2025 Asian Girls in Action Project and AGC Power Camp Taiwan, 20–27 July 2025
Duong Bich Huyen (Aya), Regional Executive Body, ASEAN Youth Forum – Vietnam
From July 20 to 27, 2025, I had the opportunity to accompany one of my mentees to join the Asian Girls in Action Project and AGC Power Camp in Taiwan, a girls-focused one-week training program, creating a cross-culture environment to learn, to lead, and to believe that their voices matter.
I got to meet 12 inspiring girls from 12 countries and learnt about their aspirations and their motivation. Having been advocating for youth rights for the past years, I immediately know it is my mission to empower these girls who were impressively motivated and ambitious with their projects. As the advisor of the respective Vietnamese candidate, I encouraged her to confidently present her project ideas while being humble to learn from other fellows; as a mentor, I had a chance to consult with other chaperones and advise the girls on how they can further develop their projects, believing that they would definitely be capable of making changes in their community and, furtherly, globally.
Surprisingly enough, the highlight of the trip was not a specific project or an event that occurred during the camp, but a very thorough conversation I had with a girl from Myanmar, and her aunt – who was her chaperone. As much as I have read and heard about the current stage of Myanmar (also known as Burma), I did not expect to learn deeply about it from a story from a real affected people [youth].
Her journey of how she was able to present in Taiwan itself was unimaginable. If you were to travel abroad, what are the things you would do? Normal people would say applying for a visa, waiting for approval, preparing necessities, getting flight tickets and you are good to go. Simple right? But that was not her case.
Other than the above preparation, a “reason for leaving”-type of letter is required at the airport upon departure. In which, she was asked to present the need of leaving the country, the length of the leaving and proof that she would return to Myanmar after the stated period of time. Additionally, reasons such as “attending conferences,” “attending training camp [AGC]” are not acceptable.
Luckily for her, her aunt – who used to live in the most affected area – was residing in Singapore, so she could say she was visiting her aunt. However, that was not all. Her aunt was also required to provide all the documents, proving her residential status, her relationship with the girl, and guarantee that the girl would return to Myanmar after the trip (by providing the return flight tickets).
It could have been a direct flight to Taiwan with an easy-apply visa, yet, due to the situation, she had to take a more challenging and longer route to arrive in Taiwan to present her project, dedicated to the rights to education of young people living in the war-affected area in Myanmar.
What impressed me the most was her determination to make this project live, and I was honoured to be a part of making this project a “real thing”, from giving advice on site, to staying in contact and continuing supporting her project as a guest speaker. Gladly, her project was, eventually, seen as one of the best projects among the fellows’.
The truth reveals: My actual position was to be the “chaperone” who was to be there to “take care” and “look after” my respective Vietnamese girl. However, I chose to be more than that, because I know my role is not just “be present” and “watch”, and I believe in the impact I could make as an advocate (I would not say I am there yet but would love to see how far I can go).
Lesson that I learnt?
- Believe in your mission and the impact you can make.
- Do not let a “title” define your role when you know you can do more than that.
- Listen to people around you. They may have a story that could change you.
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