Revisit to the War Remnants Museum --

After we visited the Peace Village Hospital ward for agent orange victims I happen to run on to this blog I prepared two years or more ago while still in Vietnam on our first trip there.  When I looked at this and saw the better quality pictures than we put out there before I decided to put it out now.  Seeing the living truth at the Hospital made me realize that WE AMERICANS ALL HAVE SOME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS AND WE NEED TO TAKE ACTION.  CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA LEE HAS INTRODUCED LEGISLATION ON AGENT ORANGE THAT WOULD  HELP BOTH OUR AMERICAN GIs AND THE PEOPLE OF VIETNAM AND THEIR NATION CLEAN UP THE MESS WE LEFT BEHIND: NOT JUST THE LIVING CHILDREN AND OLD PEOPLE WITH THESE GENETIC POISONING EFFECTS BUT CLEAN THE SOIL, LAKES AND STREAMS WHERE AGENT ORANGE IS STILL LEAKING INTO POTABLE WATER AND/OR BEING CONSUMED BY PLANTS AND ANIMALS AS WELL AS HUMANS.

Visited the War Remnants Museum again to refresh some photos so that they would be better for publication -- easier to read and not so blurry (Without a tripod and filters it is hard to get good photos in a museum.). This is what politicians, the Pentagon and our officer corp carried out in our name from 1963/4 till 1972.  Henry Kissinger is a war criminal as are any of the officers still living and they ought to be tried and dealt with severely in my humble estimation.  Now people like John Kerry are fronting for the Military and he knows the truth.  Drones are just new weapons of mass terror even though they target differently -- they are robotic warfare.

Take it up with your church, your labor union, your community groups, your family and organize to do the work necessary to right this wrong. We will post the information on the particular legislation in the next few days or after we return to the US.

Practicing English at the Women's Academy

Everyone in Vietnam that we have worked with wants to practice their English and the students of are no exception!  They want to know English because it is an international language that is often in use for business and education from Vietnam to the United Nations and everywhere in between.

Today we got to practice English with students in the Law and Social Work degree programs.  The students have impressive accents and vocabulary.  It's that hurdle of SPEAKING that needs opportunity!  We had great fun discussing the list of questions and topics the students generated -- everything from what are differences between education and students in USA and Vietnam to what are favorite foods to what do we all think about "fast food" to what are your hobbies to what are careers and jobs like in each country to what's your favorite music.

And although we think the canteen food at the Women's Academy is GREAT (see a photo above) and affordable, the students just knew a better spot down a nearby small street where we could taste a different type of meatball soup.  So we all walked off campus and sure did have a great lunch together!  Those photos are also above -- see Leanna crouched down on a SHORT stool slurping away happily.

While the Academy faces directly onto a major modern boulevard, a side street quickly puts you back into a more traditional, narrow Vietnamese street with small shops (selling rice, clothes, sundries, hair cuts) opening onto the street, sidewalk vegetables and meat vendors, small restaurants, arched entrances of neighborhoods (like we described in earlier post) with pedestrians, motorbikes and the occasional car all sharing the road.  Vietnam is a dynamic place!    

Today we also utilized the wonderful kitchen the Women's Academy provided us -- gas burners, kitchen and cooking utensils to eat a "home cooked" dinner.  The accommodations here are really great and our hosts very thoughtful.

Women's Academy Herstory and Future

The Women's Union of Vietnam, a staunch member of the Fatherland Front, is a mass organization for the nation that organizes women, develops programs, fights for equality, and does everything possible to develop a gender equal and positive society.  It has a long history dating back to 1930 and the Academy dates to 1960, when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was working hard to build the nation after the defeat of the French colonialists in 1954.  The WU and The  Academy have had and currently have support and leadership of a fine cadre of women representing the intensity of the working class struggle for socialism including such dignitaries as Madam Binh.

