Saigon times tieng anh

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, high school student Anh Ngo identified her mission to shelter the mental health of the young generation. Ngo founded a non-profit organisation named MindsetSeed . MindsetSeed’s purpose is to promote the implementation of a growth mindset, and kindness for mental health.

The story started from a little puzzle. Ngo recalls that as a child, she would fidget with a Rubik’s cube, wanting to solve it, but not desiring to put forth the effort. However, as Ngo has to be perfect at everything, not being able to match all six sides of this cube wounded her. As Ngo grew up, this mindset harmed her greatly. In her sophomore year in high school, Ngo came across a study of the Growth Mindset by Professor Carol Dweck. Ngo realised that her potential can grow and that talent is dependent on hard work. At this moment, Ngo decided to share this knowledge with others, for them to avoid the downfalls she had met, through MindsetSeed.

MindsetSeed mainly focuses on the mindset and self-esteem of students: in seeking motivation to improve, through the belief that one’s potential is not concrete but can grow. Ngo shares her idea upon understanding the scientific foundation behind a study, how it is a critical skill for students to be curious in learning, and seek challenges.

“MindsetSeed offers opportunities for young researchers to participate in the field of neuroplasticity – the background behind the growth mindset study by Professor Carol Dweck,” Ngo said. “In knowing that when we learn something new, our neurons react to that and make our brains stronger can make a significant impact on a person’s will to develop.”

In addition to research programs , MindsetSeed provides interactive mental health activities , in instructing participants through yoga, art, or mediation sessions. MindsetSeed also partners with the American Diabetes Association ,  to push a healthy mindset in those with diabetes. MindsetSeed has hosted a variety of webinars with health experts, in calling diabetics to adopt not only a fitting diet and lifestyle but also a good mindset, to better their health.

Ngo shows her excitement about the partnership with the American Diabetes Association through her passion for juvenile diabetes research, as MindsetSeed has now created the Diabetes Circle Club . The Diabetes Circle Club is unique, as it offers various volunteer opportunities to help and enrich their scientific and research knowledge on diabetes and the range of individuals the illness affects.

“As a child, I felt as if I needed to be perfect all the time, now I still find myself struggling with perfectionism. With MindsetSeed, I strive to convey that perfection shall not be sought, but improvement instead,” Ngo said. “In shattering the depiction of the ‘must’, I seek for others to ask the ‘why’ and ‘how’, and bliss the process, not just the results. I find this to be most relevant when I am doing research at my chemistry lab and am now applying it to MidnsetSeed.”

To reach this goal, MindsetSeed not only offers services but resources to the youth. MindsetSeed issues its own magazine, the Effort Magazine , featuring a “students help students” model. Editors of this magazine are passionate youths in the field of literature, hoping to convey their ideas about growth through this platform.

Ngo’s goal is to reach a large number of audiences in terms of what MindsetSeed could provide for those people. Ngo wants others to avoid the downfalls she met while thinking one’s potential was concrete and development cannot be sought, as her objective is for the young generation to realise that one’s talent is cultivated through efficient work and determination. Ngo is glad that her message is delivered thoroughly through MindsetSeed’s programme because she sees how people are overcoming their difficulties efficiently and positively through their help.

“I choose ‘determination’ to describe MindsetSeed. As not the only key factor in starting up a non-profit organisation in the first place, it is also very crucial to the development of a growth mindset,” Ngo said. “[MindsetSeed] had continuously expanded the organisation through new and inventive methods every month, as we try to connect with a large audience, now growing to more than 5,000 participants.”

With a mission of aiding the mindset of the youth, Ngo hopes for the next generation to believe in themselves, and work hard for their dreams.

* China and India should firmly follow the right path of mutual trust and cooperation between neighboring major countries, and not go astray with suspicion and distrust nor fall back on a road of negative retrogression, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday. Wang made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, stressing that the two sides should maintain the strategic consensuses reached by their leaders.

* As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over “long-COVID” or “post-COVID” symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Armenia in a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, the Kremlin said.

* The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the US military had conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. The Pentagon called the operation a “proportionate military response” carried out after consultations with coalition partners.

* China approved two more vaccines for public use, raising the number of domestically produced vaccines that can be used in China to four.

* Japan on Friday is preparing to lift the state of emergency over COVID-19 for five prefectures where the situation has improved, although the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area will likely be kept under the emergency period for the time being, according to government sources.

* The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Friday 2,651 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since Oct. 17 last year, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 571,327.

* Leaders of the European Union (EU) called for an accelerated production and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines late on Thursday as the bloc is struggling with supply shortfalls.

* Brazil surpassed 250,000 COVID-19 deaths, while France and Germany said COVID-19 is here to stay after European Union leaders discussed ways to fight new variants of the virus, step up inoculations and save Europe’s tourism industry from another ruinous summer.

* Europe’s medicines regulator issued new guidance for drug makers that modify their vaccines to protect against variants of the virus to speed up the approval process.

* France will bring in new restrictions for the Moselle area around its common border with Germany, and impose measures including weekend lockdowns in Paris and 19 other regions from the start of March if signs of the coronavirus accelerating persist.

* Australia’s Victoria state will start easing restrictions from Friday night.

* Republic of Korea launched its inoculation campaign, with shots to be administered in some 200 nursing homes.

* US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to launch a campaign to educate Americans about vaccines in anticipation of a period later this year where supply may outstrip demand because of vaccine hesitancy.

* Brazil will purchase 20 million doses of the vaccine made by India’s Bharat Biotech for delivery between March and May.

* Canada’s vaccination campaign is ramping up after earlier supply disruptions and the number of inoculations last week hit a five-week high.

* Pfizer and BioNTech said they are testing a third dose of their vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.

