Story of Lo Thi Say

I was born in a small village in the mountainous province of Lao Cai in Viet Nam. My name is Lo Thi Say – a nice and common name in my community. In my poverty-stricken small village, girls hardly have the chance to accomplish their education. But I was lucky.

I was born into a family where my parents support our education. As one of the very few families allowing all children to continue to study till high school, my parents faced a lot of negative opinions from our neighbors

I was not always there for the criticism, however, as I was constantly in boarding schools for ethnic minority children. There were a lot of girls and boys from different ethnic groups in our schools. In these second homes, I learned from teachers and friends and most importantly, I was trained to live independently and with confidence. And this gave me the motivation to try harder every day.

In 2017, I came to Hanoi, the capital city, as a first-year student at the University of Languages and International Studies. It was a life-changing experience for me. I was thrilled at the fact that the students here were so bright and brilliant. The world became much bigger for me – far different from my small town. “Why do you have that name? Where are you from? Are you an ethnic minority?” Those were the frequent questions I had from my classmates at the beginning. At first, I was afraid of those questions and then I realized that when I began to talk openly about my culture, I was warmly received.

It goes without saying that confidence grows in a nurturing environment. Again, I found myself lucky. Slowly I started to engage in school activities and after some time, I volunteered for community activities.

In 2019, I became the leader of a Mong students’ group working on voluntary projects for our ethnic community. Same year, I organized a free-of-charge English class for the children in my village and the neighborhood. The number of kids going to the class grew instantly to over 100. Most of them were in primary school and learning a foreign language was a luxury for their dreams. Besides, bringing our unique cultures to the outside world was also a motivation for me when engaging young people in projects that saw us travel to learn and gain insights of the remote heritages.

The desire to do more in 2020 led me to the United Nations in Viet Nam. Since then, I have been a frequenter to consultations as the voices of ethnic minority youths on the Viet Nam Youth Law, burning issues of our time and age such as green transitions with the “Advancing Inclusive Green Economy through Youth Empowerment and Participation in the Greater Mekong” workshop, hosted by UNICEF and UNESCO in the country. On those occasions, I fight for the rights to be heard, to be empowered in matters that related to and concern us.

Now working as a teaching assistant in an international primary school, I am proud to be the only ethnic minority employee there. I am proud to be different in my effort to be the better version of myself every day.

My wish for ethnic minority children and young people like me is to live in an inclusive world where dreams do not stop at the gate of our villages but travelling as far as they should go. We want to be able to integrate into our society in all areas of life and take ownership of our futures. And it all starts with, I believe, equity in access and opportunities right at those open village gates. – ENDS