In one photo President Ho Chi Minh is pictured with the women for the inauguration of the Women's Academy.  The teachers at the academy not only taught other women and children but did the work of maintaining the buildings and grounds, grew food to eat, served the community and devoted their lives to building the nation and their place in it.

The Academy divides its history into the period 1960-65 when it was conceived as an idea and officially established, 1965-1975 during the American War, 1976-1985 of rapid development, 1986-2002 with evolving training and international projects, 2002- now expansion of the Academy to a full University status with increased research.

 

 

During the American War The Academy had to move out of Hanoi to avoid USA carpet bombing, so women conducted training classes in thatched huts, started the kindergarten and health care programs, grew their own food and continued to provide leadership training for women in positions throughout government, army and people's organizations.  They even launched international solidarity with women's groups in Laos in 1973!  During the period an academy was established for women of South Vietnam "La Thi Rieng -- again operating in the rural area of forests.

Starting in 1976 the Academy (now with a school location in HCMC!) developed 24 courses as training expanded to also include agricultural training as Vietnam developed new crops, farm animal production and emphasis on food self-sufficiency.  During this period close cooperation developed with the trade unions for women's leadership development as well.  International cooperation also expanded to strengthen ties with Laos and European women's organizations.

All throughout the Academy's history, women have traveled to the campuses in Hanoi and HCMC (where there is housing, child care, affordable canteen, etc.) for trainings while Academy teachers have themselves traveled to provinces, towns, villages and communes to provide trainings.  And now e-trainings including skype are utilized!

In 1986 the Women's Academy launched Gender Training and joined in more international cooperation projects -- Philippines, China, USA, England and NGOs such as Oxfam.

In 2002 systematic research was added to the Academy's work with special joint projects with China, Korea, Canada and Holland.  More than 100 women directors of major agencies and enterprises have received Academy training.

2012 was a major year in the Academy's history when the institution was recognized by the government as a full university under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Training. With many departments, multiple campuses, international cooperation agreements for teaching and research and expanding degree programs, the Women's Academy is ready to launch into new areas.

Just in 2015 two new disciplines, Gender and Development and Law were added to the undergraduate degree programs of Business Administration and Social Work.  The Academy has a projected work plan through 2026 to develop increased student enrollment and faculty and introduce graduate degree programs.  With a new building for administration offices, classrooms, computer and English learning labs, library and meeting rooms just completed, the plans have room to grow into reality.

The students and faculty just celebrated the 55th Anniversary of the Founding of the Women's Academy.  Each year students organize a Festival for the new academic year with performances and competitions.  The Youth Union is active on campus as well and is the campus-wide union.   What a herstory!  What a future!

Women's Academy Kindergarten -- 100 plus children and a great caring staff.

A happy, cheering, crowd of over 100 kids greeted us with calls of Xin chou (hello or good  morning, or hi) when we visited the Women's Academy kindergarten yesterday afternoon, Wednesday here, after they were up from their naps.  Of course we xin chou-ed them back, waved and took photos while talking with the supervisor of the facility and the other staff.  Each of the rooms was comfortable, with a nice layout and lots of decorations.  The children all were very spunky to say the least.  At one end of the hallway that fronted the rooms there was a kitchen where fresh meals are prepared for the children.  Just as we have seen everywhere in Vietnam newly harvested, very fresh vegetables and meats are used.

And in one room there was an electronic piano and two instructors were practicing music on it.  The instructing one of the pair was from Japan and was so happy to meet us and share how she likes having a two year teaching/internship at the Kindergarten and Women's Academy.

The Women's Academy Social Work and Gender and Development were surprised to learn that most USA universities and colleges either do not have affordable child care or have a long waiting list. The Women's Academy (established in 1960 -- remember the Women's Union was established in 1930) has had an kindergarten/child care since the early 1970s.

