Le Thi Bich Huong, manager of the Italy-Brazil education project, has done remarkable work in popularising Vietnamese culture as well as contributions to her homeland’s external relations activities in Brazil. “The thing I’ve done is only a drop in the ocean but I am proud of doing my utmost,” Huong told Hanoi Moi daily on Feb. 8 from Brazil . The Vietnamese woman, who has resided in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, since 2004, spares no effort to promote the image of Vietnam in the Latin American country. She helps foreigners understand Vietnam not only through relatively dry figures—the loss of life during wartime and its aftermath--but also paints a portrait of a country that is proud of its glorious victories, their beloved leader Ho Chi Minh and their national hero General Vo Nguyen Giap, as well as all those who devoted their lives to the nation. She recalled her talk on Vietnam and the role of the Vietnamese women in the war in March, 2008, for which she integrated traditional Vietnamese songs, dances, poems, and charming women in traditional dresses and conical hats into her programme. The two-hour talk was proposed by the Secretary of the Labour Party of Minas Gerais and has left her with lasting memories, Huong said. Although the event was a sizable undertaking, Huong rose to the challange because she wanted to “help the Brazilian people understand Vietnam from a Vietnamese perspective, not through videos, pictures or newspapers.” The talk grew out of over a decade of reflection, research and experience. Ten years ago, she lived in Italy, and she told her friends about Vietnam and her relatives back home. She found she had to learn more about her homeland and its history to answer all her friends’ questions. She was then invited to deliver speeches at libraries and cultural centres in Italian cities. One of the talks was covered by Rai, the Italian state-owned TV channel. In 2001, Huong was invited to join an education programme in Bologna. She took this opportunity to popularise Vietnam’s culture, which attracted foreign audiences. “This gave me even more inspiration,” she said. In 2009, Huong was awarded a certificate of merit for her contributions to foreign relations activities by the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry./.