Thirty participants from press agencies and community development projects attended courses on gender and gender equality last weekend in Hà Nội held by the nonprofit group For Vietnamese Stature Foundation. — Photo courtesy of VSF

HCM CITY — The nonprofit organisation For Vietnamese Stature Foundation (VSF) held two training courses on gender and gender equality for young journalists and communications officers last weekend in Hà Nội.

Thirty participants from various press agencies and community development projects attended the courses.

The courses are part of VSF’s "Gender and Gender Equality with Young Journalists and Communication Officers Initiative", which was chosen out of 12 proposals in the Asia region. It was funded by the Small Grant Program of the Asian Gender Trainers' Network Program.

The initiative aimed to help young journalists and communications officers to become gender pioneers who can contribute to raising public awareness and changing behaviour through their press and communication products.

With a variety of training methods such as experiential games, hypothetical debate sessions, role-playing and dramatisation, the participants learned about the basic concepts of gender and sex, gender stereotypes and gender roles, as well as topics such as gender sensitivity, gender mainstreaming, gender responsibility, gender identity, sexual orientation and gender expression.

Other gender issues as well as relevant international and national legal frameworks were also discussed.

The attendees practised skills to create gender-sensitive products by pointing out gender sensitivities and gender stereotypes in recent press products. Through these exercises, the trainees analyzed and learned lessons on how to add gender sensitivity to their products and remove gender stereotypes.

After the courses, the trainees would attend a field trip to develop topics on gender equality before participating in a final workshop to share their acquired knowledge and skills, and challenges and future plans. At the same time, all trainees in the two courses would join in a “gender and gender equality” network launched by VSF for further discussion.

Trần Hồng Điệp, VSF deputy director, who has 20 years of experience in gender and gender equality, and is the facilitator of the course, said: “This series of activities with journalists and communications officers is one of VSF's long-term efforts to advance the sustainable development goals on equality.” — VNS