BIS Hanoi students win the Wild Rhino Competition 2018/2019

Cho Won Ho (Jack) from Year 8 and Nguyen Duc Tuan from Year 11 won the Wild Rhino Competition 2018/2019 in the Junior and Senior Categories respectively.

Yesterday, the representative team from Wilderness Foundation Africa visited our school to congratulate our winners and present the certificates and prizes to them. The Junior winner received a Wild Rhino goody bag while the Senior winner won a trip to South Africa and will take part in a wilderness trail at one of South Africa’s Game Reserves this July.

Organised by the Wilderness Foundation Africa since 2014, the competition aims to engage the Vietnamese young generation and encourage them to speak up against rhino poaching. The biyearly competition invites students to submit a poem or a drawing (for junior students) or an essay (for senior students) to send across a message about anti-rhino poaching.

“This is actually the first time we organise this competition in Hanoi as the last two editions were limited to students in HCMC only, and we are very glad that it was well received at BIS Hanoi,” said Ms Thu Huynh, Wilderness Foundation Africa Representative in Vietnam.

“I joined the Wild Rhino Competition because I felt sorry for the wild rhinos that poachers killed,” said Jack. He also shared that winning this competition means he has made a small contribution to help save the rhinos.

As for Duc Tuan, he still remembered the day when WWF and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) confirmed the extinction of the Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam in 2010 and the image of the last Javan Rhino found dead in the Cat Tien National Park shocked his 10-year-old self. “Since then I have always looked for an opportunity to help support the endangered species from around the globe,” he said.

“I would like to extend my grateful appreciation to the team at Wilderness Foundation Africa and by extension, their partners, for giving me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit South Africa and partake in one of South Africa's most famous wilderness trails. This would give me the chance to experience Africa's wilderness in the fullest and to understand the challenges and threats facing the rhinos. I hope that I am able to share this experience with everyone and persuade people to act against the illegal rhino horn,” he added.

“I believe that when Duc Tuan is back from the trail in South Africa, he can share his experience with his friends and family, which will encourage more students to join us to speak up against rhino poaching,” Ms Thu Huynh shared.

Besides the trip to South Africa, Duc Tuan will join the other 13 senior winners to become the Wild Rhino Youth Ambassador, working directly with the Wilderness Foundation Africa team in Vietnam to continue raising awareness and encourage people to stop using rhino horn.