Story of female blue berets

Particularly, the increasing participation of Vietnamese female officers in the UN peacekeeping mission has demonstrates Vietnam's effort in promoting gender equality, enhancing women's empowerment, contributing to a sustainable future, security and safety in the region and in the world. Female officers account for 13% of the total number of the Vietnamese officers participating in UN peacekeeping operations.

Although Vietnamese peacekeepers receive much support, they still face various challenges wile performing their duties.

Lieutenant Colonel Luong Thi Tra Vinh, working at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said her duties in South Sudan gave her valuable experiences. Vinh was the first Vietnamese female police officer who had been qualified for UN peacekeepers. She departed Vietnam for the UNMISS in October 2022.

Born and raised in peace, the Vietnamese young generation in general and the Vietnamese female police officer in particular always wish to contribute to the common stability and prosperity of the region and the world, in part realizing the commitment of the Government of Vietnam to the international community, Vinh added.

The active participation of female police officers in UN peacekeeping operations also demonstrates the Vietnamese Government's commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment.

What is more, working in an international environment also offers Vietnamese female officers valuable experiences as well as opportunities when working with their peers and  building capacity of the local police force.

On the other hand, Vinh faces various difficulties while performing her duties in South Sudan. These include political-social instablity, diseases, harsh weather conditions, multi-cultural working environment and especially joint-force patrols requiring the officer to have courage and good negotiation skills.

In addition, an international working environment that is diverse in terms of culture, ethnicity, educational background, politics, religion, social standards and personality requires peacekeeping officers to always be consistent, uphold core UN values in general, including respect for diversities.

The biggest challenge for female officers, according to Vinh, is to keep balance between work and their family.

Captain Vu Nhat Huong, Communications Officer at the Communications Department, United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSCA), said, living and working in a multilingual, multinational and multi-cultural environment has brought her many additional experiences and useful skills. With her own ability and good training, she could confidently work with international friends and learned a lot from them. By the end of her working term, she was recognized by international friends for her effort and achievements at work. Specially, she found lots of joy and pride when local people loved the presence of the Vietnamese officers in their country.

From her own perspective, Captain Vu Nhat Huong said that many factors can affect female peacekeepers working at UN peacekeeping missions. For instance, they have to take a completely new working position with different and complex natures of tasks requiring specialized knowledge and high standards while being away from their family and homeland. They also have to live in hard field conditions, and experience severe weather, epidemic outbreaks as well as unstable political and security situations in the host country.

Fortunately, during her working term, she and other Vietnamese female officers always received much care and encouragement from their leaders at home as well as support from their colleagues.

She affirmed that the frequent encouragement and support of her bosses and family at home had empowered her giving her energy and will to overcome all difficulties and challenges, and strive to successfully fulfill the mission assigned by the Party and State,  and serve as an ambassador of a peace-loving Vietnam working in a wor-torn African country.