South East Asia – liaison, z. s.

Our history

SEA-l – previously Klub Hanoi – is a group of people interested in Southeast Asia and especially in Vietnam, its culture, history, traditions, and life of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic.

SEA-l – previously Klub Hanoi – was established in 2002 by students (now graduates) of Vietnamese Studies at FA, Charles University, during their study visit to Hanoi. Originally, it was intended as an informal student organization. Their aim was to use a website http://www.klubhanoi.cz/ to share up-to-date information from Vietnam from an independent point of view of students of Vietnamese language but mainly to familiarize the Czech public (who at that time saw the Vietnamese in the Czech Republic only as “stallholders”) with Vietnamese traditions, literature, complex history and beautiful nature. Its name was chosen as a “counterpart” to the Vietnamese association “Klub Praha” which is based in Ho Chi Minh City and associates Vietnamese graduates of Czechoslovakian schools from before 1989.

A year later, the founding members of Klub Hanoi decided to establish a civic association with Klub Hanoi’s future long-standing chairwoman Eva Pechová (now Laurinová) among them. In January 2004 Klub Hanoi was registered as a civic association by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic. Many other Vietnamese studies professionals, Vietnamese friends and people from the Czech Republic who have been for various reasons interested in Vietnam or Vietnamese community in Europe have joined the association. At that time Klub Hanoi hosted photographic exhibitions with talks about Vietnam, Vietnamese film screenings and international football tournament “Pohár kontinentů” at Strahov. Klub Hanoi also set up a public library with extensive materials on various Vietnamese-themed subjects, translated Vietnamese literature, published a Bulletin for professionals in the field, participated in the shooting of documentary films in Vietnam (directed by Martin Ryšavý) and organized Czech-Vietnamese gatherings.

In relation to the growth and development of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic, and therefore also interest in Vietnamese culture and Vietnam on the part of the Czech public, the website traffic has been increasing (up to 800 visitors a day in 2006 and even 1,600 visitors a day in 2007) as well as the demand for various specialized and practical information. Many were interested – from state institutions and authorities, media, non-profit organizations, libraries, hospitals, maternity hospitals, students, teachers who had Vietnamese pupils in their classes, professional and general public, to Vietnamese students who grew up in the Czech Republic and via Czech language (as a result of forgetting their mother tongue) tried to reconnect with their roots and cultural identity (many have also become active members of Klub Hanoi and some are still working with us today).

It became clear that the spontaneous creation of the association has also filled a “hole in the market” in terms of provision of erudite information about Vietnamese culture and community in the Czech Republic. Klub Hanoi became to some extent a “mediator” between the Czech society and the Vietnamese community which was at that time by the Czech majority perceived as very closed and unapproachable. It has increasingly participated in educational, cultural and social activities: we organized seminars in schools, participated in public debates, television or radio debates, reviewed literature on Vietnam and Vietnamese culture, participated in research and professional publications, advised on professional and student works on the topic of migration of the Vietnamese to the Czech Republic, we published our first publication called “S vietnamskými dětmi na českých školách” (With Vietnamese children in Czech schools) which has been reprinted four times due to a great interest in the book, etc. A whole range of interesting and entertaining Czech-Vietnamese cultural projects, exhibitions and performances (Za tržnicí, 9Viet, Toi la ai? and others) were created thanks to the cooperation of Klub Hanoi with various cultural organizations (Mamapapa, Divadlo Archa, Kultura Jinak, National Gallery in Prague, etc.) and the above-mentioned enthusiastic Vietnamese students and amateur artists.

However in 2009, Klub Hanoi or more precisely its most active members were almost completely exhausted. They were performing the vast majority of their activities for Klub Hanoi on a purely voluntary basis. Although they had a great potential for independent and civic engagement, their interest in the activities of Klub Hanoi was such that it was practically impossible to implement the activities only in their free time. Therefore we started thinking about more reliable ways of funding – instead of relying on several thousand Czech crowns from donations we decided to apply for funding from the state budget, for grants from various non-profit organizations, foundations, and the European Union. We were also building on the know-how gained by a research team of Jiří Kocourek in applied sociology and especially in the field of methods of education, integration, and implementation of development cooperation projects.

In the same year, thanks to this cooperation and experience, Klub Hanoi was granted support for its first three-year project funded by the European Social Fund which in essence saved the continuation of Klub Hanoi’s activities. The project has built up on the work of Klub Hanoi on familiarizing the Czech majority with Vietnamese culture and integrating the Vietnamese into the majority society while emphasising preservation of their cultural identity. It focused on providing Czech language courses and integration seminars designed specifically for members of the Vietnamese community and also on an accredited training for so-called “intercultural assistants” designed mainly for Vietnamese and Czech-speaking students who grew up in the Czech Republic. The aim of the very first such course organized in the Czech Republic was to train bilingual intercultural mediators and advisers who would be able to support mutual learning between both cultures and help their members to communicate effectively on a professional level.

