(VOVworld) – Tang Thi Duyen Hong and her company Marine Gifts has implemented 7 projects to provide free vocational training to hundreds of low-income women in coastal areas. Hong was honored at Vietnam’s Innovation Day 2013 for her effort to conserve marine and coastal environments.

Hong graduated from the Hanoi University of Culture and worked at the Marine Conservation and Development Center. In 2011 Hong set up her company Marine Gifts, which is a social enterprise that works with low-income women to conserve threatened marine and coastal environments. The company aims to protect biodiversity, promote gender equality and alleviate poverty by providing women with alternative employment opportunities that benefit conservation efforts. The Marine Gifts model includes organizing conservation expeditions to coastal environments, selling handicrafts made from marine products; and running vocational, life-skills, and conservation training for women in Marine Protected Areas. Hong says: “I was born in a poor coastal area so I know the lives of people, particularly women in coastal areas quite well. I set up my company to give them a source of financial and spiritual support. Our aim is also to protect natural resources in Vietnam’s marine conservation centers.”

The company has provided vocational training to 350 poor women in 7 protected marine areas in 7 different cities and provinces. They have learned to make handcrafted articles from marine products to earn a living. Hong has encouraged local women to establish mutual support funds to improve vocational training and set up new production groups. Hong says: “We have diversified our products to increase income and generate new jobs. We also encourage women to train each other. We hope to improve people’s awareness of the need to protect natural resources by giving up their exploitation of marine areas.”

Many poor women in Xuan Thuy National Park in Nam Dinh province have become active members of the Giao Xuan eco-tourism cooperative. One of them, Phung Thi Thin, said the company Marine Gifts taught them to make tourist souvenirs from seashells. Many of these women have established their own souvenir shops to earn a living, says Thin: “We can do the job at home and earn a stable income. We hope that more women like us can learn a job to earn a living.”

In 2012 Marine Gifts became the first Vietnamese social enterprise to win the Global Social Venture Competition – South East Asia Regional finals, and also won the Vietnamese Social Enterprise of Sankalp award for 2011-2012.