Within the framework of her visit to Vietnam, American “Master Chef” Christine Ha visited and learned about the operating model of Van Ho Forest Field Cooperative at Van Ho Agritage Ban Buot, along with ethnic women at Chaan village. dishes from local ingredients.
On September 17-18, the Northwest Development Cooperation Center (TABA) coordinated with social enterprise Agritage Vietnam and the US Embassy to organize the program “Women’s startups: Challenges and opportunities”. conference in Vietnam and the United States” to discuss the role of gender in business as well as the challenges and opportunities when women are in charge.
The conference was organized with the goal of creating a space for female entrepreneurs and ethnic minority women to discuss opportunities and challenges in the process of developing their businesses. The program is inspired by the start-up story of Master Chef Christine Ha and Ms. Dinh Thi Huyen, an ethnic minority female director, founder of the Northwest Development Cooperation Center and CEO of Agritage Vietnam Social Enterprise. Male.
Speaking at the program, Mr. Adam Brocks, Deputy Cultural Attaché, US Embassy in Hanoi, said that with the bilateral relationship being upgraded from a comprehensive partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership in During President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Vietnam, cultivating people-to-people relations was one of the key factors. “To expand cooperation as part of upgrading bilateral relations and for the benefit of the two peoples, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi is committed to promoting the rights of members of vulnerable populations. , including women and girls, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities”, Mr. Adam Brocks emphasized.
Sharing at the program, Ms. Dinh Thi Huyen said that she herself is also an ethnic minority in Hoa Binh. Since 2011, Ms. Dinh Thi Huyen and her colleagues began to realize their dream, creating an organization where ethnic minorities can speak up and where ethnic minorities support ethnic minorities. numbers grow together. That is why the Northwest Development Cooperation Center – TABA, a Vietnamese science and technology organization with the mission of accompanying women, was born. Over the past years, TABA center has accompanied more than 10,000 ethnic minority women to develop sustainable livelihoods based on community resources.
In 2015, Ms. Dinh Thi Huyen started a social enterprise and began her story, finding a way to bring agricultural products from people in the Northwest region to Hanoi by opening clean agricultural products stores.
“However, we realized that was not the root of the problem, that’s why in 2019, we returned to the villages and found the answer: in the villages, our contribution will more effective when women in villages have jobs and income right in the locality and heritage agricultural villages are born. Van Ho Agritage is the English name of the Heritage Agricultural Village model that Agritage Vietnam, the Van Ho district government and the people of Buot village commit to preserving and developing. The heritage agricultural village is located in Van Ho district, in order to preserve the indigenous knowledge in agricultural cultivation, the food and cultural characteristics of the Thai and Muong people, residents of the cultural area. valley living in Van Ho district, Son La province”, Ms. Dinh Thi Huyen shared.
From 2019 up to now, Agritage Van Ho has accompanied 58 Thai households in Ban Buot, Chieng Yen commune, Van Ho district, Son La province to convert agricultural farming models that use chemicals to organic farming. , building agricultural product brands and bringing high quality products to the market in Hanoi. Community tourism is also developed with many forms of experiences associated with culture and nature conservation. Up to now, an organic agricultural farming area meeting PGS standards has been formed with 12 hectares of rice and nuts. Dong Rung Cooperative was established and operated to welcome tourists visiting the village. Entrepreneurship for women associated with the orientation of developing sustainable livelihoods based on community internal resources has been implemented and shown specific results for farming households working in tourism and agriculture.
As an inspirational figure, Christine Ha is the first blind contestant to participate in the US “Master Chef” competition. Sharing at the conference, Christine Ha (Vietnamese name is Ha Huyen Tran) said she was born and raised in America, her parents are both Vietnamese. Christine Ha suffers from a rare disease that causes her to gradually lose her sight over time and eventually, completely lose her sight in 2007.
“Master chef” was inspired to cook by his mother. Her mother passed away when she was 14 years old, so the Vietnamese dishes that her mother used to cook for her family to enjoy are not only delicious dishes for her, but also a whole memory of her mother.
“When I lost my eyesight, I really missed the Vietnamese food my mother used to cook, and since then I have been trying to cook my own dishes. I have to rely on other senses when cooking such as taste, smell and touch,” said Christine Ha.
Within the framework of the program, “Master Chefs” Christine Ha demonstrated her skillful cooking skills using native ingredients such as ban pork, sticky rice, sticky corn… to prepare attractive dishes. .
“Master Chef” Christine Ha and her skillful cooking skills not only tell the story of overcoming her own challenges to become the champion of the world’s most prestigious cooking competition but also inspire people. Ethnic minorities, especially Thai and Muong ethnic women, pursue entrepreneurship for a better life for themselves and future generations.
According to: Thu Trang / News Newspaper
https://baotintuc.vn/van-hoa/vua-dau-bep-christine-ha-cung-phu-nu-ban-buot-sang-tao-mon-an-tu- nguyen-lieu-ban-dia-20230918221430909.htm
