Guide Q&A with Minh Nguyen, General Director of IWC Viet Nam

Minh Nguyen is a Guide to two teams—Duafe, founded by Resolution Fellow Ermyntrude Adjei, and Cocoa for Life, founded by Resolution Fellow Prince Agyei. Both Fellows are located in Ghana and are working on STEM workshops for young girls and skills training for farmers, respectively. Read on to learn more about Minh and her work to support two social ventures in Ghana!

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Please briefly introduce yourself and what led you to the Resolution Project

I’m Minh, from Da Nang, Viet Nam. I have graduated from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with an MBA in General Business. I’m currently a General Director of IWC Viet Nam. I like music, art, cooking, and traveling. I enjoy helping others as much as I can, especially vulnerable women, children, and senior people.

I’m always thinking about ways I can use my professional experience and personal time to help people who are working to reduce poverty and sustainably improve people’s living conditions around the world. Plus, the pandemic made me think about whether connecting people who need help via online communication platforms really works. This triggered key words “online volunteer” for my Googling, which led me to Resolution Project, where I have had the chance to directly help and learn from young talented leaders and indirectly help marginalized people from many countries in the world through social ventures. 

Where are you currently finding inspiration and joy?

I’m always inspired by my mother, who taught me to help people as much as I can without any expectations. I find joy in contributing part of my time to the social ventures at Resolution Project to indirectly help marginalized people while learning from young leaders and supporting them in their self-development.

What role do young leaders play in the world today?

Young leaders really play a key role in the world today. Given their education, leadership skills, passion, kindness, proactiveness, and perseverance, they make their voices heard, step up to connect non-profit organizations, governments, and business entities with local communities to bring positive changes and contribute to improve the conditions of marginalized people and the environment in their countries. Young leaders are the future of their countries and the world, striving for a better future to reduce gender inequality, income inequality, and violence, while sustainably protecting the environment.

What is a common theme or area of focus that you spend time advising Fellows on?

My Co-Guides and I advise our Fellow on the following areas :

  • More efficient work flow processes 
  • Evaluation forms for project evaluation
  • Financial report templates
  • Network expansion to attract more experienced professionals
  • Filling forms to receive resources about fundraising

What excites you most about our Resolution Fellows?

I’m really impressed by the Fellows’ passion, perseverance, and leadership skills. They drive their ventures through challenges including fund shortages, family issues, hectic academic schedules, etc. They are also outcome focused and collaborative—bringing successful teams to work together to achieve their targets.

How has being a Guide differed from/complemented your professional career/running your own venture? 

Being a Guide at Resolution Project, with the little personal time I have, is more about helping young leaders by advising them about their social ventures and their personal development. At the same time, I am also learning more about running a social venture which is helpful to me.

What is one inspiration or learning that you have gained from your Fellow/their venture? 

One of the Fellows’ ventures that really inspires me is educating local women about finance, making a product, and selling it into the market. The venture also facilitates them to go through the whole process to earn their living while still solving local environmental issues. This is definitely a sustainable way to help marginalized women to better their lives, which is good for both community and environment.