Every summer, volunteers from Cycle
for Environment (C4E) club start to prepare for their annual long
journey. Campaigns to protect forests and many other activities have
been carried out.
The itinerary
Forest – The cradle
of life, Forest – The value of life from nature, Destroy forests –
Destroy ourselves and so on are the messages the volunteers want to
impart through their journey.
The Central is one of the destinations
of the movement. Many propaganda meetings were held from Ham Cuong,
Phan Ri, Phan Rang to Nui Chua National Park. Local students together
with the volunteers grew trees, cleaned the environment, mobilised
people not to use nylon bags and distributed leaflets.
C4E members not only aim to protect
the environment but also want to study cultural characteristics, history
and interesting features of each region. This will help them become
more mature and responsible for themselves and the society. “We travel
hundreds of miles per day and learn many things about life and
Vietnamese people. Those are precious experiences which are not easy to
gain”, said Nguyen Thi My Trang, Chief organiser of Bicycle journey
across Vietnam Program 2011 of C4E in Ho Chi Minh City.
Connecting the community
The activity of
cycling across Vietnam for the environment was born in Hanoi in 2008
from an online movement. The themes of the program are changed each
year, such as Journey along Truong Son Mount or Heritage conservation
during climate change. C4E has thousands of members from all over the
country, most of whom are youngsters. There are more than 500 volunteers
only in HCM City.
Every three months, C4E holds a green
tour by bikes to Cat Tien National Park and Can Gio Biosphere Reserve to
help its members learn about the biodiversity. A more small-scale but
more regular is the Cycling and Sharing campaign. It is a meeting
gathering from 20 to 30 members to give presents to and play with
children in orphanages. They also go clean some places every Sunday
morning with local residents.
Spring and Circle Wheel program is one
year old already. In an evening one year ago, a group of volunteers was
giving gifts to the old who lived alone. Then they noticed the silent
shadows of streets-sweepers on Vo Van Tan and Ky Dong Street. The
volunteers stroke up a conversation with them and find out that those
street-sweepers had done that job for nearly 30 years. After that
evening, the youngsters coordinated with the Public Service Company to
encourage citizens not to litter freely.
Action for wildlife organisation (AWO)
was founded by some young people in HCM City. AWO’s work is to
investigate illegal wildlife animals selling and report to the
authorities. In addition, they also disseminate about the extinction of
some species in Vietnam. AWO now has 1,500 members.
“The aim of these social works is very simple, that is to make the young live more responsibly,” said My Trang.