Ben Tre girl, “homegrown” MC Phuong Vo (also known as UP) of CHANGE has always been loved by campers of many seasons of Vietnam Climate Leaders Camp (VCLC). On the occasion of CHANGE’s 9th birthday, let’s discover the “showbiz secrets” of this famous girl!
What is UP’s job at CHANGE?
The main job of UP in CHANGE is to deal with climate change. People feel happy as the season comes and goes, meanwhile I’m inconsolably worried thinking about possible projects to make a small contribution to solving Vietnam’s climate change problem. Well, that’s just a side job. My main job is being a jokester. I go to the office daily to tease my co-workers and make funny comments so that the whole family can laugh happily and forget how many deadlines are up to necks.
What brings UP to CHANGE?
One summer, UP bumped into the VCLC Climate Leaders Camp by pure accident. The little girl from Ben Tre who was normally only interested in educational projects, eating, sleeping, and playing around, then began to know about a series of environmental problems in Vietnam. Unfortunately, I was young then, so I forgot about it after hearing that, and went back to eating and sleeping. Until UP was recruited by CHANGE to become an organizer for VCLC a few seasons later. I don’t understand how CHANGE family and miss Hong, miss Nhi seduced me then but I’ve been in CHANGE for quite a while.
Working at CHANGE for that much time, is UP “disillusioned”?
I have broken expectations but I also have dreams that came true. Disillusioned because I was a naive girl that knew nothing about the environment, so I had to learn everything from scratch. Disillusioned because of this organization empowered me a lot. It lets me fly freely. If I want to try, just try. And if you fail, try again. So, I stumbled a lot, but I also got up from a fall as much, and importantly, succeeded a lot with you guys beside me. On the other hand, a dream that came true is when bathing in a loving, friendly but equally crazy and serious environment.
