Gender equality opportunities for women and children in disadvantaged mountainous areas

In 2022, the Provincial Women's Union was assigned by the Central Union to implement Project 8 "Implementing gender equality and solving urgent issues for women and children" under the National Target Program. The project was implemented in 96 communes and 318 extremely disadvantaged villages of 12 former districts and towns, now 62 communes/166 communes after implementing two-level local government. The project aims to promote care for vulnerable groups such as ethnic minority women and children, thereby promoting their rights, giving them opportunities to rise up, and affirming their role as subjects in participating in community building and development.

Thanh Quan commune women's union members take care of passion fruit garden - a livelihood model supported by the Provincial Women's Union under Project 8.

To implement Project 8, the Provincial Women's Union has directed all levels of the union to widely disseminate the purpose and significance of the project to cadres, women's union members and people; develop detailed plans, assign specialized committees to be in charge of activities, take the lead in advising and organizing implementation in accordance with the local situation. The Provincial Women's Union has selected pilot models and clubs according to 4 groups of project activities to gain experience and replicate. The Provincial Women's Union Standing Committee has directed all levels of the union and specialized committees to develop plans and schemes for using annual funding sources and report to the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee for approval by the Provincial People's Committee.

Project 8 focuses on implementing 4 key contents: Propagating and mobilizing to change "thinking and ways of doing" to eliminate prejudices and gender stereotypes in families and communities, harmful cultural practices and some urgent social issues for women and children; building and replicating models to enhance women's economic power, promote gender equality and solve urgent problems of women and children; ensuring the voice and substantive participation of women and children in socio-economic development activities, social monitoring and criticism, improving capacity for ethnic minority female cadres; improving capacity to implement gender mainstreaming for cadres in the political system and village elders, village chiefs, and prestigious people in the community.

The core of Project 8 is implemented through 3 models: Community Communication Team; Trusted Address and Change Leader Club. For each model, the Provincial Women's Union Standing Committee has implemented a pilot model to gain experience and direct replication. Closely following the 4 key contents of Project 8 and the core models, the Provincial Women's Union and all levels have proactively and made efforts to lead the project implementation and achieved positive results. Up to now, the core targets of Project 8 have exceeded the set plan, such as: The whole province has established 318 "Community Communication Teams"; 46 "Trusted Addresses"; 54 "Change Leader" clubs; 15 livelihood models led by women applying science and technology 4.0; organized 40 training courses on brand building, product quality management; 130 dialogues at commune and village level; 47 gender mainstreaming training sessions for village cadres; 14 training courses on program 2 for district and commune level cadres (old); capacity building for ethnic minority female cadres participating in leadership in the political system... Up to now, nearly 1,700 communication events in the community for over 117,000 people; 350 training courses in the project area with more than 12,000 participants... Through the above activities, members, women and children in ethnic minority areas have been communicated and trained to raise awareness about gender, eliminate gender stereotypes, access a lot of useful knowledge, have skills to handle situations and boldly speak up to protect themselves and the vulnerable. For members who have been supported with livelihood models, they have had more conditions to increase their income, access new knowledge, and effectively apply science to production.

It can be said that the implementation of Project 8 has closely followed the orientation requirements of the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union and related ministries, departments and branches. The project has contributed to changing thinking and working methods, raising awareness, gradually eliminating gender prejudices and stereotypes, enhancing economic power, giving opportunities for women and girls to affirm their roles in the family and participate in building and developing the community, promoting gender equality and solving urgent problems of women and children. Many communes and people have eliminated the concept of gender discrimination; men are increasingly proactive in participating and supporting women in family and social affairs; limiting and eliminating domestic violence...

In general, Project 8 targets each target group, has made the target groups change both in thinking and action, especially the disadvantaged groups to rise up strongly to affirm their position, overcome all barriers in accessing and enjoying the results. This will be an important lever for the association to better perform the functions and tasks of the organization, contributing significantly to improving the quality and effectiveness of ethnic work in localities.

Article and photos: Le Ha

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/co-hoi-binh-dang-gioi-cho-phu-nu-tre-em-vung-mien-nui-kho-khan-270045.htm