[#3 VFSA THROUGH THE EYES OF A CO-FOUNDER] WHEN A GIRL NEEDS HELP, WHO CAN SHE TURN TO?

“Born and raised in a small city in Vietnam’s Northwest, I came to the Vietnamese Female Students Association with a deep interest in gender issues—an interest that has now stayed with me for four years. I started as one of the association’s most junior members, and today I am proud to introduce myself as a Co-founder of VFSA. Over the years, our members and I have recognized many issues that we hope to help change for girls and young women in modern society. But perhaps the issue that concerns me most is unintended pregnancy.
When sex education is still a topic that has not been explored deeply enough in Vietnamese society, unintended pregnancy can be many times more difficult and uncomfortable to talk about. During adolescence, curiosity about one’s body and about sexuality is common and completely normal. Yet when young people have not been equipped with sufficient knowledge about sex education, reproductive health, safer sex, consent, or sexually transmitted infections, they may face greater difficulties in protecting themselves, recognizing risks, and knowing how to seek help when they need it.
However, lack of knowledge has never been the only cause. Unintended pregnancy can happen under many different circumstances: contraceptive failure, lack of access to healthcare services, coercion, sexual assault, or many other situations beyond a girl’s control. Therefore, the last thing someone in such a situation needs is judgment about why it happened. What she needs more is safety, reliable information, and access to appropriate support.
And unintended pregnancy is only one of many serious concerns. Sexually transmitted infections are another example. Because of fear, shame, or worry about being judged, a young person who notices unusual symptoms may be afraid to tell her family or seek medical care. Instead, she may search for information online, buy medication herself, or try inappropriate methods. Delaying proper examination and treatment can allow some conditions to progress, leading to serious complications and long-term effects on health.
At that point, the question is no longer simply whether young people have enough knowledge. It becomes: when they realize that something is wrong, do they feel safe enough to seek help—and do they know where to turn? From thinking about unintended pregnancy, I came to realize that this question is much broader: when a girl faces any difficulty during the process of growing up, does she know where she can go?
It may be something very serious, such as violence, harassment, sexual assault, or a mental health crisis. But it may also be days when she feels isolated, overwhelmed by academic pressure, confused about a relationship, worried about a health issue, or simply unsure where to begin dealing with a problem. Not every problem is the same, but the feeling of “I don’t know who to turn to” is something many girls have probably experienced.
That is the gap VFSA hopes, step by step, to help fill: to become a place where girls know they can turn.
VFSA cannot and does not aim to replace doctors, mental health professionals, lawyers, or specialized organizations.

What we hope to do is serve as a bridge: so that when a girl does not know where to begin, she has a first place to turn; so that cases requiring professional expertise can be directed toward appropriate sources of support; and, most importantly, so that girls understand that seeking help is nothing to be ashamed of.
From this concern, the VFSA executive team and I have developed and planned a number of projects to gradually support girls facing difficult circumstances. We hope that, in our own small way, these efforts can help reduce the risks associated with these situations.

• VFSA Help Center
The Help Center supports female students experiencing unintended pregnancy, sexual harassment, violence, isolation, academic pressure, relationship difficulties, mental health concerns, and many other challenges, with a hotline and social media channels available for 24/7 support. The Help Center does not only receive stories after something has already happened. It also aims to help girls recognize problems, access reliable information, and identify appropriate professional services when necessary. At the very least, when a problem feels too overwhelming to face alone, we hope there will always be one more door they know they can open to seek help.

• VFSA Safe Housing Project
Each year, a portion of the revenue generated through VFSA activities will be contributed to a fund for developing safe housing, with the goal of supporting girls facing difficult circumstances such as violence, sexual assault, unintended pregnancy, and other crises. Support cannot always end after a single conversation. In some situations, what a girl needs is a safer environment, longer-term assistance, and the opportunity to gradually rebuild her own life. This is also why we hope, in the future, to develop forms of support that are more sustainable, practical, and long term.

• VFSA Living Services App Project
Understanding that our resources are limited while our hope is to support girls across different geographic locations,

we are currently developing the idea for a mobile application that will allow girls to find help and connect with support as quickly as possible, while also accessing appropriate information and resources, including legal resources. More information about its launch will be announced in the future.
VFSA Living Services is envisioned as a way to bring resources that are currently scattered across different places closer to female students: from locating support services and essential information, connecting with communities, accessing resources related to health and rights, to seeking assistance in situations where help is needed. If geographic distance prevents VFSA from being physically present beside every girl, technology may allow us to bring support closer to them.
But the deeper I became involved in these issues, the more I realized that providing support only after something has happened is never enough. Having somewhere to turn during a crisis is essential, but alongside that must come education, prevention, and something equally important: reducing the shame that keeps young people from seeking help.
In sexual and reproductive health, prevention does not mean assuming that every problem could have been avoided if a girl had simply “known enough.” That would be deeply unfair to people who have experienced assault, coercion, or circumstances beyond their control. For us, prevention means helping girls understand their bodies and their rights; understand consent, safer sex, and reproductive health; recognize warning signs; and, especially, know when they need to seek help and where they can turn.
Because sometimes the danger lies not only in the original problem, but also in the days that follow: when a girl is too frightened to tell anyone, too ashamed to seek medical care, searches for medication or solutions from unreliable sources, or suffers silently because she believes she will be judged.
A safe community, therefore, is not simply a place where terrible things never happen. It must also be a place where, when they do happen, a girl knows that she has the right to seek help without feeling ashamed of her story.
Perhaps what I hope for most is not that VFSA receives more and more calls for help. Quite the opposite. I hope that one day there will be fewer such calls because girls have been equipped with more knowledge and resources to protect themselves from risks that can be prevented; because society has become more open, allowing them to seek help earlier; and because safe sources of support have become accessible enough that no one has to navigate fear alone. And when people think of VFSA, I hope girls will not only think of an organization or a collection of specific projects and activities. I hope they will think of a community they can turn to when they need it—whether to find information, receive support, identify a possible next step, or simply find a place that is willing to listen.
I know there is still a long and difficult road ahead. But with the goal of becoming a trusted organization that every girl can turn to when facing hardship, I and the entire Vietnamese Female Students Association team will continue working hard toward our belief that “No girl should be left behind.”
And to me, “not being left behind” sometimes begins with something very small: when a girl is at her most overwhelmed and does not know who to call, she knows that there is still somewhere willing to listen—and help her find the next step.”