The organizing panel presenting gifts to winners of previous UPU competitions. (Photo: baoquangninh.com.vn)

The event was also held to call for entry for the 47th edition of the competition, launched by the Universal Post Union in 1971. Vietnam became an UPU official member in 1976 and submitted its first entries to the competition in 1987. This year, Nguyen Do Huyen Vi, an eighth grader from Tay Son Secondary School in Hai Chau district, central Da Nang city, won the first prize at the national level and the consolation prize at the international level for her letter to the UN Secretary-General, advising him on how to solve the Syrian refugee issues.

Vi said: “The UPU is a large and interesting playground for young people. I’ve grown up through the competition because I have access to social issues and have to propose my own solutions.”

Millions of Vietnamese students have sent their letters to the UPU competition at the national and international levels over the past three decades. Vietnam has won 13 international prizes, including three first, one second and three third prizes.