Our Mission

Club Hanoi is non-governmental non-profit organization uniting those who are interested in Vietnam – its culture, history and traditions – or in the life of Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic.

Club Hanoi was founded as an informal organization by a group of former students of the Vietnamese studies at the Charles University in Prague. The organization was formally registered with the Czech Ministry of Interior on January 16th 2004. Since then the organization has been comprised of students and professionals in the field Vietnamese studies, as well as members of Vietnamese community or individuals interested in Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic or Europe joined the organization.

Our mission is to promote Vietnamese culture and integration of Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic while emphasizing the preservation of cultural identity.

The interaction between the Vietnamese minority and Czech majority is often complicated by the many differences between the Czech and Vietnamese cultures. Our aim is therefore to take these differences and highlight their positive aspects and value for the society in the Czech Republic. In doing so, we should to affect the perception of the role and place of Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. This community is often described as self-sufficient, hardworking and inconspicuous. However, its full cultural potential has yet to be recognized – Vietnamese traditions, literature, complex history or natural heritage remains to the majority of the Czech society unknown.

Besides, raising awareness about Vietnam and Vietnamese culture, we also aim to promote and support the principle of equal opportunities for Vietnamese living in the Czech Republic. We seek to increase participation of the Vietnamese community in the public life in the Czech Republic; we support the independence of individuals in their own community and active participation on solving social issues of common interest.

We believe that we can contribute in eliminating discrimination against Vietnamese community including the often mutual prejudices, communication and cultural barriers in the Czech Republic. This will be achieved by increasing access to information and by organizing common social and cultural Vietnamese-Czech events. Our goal is to positively affect change of attitudes and behavior of particular groups in the Czech society – Vietnamese community, the general and professional public – in order to achieve a more open and stronger civil society.