A youth leadership training camp was held from 31 October to 3 November 2012 in Hanoi and Hoa Binh Province. The training camp was specially designed for 20 core members of Youth Box Channel (YBO) – a youth integrity initiative supported by TI/TT and Hoa Sen University . Leading up to the training camp a series of individual coaching, mentoring and online trainings were held to develop Youth Box into a fully autonomous team. Whilst the preceding coaching and online trainings focused on personal development, the training camp emphasised teambuilding and practical skills such as effective communication, advocacy planning and campaigning.

On the first day of the training camp, the youth had the opportunity to meet Madame Le Hien Duc, the illustrious Vietnamese anti-corruption hero to learn about her experiences and ideals. Afterwards, Mrs. Emilia Beblava, Program Director of TI Slovakia and Mr. Jozef Petras from Martin Town Council in Slovakia, presented Slovakia’s Transparent Town initiative to reduce corruption at the local level and shared their personal experiences and advice on how youth can most effectively work to improving transparency in Vietnam.

Part of the talk and the interview with Mrs. Emilia Beblava on youth engagement in anti-corruption was broadcast on VTV6 in the lead up to the National Assembly Congress.

The youth leadership training camp was also supported by representatives from ActionAid International Vietnam, GenX, ECO Vietnam Group, Solidarités Jeunesses Vietnam (SJ) Vietnam and the Center for Sustainable Development Studies (CSDS) who volunteered as coaches, trainers and guest speakers.

After the training, the youth participants are provided with a small amount of seed funding to develop their own integrity initiatives.