Klub Hanoi has been training Czech-Vietnamese intercultural assistants also in subsequent years. Gradually, we were able to receive support for projects on courses not only in Prague but also in the regions (Karlovy Vary, Ústí nad Labem, and South Moravian Region) and today there is a relatively large group of Czech-Vietnamese intercultural assistants providing a wide range of activities both within Klub Hanoi and beyond – some assistants work as consultants to various non-profit organizations working with Vietnamese migrants, others work with primary schools with a large number of Vietnamese pupils, act as interpreters for public and commercial subjects or introduce the youngest pupils to Vietnamese culture as part of multicultural education. At the same time, we initiated cooperation between the non-profit sector and the ministries of the Czech Republic in the field of education in intercultural assistance which started the process leading to recognition of the profession of intercultural assistant (as is common abroad) at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic. Eventually, this profession was called generally “intercultural work”. Currently, it is divided into “community interpreting” – interpreting using the knowledge of sociolinguistics and emphasizing mutual understanding, “intercultural assistance” – providing individual support activities (accompanying clients, preparation for meetings, assistance in filling forms, etc.), and “intercultural mediation” – managing intercultural conflicts and conflicts within groups. The support provided in particular by intercultural assistants in schools, law offices and the Department for Asylum and Migration Policy has nowadays become commonly used. Intercultural mediation has also been developing.

Furthermore, since 2009 Klub Hanoi has been offering counselling services at the office at Prague wholesale centre Sapa. As the location of the office suggests, the counselling is focused mainly on Vietnamese immigrants and particularly in the context of the Czech institutional environment which differs considerably from the Vietnamese one. Our trained intercultural assistants are participating in the provision of counselling services as well (as interpreters, accompanying clients to the authorities, etc.). They are also involved in the ongoing provision of Czech language courses for the Vietnamese together with other younger graduates of Vietnamese studies (newly Ethnology with specialization in Vietnamese Studies).So far more than a thousand of Vietnamese students graduated from our Czech language courses. Even foreign students come to Sapa to consult their diploma theses with us.

Besides the projects, we continued with the presentation of Vietnamese culture. Every year, Klub Hanoi participated in the festival Refufest at Kampa in Prague, Barevná devítka in Podviní park in Vysočany, festival Poznejme se, sousedé in Parukářka park in Prague 3 and it was invited to introduce Vietnamese cuisine at Festival národů Podyjí in Mikulov, festival Zažij Vietnam as part of Prague 2 celebration of 65 years since the establishment of Czech-Vietnamese relations, etc. Activities such as painting on traditional Vietnamese hats or sand painting quickly became popular.

However, after five years of working on projects, we had to once again rethink the future direction of Klub Hanoi and its financing. We realized that the bureaucratic system is much more interested in the demanding project administration which is overwhelmingly time- and energy-consuming than in the actual content of the projects. We began to miss the independence and working on projects that made sense to us and that we were happy to implement without stress stemming from possible bureaucratic mistakes. That is why we have decided to limit the number of future projects funded by the EU and try again to find sponsors and self-finance our activities.

Klub Hanoi was and still is lucky enough to have among its members and supporters the most prominent personalities of various scientific disciplines as well as lovers of Vietnamese culture. Since its beginning, Klub Hanoi sought to be an independent mediator between the cultures of Vietnam and the Czech Republic. This has often materialised in practice; for example when it was elected as an independent interpreter for meetings of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic and the Embassy of the SRV in Prague during negotiations on the recognition of the Vietnamese national minority in the Czech Republic.

With the entry into force of the new Civil Code, Klub Hanoi changed not only its status of the civic association but also its name. We have decided to expand our activities to other countries in the region of Southeast Asia as was intended from the beginning of Klub Hanoi’s existence. As of January of this year, the name of our association has changed to South East Asia – liaison, z. s.

At present, we would like to move towards strengthening the consciousness of cultural and social identity stemming from both the Czech environment and from Vietnam as it becomes evident that the young Vietnamese generation is growing into a period of complex choices without a clear awareness of its roots. We would to continue discussing these issues and offer opportunities to get a deeper knowledge of the roots of Vietnamese culture and society. We are also preparing for the training of interpreters whose expertise is highly sought after in the Czech Republic. We will make use of drama techniques and participation of migrants in performances and mixed cultural events. We will promote awareness education in the field of childcare and first aid training among Vietnamese parents. We would like to find sponsors for our activities; in addition to those already mentioned, also for development activities in Vietnam, in particular setting up classes for children with disabilities, supporting community-based education for teachers and pupils in primary schools and training teachers in Vietnam in applied pedagogy. We already have experience with this kind of projects and have prepared appropriate programmes. However, we are also open to new proposals for cooperation.