* Mexico’s economy grew quicker than first estimated during the fourth quarter as the country recovered from its sharpest economic contraction in nearly nine decades.

* Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to the lowest level since 1995 as coronavirus restrictions limited travel. Data released by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources on Friday revealed that emissions fell by 4.4 percent in the 12 months to September 2020.

* Security personnel of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) rescued more than 80 Rohingya refugees who had been onboard a boat drifting in the waters of Andaman Sea for 10 days, and retrieved eight dead bodies.

* Republic of Korea’s quarantine authorities said Friday that it will extend the country’s five-tier social-distancing rules at the third-highest level in the Seoul metropolitan area for two weeks.

* US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would work to make US-Saudi relations “as strong and transparent as possible.” Biden made the remarks in the first phone conversation with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud since Biden’s inauguration.

* Germany’s Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure said on Wednesday that more than EUR5 billion (US$6.1 billion) would be invested in the modernization of over 3,000 railway stations across the country.

* Colombian President Ivan Duque announced a decision Thursday night to extend a declared national health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic by three more months, as the vaccination drive entered its eighth day.

* AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot said he hoped to meet the EU’s expectations on the number of vaccines the company can deliver to the bloc in the second quarter.

* The Czech prime minister said people’s movement needed to be “radically” limited over at least the next three weeks.

* Portugal extended until at least mid-March a nationwide lockdown.

* The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines.

* Israel has frozen its programme to send vaccines abroad to buy international goodwill, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said, after the initiative came under legal scrutiny.

* Bahrain has approved Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine for emergency use.

Many effective models

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Lieu Province, through the process of agricultural restructuring, many models of the linking value chains in the production, processing and consumption of agricultural products have been formed, bringing high economic efficiency. Currently, the province’s many companies and units of shrimp farming in the form of a closed value chain were recognised as agricultural enterprises applying high technology or certified by international standards of aquaculture such as GlobalGAP, BAP, ASC, and Organic. In addition, the province has steadily developed the rice industry following a large production model, joining the value chain, with rice output increased from 1.066 million tonnes in 2015 to 1.15 million tonnes by 2020.

In Hai Duong, the agricultural sector has also been promoting the formation of value chains for agricultural products. Accordingly, the province has been focusing on building agricultural production zones for export processing, high-tech agricultural zones, and expanding production scale according to the GAP assessment process. Up to now, the whole province has 335 hectares of organic rice, 114 rice-growing models of “one zone, one variety, one time”, with the minimum scale of 30 hectares per zone. Specialised vegetable growing areas with high efficiency continue to be maintained and expanded. Thanks to production in value chains in 2020, many agricultural products of the province will be exported through official channels to high quality markets, such as: lychee, longan exported to Japan and the US; carrots to the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan, and Middle Eastern countries; cabbage to the ROK and Japan; pickled cucumbers to Russia and the ROK; and onion and garlic to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, according to the Hung Yen Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province has successfully implemented the project “Building and developing models of production and consumption chain of agricultural products” in the direction of producing quality goods, ensuring food safety. The project spent more than VND26 billion to support science – technology, infrastructure, and promoting product consumption, including applying advanced technology in production chains, food business, disseminating knowledge and guidance on cultivation and husbandry techniques. Through project implementation, in Hung Yen, many typical models appeared, such as: Hoang Minh Chau Co., Ltd. with a group of turmeric products including: Nano Curcumin, Nano Collagen turmeric milk, turmeric cream, turmeric starch; and the Mien Thiet longan cooperative with Hung Yen longan.

Towards sustainable development

Building value chains for agricultural products is one of the important solutions towards the sustainable development goals of the entire agricultural sector. Over the past time, several models of value chains have been formed and have been remarkably effective, but they are not high in quantity nor evenly distributed in fields and trades. This is attributed to the fact that agricultural production in many regions of the country is still small and fragmented, it is difficult to form concentrated production zones to apply science – technology as well as control issues related to food safety and hygiene. Therefore, in the coming time, it is necessary to promote the formation of value chain models in the forms such as cooperatives, cooperative groups associated with enterprises; Manufacturing enterprises associated with distribution firms; Enterprise performing all stages in the chain.

Therefore, localities should soon plan concentrated agricultural production zones, as a basis for the formation of value chains. In Bac Lieu Province, according to the plan, by 2025, the province will promote investment in building an aquaculture zone, a high-tech aquatic seed production area with 4,000 hectares of farming; implementing large fields associated with rice consumption to reach 100,000 hectares, accounting for more than 51% of the cultivated area. In addition, the local agricultural sector also continues to guide and support production and business establishments in the direction of scaling up, ensuring all the conditions to convert activities into new-style cooperatives or business. At the same time, the province will also support businesses, cooperatives, and business households to participate in the programme “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) to link production and consumption in the value chain to increase high added value.

In order to develop the value chain of local specialty products, in 2018, the Prime Minister issued Decision No.490/QĐ-TTg approving the National Programme of One Commune, One Product for the 2018-2020 period (OCOP Programme). The goal of this program is to standardise at least 50 percent of the existing products, or about 2,400 products, while consolidating and perfecting production organisation in the direction of linking production households with cooperatives and enterprises.

The facilities are requested to ensure that people maintain a minimum distance of one metre from each other, and catering establishments are ordered to serve no more than 30 people at the same time.

The decision was announced on February 25 after the city went 14 days without a single community transmission case of COVID-19.

The reopening of several services aims to achieve the dual goal of facilitating effective pandemic prevention while maintaining socio-economic development in the city.

However, under the decision, non-essential services including bars, dance clubs, pubs, beer clubs, karaoke parlours, gyms and pool table services will remain closed until further notice.

City authorities have also allowed the organisation of religious events which gather less than 50 people at a time and participants fully observe regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control.