Photo exhibition on Vietnam’s 17 Faces of Actions for Sustainable Development

On the occasion of “Vietnamese Women’s Day” (October 20) and “United Nations Day” (October 24), on the morning of October 20, 2023 in Hà Nội, the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Office at Geneva cooperatively organized the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition “17 Faces of Actions of Vietnam for Sustainable Development”.

The program is part of the “17 Faces of Action” initiative launched by the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, to recognize and encourage women around the world to make further contributions to socio-economic development and promote the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

Attending the opening ceremony were the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Central leader of the Vietnam Women’s Union, representatives of ministries, sectors, international organizations, and representative women’s faces across the country.

Image 1: The exhibition opening ribbon cutting ceremony .

Image 2: Giving flowers to women’s face representatives participating in the exhibition.

At this event, there are two faces from Cù Lao Chàm Marine Protected Area Management Board honored for their positive contributions to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for Sustainable Development” (SDG 14) are Ms. Trần Thị Phương Thảo, an ecologist with a master’s degree, and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Hồng Thúy, a marine engineer.

In addition to their expertise in ecology and fisheries management, Thảo and Thúy have work hard to obtain outstanding scuba diving certificates for effective monitoring of coral reef ecosystems, seagrass beds, seaweed, and their colleagues in the Cù Lao Chàm Marine Protected Area.

With these efforts, the Marine Protected Area has successfully restored 10 hectares of damaged coral reefs and planted 20 hectares of new coral reefs, increasing the total coral reefs area to 356.3 hectares.

Images 3 and 4: Some photos of the exhibition.

Image 5: Ms. Trần Thị Phương Thảo – staff of the Management Board of Cù Lao Chàm Marine Protected Area participating in the exhibition.

Image 6: Ms. Nguyễn Thị Hồng Thúy engaged in the restoration of the coral reef ecosystem.

Image 7: Ms. Phương Thảo and Ms. Hồng Thúy are performing tasks underwater.

The photo exhibition runs from October 20th to 24th, 2023 at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum.

Written by Thanh Thảo – Cù Lao Chàm MPA