10-day Event Promotes Gender Equality, Sustainable Developme

The Smart Lady, Smart Life Action 2018 kicked off on July 1 in Beijing, with the aim of promoting gender equality and sustainable development.

The event was hosted by (BWF), the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, and co-sponsored by Beijing Women's International Communication Center, Chaoyang District Women's Federation and Beijing International Chinese College.

Some 30 young volunteers from 11 countries around the world took part.

During the 10 days of activities, volunteers visited communities and families in Chaoyang District to exchange family cultures of different countries. They also visited the China National Museum of Women and Children, China Women's University and Beijing Qiushi College to popularize the gender equality concept by sharing the Chinese-English bilingual educational brochure Gender Equality Benefits Everyone, and they further understood the development of Chinese women and children and the importance of women's development in social progress.

Young volunteers served at Beijing Chenguang Rehabilitation Center for Cerebral Palsy Children and climbed the Badaling Great Wall to publicize the concept of gender equality and natural heritage protection to tourists from all over the world.

The volunteers also visited the Chinese Classroom where they learned to paint Peking Opera masks and make kites.

The participants pay attention to the status and needs of women and children, promote the realization of the UN's sustainable development goals concerning gender equality. At the same time, they enhance the understanding of cultural diversity and know more about a new Beijing - a combination of tradition and modernity.

Zhao Haiying, vice-president of BWF, gave a speech at the event's closing ceremony.

Zhao said that the action aims to inherit and carry forward the spirit of the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women and encourage the younger generation to form a consensus to build a community with a shared future for mankind in the process of globalization with the guidance of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action.

Zhao also said the young volunteers' warm service and active devotion in the activity impressed people deeply. She hoped that volunteers would further spread the positive spirit involved to each corner of the world.

Volunteers expressed their understanding of volunteering, gender equality and sustainable development by displaying some creative videos and specific data analysis. They promised to disseminate the concept of gender equality after returning home and make efforts to cooperate with Chinese youth to build a harmonious and open community with a shared future for mankind.

At the event, representatives of BWF and leaders of relevant departments presented volunteer certificates to the participants.

Since its launch in 2014, the Smart Lady Smart Life Action campaign has attracted over 100 Chinese and foreign volunteers and thousands of juveniles from 31 countries.

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