30 Years of Green Sunday: A Journey Towards a Greener Ho Chi Minh City

Since its inception, Green Sunday has spanned 30 years, a journey long enough to affirm the vitality of a movement to make Ho Chi Minh City greener.

After 30 years, the "Green Sunday" initiative remains vibrant, fostering hygiene habits and contributing to building a green lifestyle in the community. - Photo: K.ANH

To mark that journey (1994 - 2024), the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union and the Vietnam Youth Union of Ho Chi Minh City recently held a seminar titled "Solutions for developing the 'Green Sunday' model in the current period".

Green Sunday is not just about cleaning up trash and canals, but also includes many other activities suggested and commissioned from this seminar. There are many practical approaches, and we need to continue encouraging youth union members to engage in activities and methods that are geared towards Net Zero for a better future.

Mr. NGO MINH HAI (Secretary of the City Youth Union, President of the Vietnam Youth Union of Ho Chi Minh City)

Enduring vitality

From the first Green Sunday program in Tang Nhon Phu A commune, Thu Duc district (now Thu Duc City), the program has now completed its 155th Green Sunday across Ho Chi Minh City. In 2017, this model was expanded nationwide by the Central Youth Union.

Green Sunday, as Doan Truong Quang, the permanent vice president of the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union, put it, can be called a "national brand".

The guarantee is that the name has remained unchanged since its initial launch. And it's not just about the number of times it's been held; the key is that the program has been maintained, expanded, and developed with many new models and effective approaches. The activities are simple yet closely connected, bringing practical benefits to people's lives.

"The 'Green Sunday' initiative has received attention and guidance from the Party Committee, close coordination from the government and mass organizations at all levels, and mobilized the participation and consensus of all strata of the people, giving it enduring vitality and creating a certain impact on raising community awareness," said Quang.

Sharing their views at the seminar, many organizations also acknowledged that a persistent approach linked to the practical needs of residential areas, factories, and schools has contributed to changing behavior and gradually building a green lifestyle.

Ms. Ngo Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Deputy Head of the Environmental Protection Department (Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment), believes that young people have demonstrated a pioneering and proactive role in creating appropriate solutions and methods to address environmental issues in their localities, agencies, and schools.

"You have applied technology and leveraged the positive aspects of social media to communicate many activities that spread messages about environmental protection and climate change response in the community, contributing to improving the effectiveness of the city's environmental protection programs," Ms. Thanh said.

Connecting the community

Mr. Nguyen Van Dua - former Standing Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee - assessed that Green Sunday has contributed to making the city more beautiful, encouraging people to participate and love the city even more. The educational impact of the Green Sunday model on young people in building a green lifestyle for the community is evident.

Green Sunday is also one of the solutions for gathering young people, connecting young people from many areas, including clubs, teams, and groups. According to Mr. Dua, Green Sunday also fosters community relationships as everyone works together to make their neighborhood greener, cleaner, and more beautiful. "That's a community relationship. From a certain perspective, the Youth Union and Associations can also reach young people online to participate in Green Sunday," Mr. Dua said.

"But what about after Green Sunday?" - Mr. Dua asked, and answered that the goal is to change the behavior of the city's residents to live green, so that at some point Green Sunday will become... obsolete because everyone will have maintained a green, clean, and beautiful lifestyle. "I think, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of national reunification, the City Youth Union should continue to invite young people, including those online and everyone else, to adopt a green lifestyle and build a green city," Mr. Dua suggested.

Based on the local situation, Mr. Nguyen Khac Quoc Huy - Secretary of the Youth Union of Ward 8, District 10 - said that the locality regularly organizes clean-up campaigns in residential areas, combining youth and residents to build good habits for everyone. Along with cleaning alleys and streets, they also plant trees, discourage littering, and encourage green living by limiting the use of single-use plastics.

"We chose to educate children about green living through media so that they themselves will become advocates in their families and surrounding communities," Huy said.

Bringing together a group of young people to take action for the environment.

Green Sunday witnessed the collaborative efforts of several clubs, teams, and groups of young people who love environmental protection activities. Some of these clubs later joined forces with the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union.

The Saigon Green Club shared how they persistently clean up trash and wage war against polluted canals. They install floating barriers to trap trash, returning every one or two months to collect it, clearing the waterways and restoring the canals' green color.

These young people didn't hesitate to immerse themselves in the polluted canal wearing protective gear, hoping to spread the message: don't litter indiscriminately, but join hands to protect our own living environment.

Application of expertise

The Saigon Green Club chooses to declare war on polluted canals, restoring the city's greenery - Photo: K.ANH

According to Trinh Dong Nghi, Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union of the University of Science (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City), specialized faculties with in-depth knowledge of environment, biology, and materials science have pioneered research and proposed solutions for urban landscape improvement, pollution control, and sustainable development.

Biology and biotechnology students are running a "childhood nursery" to research plant ecosystems suitable for urban conditions, helping to reduce the heat effect and improve air quality. From this, they are developing models of green spaces and hydroponics, and together with students, installing them in several primary schools in the city to improve the environmental landscape.

Environmental science students have projects and a "Green Semester" program guiding students in waste sorting and tree planting. Materials science and technology students, on the other hand, are researching and applying their findings to the development of biodegradable materials. They share the benefits of using biodegradable products, highlighting how their use helps minimize environmental impact and opens up new avenues for sustainable resource utilization.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/30-nam-chu-nhat-xanh-hanh-trinh-vi-tp-bac-xanh-hon-20241112110220964.htm