International Studies student team wins competition with 6 participating countries

With the project “The Colors of Bananas”, a group of students from the Faculty of International Studies – University of Social Sciences and Humanities has won the First Prize – Most Potential Project of the contest “Youth Creativity on Governance and Development of the Mekong River Basin” 2019.

Vietnamese students won the highest prize at IYCGM 2019 (Photo: Nhat Linh).

The final round of the Youth Innovation Competition on Lantang-Mekong Region's Governance and Development (YICMG) 2019 took place from January 22-26, 2019 in Phnom Penh (Cambodia).

The competition took place with the participation of 20 teams from 6 member countries through which the Mekong River flows: China, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The theme of this year's competition is "Green production, consumption and social development", a group of students from the Faculty of International Studies - University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi (including: Bui Nhat Linh, Nguyen Thi Huong Giang, Bui Thi Minh Thuy) brought to Phnom Penh the idea "The colors of bananas".

“This project started when we noticed that during harvest season, people would mainly harvest banana fruits and leaves, while the banana stems would be thrown away. At that time, we thought, why not make use of them instead of throwing them away like that?

From there, we came up with the idea of ​​using discarded banana stems to make paper and from that paper we will produce paintings to serve the aesthetic needs of society," Nhat Linh shared.

The project's biggest goal is to solve environmental problems and create high value for society.

To do that, the group plans to establish a social enterprise with the goal of creating jobs for people with disabilities, who still face many difficulties in life.

Through the production of banana paintings, the group also wants to promote the image of the country, people and culture of Vietnam to international friends.

When asked about the direction after the competition to develop the above ideas, the group said:

“Currently, we are still in the process of researching to expand our product lines from banana trees because we have mainly researched and made samples with the chemical composition of bananas, and the group has not thought of other materials yet.

Regarding products, in addition to banana paintings, in the first phase the group also made small products such as postcards, bookmarks... and is researching to make phase 2 products such as banana ink and cosmetics.

This is indeed a novel idea, but since no one has ever done a project like this or similar, it will certainly encounter certain difficulties when implemented.

Faced with these difficulties, Huong Giang, representing the group, shared: “Because we came up with this topic ourselves, we encountered many difficulties in finding and researching documents, especially in learning about the chemical components of bananas, how to produce them into paper and print pictures on them.

When we established the company, we also encountered difficulties in organizing, operating, managing human resources and finances.

In addition to winning the highest award at the competition, the project also received much attention and sponsorship from the organizers in project development.

Sharing about the group's research process, Nhat Linh said: "During the implementation process, the group received great help from Ms. Bui Hong Hanh - Lecturer of the Faculty of International Studies and Mr. Bui Thanh Nam - Lecturer of the Faculty of International Studies.

The teachers are very understanding and willing to help the group when working with investors as well as introduce the group to economic and artistic advisors."

Obviously, with a completely new topic and the foundation from the competition, we hope that the group will continue to persevere to carry out their project to the end, contributing to creating more jobs for society, especially jobs for the less fortunate and those facing many difficulties in life.