and gender norms in the family.

The children practised persuading their parents to change their patriarchal mindset, specifically letting girls go to school and boys share housework. At the same time, the children had to also come up with solutions to seek help from influential people such as teachers and neighbours with successful daughters to influence their parents.

VSF encourage gender equality by improvisational theatre in Son La

“With this Autumn Camp model, the VSF wishes to create an open and creative experience space. Thereby, the basic knowledge about gender and gender equality becomes easier to understand, closer, and more interesting to primary school students. Today, we are really happy to see that the children are ready to break the cycle of gender stereotypes in themselves and their families,” said Tran Hong Diep, deputy director of VSF.

The Autumn Camp is one of the activities of the initiative – the only representative of Vietnam to receive funding from the AGenT Small Grant Programme of the Asian Gender Trainers’ Network Programme. This is also an activity within the framework of the Happy School project, a collaboration between VSF and MSD United Way.