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Working at the Vietnam Women's Academy (an educational institution attached to the Women's Union)

Hello Vietnam Women's Academy
we've waited to see you, to hear your name
and now we've found you
and we are happy to be with you, our hearts aflame.
Vietnam Women's Union with your proud history
serving your nation, your women
and all the people of your Vietnam
Vietnam Academy showing the way
to advance the world, arm in arm.

 The Women's Academy is on a major street where it occupies both older buildings from years ago and a modern 15 story College just built and completed.

Teachers working with students in an exercise in which they demonstrated excellent skills in a simulation that we presented them on "mapping" a work place as part of a session on Collective Bargaining and CBA (collective bargaining agreements). 

The 50 students worked collectively in groups of 5 to a team.Their problem was how in an organizing drive to establish an effective communications network to support the organizing and collective bargaining.

After the 10 groups were given time to formulate their plan for how they would set up a communication network, one member reported on the collective work for the group.

Out in front of the still being  used but older building, the typical French design. 

This series of pictures are more of the student groups' reporters offering their organizing/communicating proposals.

The students in the Collective Bargaining Seminar and Simulation session.

Leanna out in front of the Women's Academy and Women's Union Buildings.

In the canteen in a section of one of the older style buildings.  Soon the

 canteen will be moved into the new building.

The used but still serviceable and in use older style building.

The New Women's Academy Education Building

On Sunday January3rd we boarded a mid-day Vietnam Airlines flight to the national capitol Hanoi to begin our volunteer work at the Vietnam Women's Academy, a newly re-organized and expanded higher education institution in Hanoi.  The Academy has about 2,000 students in four major subject areas: Social Work,  Business Administration and International Cooperation, Gender and Development, and Law.  The first two faculty have been the backbone of the Academy for many years, but the Gender Studies and Law departments were just organized in 2015 and are teaching their core courses while preparing the curricula for more courses to come on-line in 2016.

It is wonderful to see this dedication by the Women's Union and the government to educational work and focused on Gender and Law as it has to do with women and society.  The staff seem exceptional in their energy, educational preparation, and dedication to teaching first-class courses of study for the students attending the Women's Academy.  Leanna and I's volunteer work is being encouraged and accepted in all four disciplines.  We will work with both lecturers and professors in the several courses and with the students attending the Academy.  And of course we will be reaching out to our friends in the US when we are back home to secure their expertise and help for the Women's Academy.  With our background we are bringing perspectives on the subject matter grounded in our Labor Union work, our community organizing experience and our participation in the social movements in the US: in the gender equity and human rights movements as well as peace ... .  As an example this morning we spoke to and presented power points on Collective Bargaining and Collective Bargaining Agreements, CBAs, to Business Administration (remember in a socialist society business "leaders" are expected to support work rights) students who understood the material very well and as we hoped viewed it as members of the working class that is their national leadership, not as business students principally interested in securing wealth for corporations no matter the human costs in exploitation.  In the next few days we will facilitate role playing and case study simulations,  lecture with power points, and then participate in QandA sessions on a mass membership community organizing model for Social Work educators from several higher educational institutions invited to attend and participate. We'll also be working with Gender Study students about social dialog skills, meeting with small groups of students to practice English-speaking skills and making a presentation about our impressions of the law and women's rights in the USA (the prep discussion with the teachers was really impressive!).

The skills and commitment of the International Office staff is inspiring.  Three women are doing the work of a CROWD as they interact with the UN, women's groups from Laos, Cambodia, Japan and other countries.  Meanwhile they are working with us daily as talented interpreters and helping us with teaching materials.  And then there is a beautiful, comfortable room (what an urban view!) complete with wifi.  Two of these young women are also teaching English!

We have not yet had time to visit the Academy's kindergarten (of course!) or their on-site museum...so watch for more news!  We're also hoping there's time to visit a couple of Hanoi museum's we missed during our previous visits so we may get to share some more touring highlights.

BTW, folks tell us that there are Women's Union videos on Youtube.  Unfortunately for us all, the website is mostly in Vietnamese, but we still recommend internet exploring!