On first impression, Hoi An strikes a visitor as a beautiful town whose economy is built on tourism: lots of good restaurants and shops selling beautiful hand-made clothing, shoes, decorations. The residents and shop keepers engage visitors to the city: they demonstrate their flying toys, invite you to see their beautiful hand-made pop-up cards depicting Vietnam scenes, or just stand at the front of their shops and invite you to come in, look around, and buy their goods – irresistibly beautiful garments, bags, wall hangings, silk paintings and more.
But Hoi An also has a branch of an ambitious community action organization called “Action for the City,” an NGO headquartered in Hanoi whose mission is to “Bring people together for livable cities.” Our class had the good fortune to meet a young mover-shaker with Action for the City, Dang Quang Minh, who explained the mission of the NGO.
Minh explaining the mission of Action for the City.
His passion and commitment came through clearly; he is dedicated to helping the country and the people he loves learn about sustainable city planning and organic farming so that the charm and beauty of Vietnam can be retained while it also hurdles forward into the twenty-first century.
Minh showed us three of the projects that he oversees in Hoi An:
He first took us to a new city park in Hoi An. A vacant plot of land possibly destined for a hotel or shops, this plot appealed to Minh and his team as an ideal location for something that Hoi An lacked: a city park for citizens to gather around with a playground for the kids. He and his organization met with city leaders and persuaded them that building a park on this site rather than another hotel would be a better use of precious land. The organization then raised the funds to help create the park and the playground. Minh said with some sadness that the organization did not have the funds to pay for regular maintenance of the park – but then pointed with pride to some middle-aged volunteers who were cleaning up the park, which is how the park is currently maintained.
Second, Minh took us to an even larger community project: a community center just outside of town, where a gathering center (a very nice building) and large playground are being built. Being kids ourselves, many of us played on the toys. One of the more challenging was a balancing bar, about ten yards long and increasingly unstable as you walked on it from start to finish. Nearly all of us tried to walk the full length of it (many tried several times); I think one of us made it to the end without falling. It was fun, and the project is great for the community.
Our final visit was to a new organic farm that Action for the City has created over the past year. The organization is dedicated to sustainable environmental practices, including urban planning and sustainable farming. Minh showed off with pride the abundant produce from the organic farm, but also said that one of the dilemmas facing Vietnam is the decline in the number of young people choosing to be farmers. As in the U.S. during the twentieth century, young people are moving to the cities where there are more opportunities and, if you are lucky, more money. Minh and his organization want to educate farmers on sustainable organic farming practices and want at the same time to develop measures to counteract the “farm flight.”
Minh, farmer, and class at the organic farm in Hoi an.
Listening to Minh and seeing what he and his organization have accomplished over just the past year was, to me, very impressive. Cliché though it is, it is true that the future is in the hands of the young. It is inspiring to see this young man devote his talents and energy in such a committed fashion to helping his country build a better, more sustainable future.
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