At just 14 years old, Van was one of the youngest speakers at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum held in July 2021.
Van took part in the youth event, Child and Youth Experiences and Activism for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Promoting a Fairer and Greener COVID-19 Recovery for All, at the forum.
She was supported by ChildFund Vietnam and was one of seven youth advocates from around the world who attended the UN forum.
For Van it was a unique opportunity to share her experiences on the world stage of COVID-19 and sustainability in her community in Vietnam.
As a teenager, Van leapt at the opportunity to take on a new challenge and joined a ChildFund run filmmaking group called ‘Connecting and Creating Leadership’. She worked with her teammates to produce two short films, one about environmental pollution and the other about her dreams and aspirations and those of her peers.
Van then joined a team that worked to raise children’s voices on safeguarding issues, with support from ChildFund. The group works together to identify issues of child protection in their community and bring these issues to the attention of local leaders so they can take appropriate action.
When she’s not taking part in child safeguarding activities, Van is busy playing rugby. Her father is a rugby coach for ChildFund Sport for Development’s Pass it Back program. He learnt about gender equality and the importance of sport for young girls in the program, which led him to encourage Van to join.
“Being a rugby player is so great to me because not only can I play a sport I like, but I have learnt a lot about life skills about health, leadership and teamwork,” Van said. “I often encourage my friends to register to join the program.”
Van said she was grateful to have been able to take part in the UN forum and is excited about future opportunities where she can have her voice heard.
This International Literacy Day, we’re celebrating 12-year-old Eunike from Timor-Leste, who is writing stories to inspire her community, help her peers learn to read and to share the message about the importance of family.
She is one of 32 young local authors who have contributed stories to a digital library implemented by ChildFund Timor-Leste and partner Library for All.
We asked Eunike why she decided to write stories. “I want to inspire and motivate other kids like me to write stories,” she said. “I also wanted to share the message about the importance of family to other kids.”
Eunike is inspired by her mother. When she heard that ChildFund and Library for All was running a writing competition, she leapt at the opportunity to enter. ChildFund called out to local authors to write an original story for young readers.
Eunike entered a story, titled Thank You Santa, about a young boy searching for a family. The story is about a little boy who goes in search of Santa at the North Pole. The little boy asked Santa for a family for Christmas. Santa couldn’t stand to see him sad, so he found the boy a family for the holidays to make him happy.
Eunike’s story and those entered in the competition by other young authors were accompanied by illustrations reflecting Timorese art and culture and published in the digital library.
Eunike is in Grade 7 and when she is not writing, she loves to read. Her favourite genres are history and fantasy. “My favourite books are Who is Napoleon, the Great Wall of China and What was the Titanic,” she said.
Eunike encourages her peers to take their education seriously. “Don’t waste your time doing something that is not that important, focus on your goal,” she said. “If you have a goal don’t just say it but put it into action. Never give up hope and never be shy.”
Eunike believes that reading is important to learning. “Reading can teach us new things and learn something that is interesting and can keep us knowledgeable.”
International Literacy Day is celebrated every year to highlight the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights. This years’ theme is ‘Literacy for a human-centred recovery: Narrowing the digital divide’. Despite much progress, there are still literacy challenges persist with at least 773 million young people and adults lacking basic literacy skills.
ChildFund is supporting children like Eunike, every day of the year to learn to read so that they can access a quality education and reach their full potential.
