By Cindy
7th University Scholars Leadership Symposium (USLS) 2016 Report
The day full of worry and excitement had finally arrived, it was the day to leave Hong Kong for
Vietnam. That was my first time visiting Vietnam, and also my first time visiting a country which
I did not have any idea about the language they speak. Unable to understand their language, and
having no prior knowledge about Vietnam, I still decided to embrace the fear, pack my luggage
and go to Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam by myself. All of my worries were gone by the time I
arrived at the Hanoi Airport. I was totally overwhelmed with the welcome of the friendly and
helpful Vietnamese people who helped me with directions to head to the city, as I arrived earlier
than the day of the symposium, so I stayed in the city center before the symposium started.
Day one of the symposium marked the excitement of my heart
to not only to meet my fellow friends from CUHK but also to
know more people who have the heart to work on the
humanitarian affairs. The welcome ceremony was very grand
and they have invited many great speakers to kick start the
symposium. Mr. David Begbie, whom I had met personally four
years ago in his poverty simulation in Hong Kong, happened to
be one of the speakers. He was still a very humble and great
speaker talking about the issue of the poverty. I totally
admired his passion and spirit in working on the poverty issue.
Other than Mr. David Begbie, the symposium was fully packed
with a lot of incredible speakers, such as Mr. Tim Peter who worked on the human rights issue in
the North Korea, Mrs. Geraldine Cox, who work with the children issue such as their safety, health
issue in Cambodia, Ms. Lina Khalifeh, who started her self-defense start-up in teaching selfdefense class for the women in the middle east, Mrs. Shandra Woworuntu, who was once
trafficked into the world of prostitution and sexual slavery in New York, USA and now works as
an ambassador to fight against sex-trafficking, and many other great speakers.
I am not really aware of the human trafficking until the
speech of Mrs. Shandra Woworuntu. Her speech moved a lot
of people, and reminded us that those issues are not far from
us. We need to care more for the surroundings and the world
that we lived in. I had actually read and moved by her article
posted in BBC months before joining the symposium, and was
totally pleased to be able to meet her in person in this
conference. She is so warm, friendly and kind hearted. I was
also very glad to be able to have some time to discuss some of the current Indonesian issues with
her in person. I was totally pampered in this symposium for having such incredibly strong person
to share some of the ideas with. Ms. Lina Khalifeh and Mrs. Geraldine Cox are also incredibly
strong female figure fighting againsts the current humanitarian issues. They set examples on how
individuals especially female could do things that could have impacted the world. Their passion,
By Cindy
and their stories might have moved everyone’s heart in the hall to do something to change the
world.
One of the most unforgottable day of the whole
symposium was the day we have our learning journey. I
decided to learn about their sustainable village in Hoa
Binh province, which turned out to be 3 hours away from
Hanoi city. Hoa Binh province itself is a very beautiful
village, full of its nature beauty and farms with lots of
warm Vietnamese people. I got into the team to help
with tree planting as well as farming. It was a very hot day, but a very fun day as well. I met lots
of people from different countries or even different continents. We were very happy to learn
about how they could keep maintaining their sustainable village in this province. After the
hardwork, we got to interact with the kids. We played the traditional Vietnamese games with
them. All of us were very tired on that day, but we also had a blast on that day. Before we end
the journey in the Hoa Binh province, they gave us some of their cultural shows such as their
traditional games that they played in their spare time, their traditional music instrument
performances, their traditional dances, as well as their arts performance. In return, we shared
our modern dances with them, in fact, we danced together in the stage. It was totally fun and
memorable moment in which we were being able to enjoy dances together although we came
from different countries, different culture, or different backgrounds.
Aside from the awesome speakers, and the learning journey, what made it more memorable is
the people that I met there. They are fun, open-minded, kind, and full-of-inspirations. They are
also the people who have the heart to make a difference in the world. This symposium is a very
meaningful event given that we could not only meet the inspiringly awesome speaker, but also
meet with other fellow students who have the same passion and heart to take part and action in
changing the world. I am really grateful to be given this opportunity to join the USLS 2016
conference in Vietnam.