Nguyen Do Huyen Vi, a Year 8 pupil at Da Nang’s Tay Son Junior High School in Hai Chau District, has won the first prize in the national level of the 46^th Universal Postal Union (UPU) International Letter-Writing Contest.  Vi is now the 7^th pupil from Da Nang to have brought home this notable award from this contest.

Vi (2nd right) with her mother (2nd left) and teachers

The prestigious contest has the title: “Imagine you are an advisor to the new UN Secretary-General.  Which world issue would you help him tackle first, and how would you advise him to solve it?”  This topic was chosen to celebrate the election of the new UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, who took office at the start of this year. 

This year’s ILWC encourages young people to speak their minds, using their imagination and views on the world to envision a positive change that they could help the new Secretary-General achieve as he begins his job.  All member countries are invited to participate by organising a competition at national level before sending their top compositions to the UPU.  Each country’s best letter must be submitted to the International Bureau no later than 5 May 2017.

In her letter, Vi spoke highly of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’s humanitarian proposal in 2015 to buy an island from Greece or Italy to house migrants and refugees.  He said he would name it Aylan Island to honour the 3-year old Syrian boy whose drowned body was washed up on a Turkish beach.  Also, Vi suggested that the UN Secretary-General should appeal for the world’s richest people, including Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, to follow Mr Sawiris’s idea.  This will help to guarantee the safety of millions of refugees worldwide and bring them peace.

Vi said that her letter was mainly inspired by the 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a Kosovar refugee Agim Shala, taken by former Washington Post photographer Carol Guzy in 1999.  The image shows the 2-year old being passed through a barbed wire fence into the hands of his grandparents at a camp run by the United Arab Emirates in Kukes, Albania.

The talented pupil also expressed her sincere thanks to her mother and her teachers at the Tay Son school for increasingly encouraging and educating her. 

The Director of the municipal Department of Education and Training, Mr Nguyen Dinh Vinh, remarked that Vi’s remarkable achievement demonstrates that the local education and post sectors have shown special concern for publicising this annual prestigious writing contest.

During the 2015 - 2016 academic year, Vi also won first and consolation prizes at a multi-subject (Literature, History and Citizenship Education) contest at municipal and national levels respectively.  This contest had been organised by the Ministry of Education and Training.