Why does the green shirt always have to go with... trash?

(Baonghean.vn) - An editor of a press agency complained that every time he talked about youth activities, the local sources sent back duplicate photos that were difficult to choose from.

Youth Union members of Vinh city ride bicycles in response to Earth Hour. Photo: Archive

In some years, we received a series of photos from many places with youth activities in many places with very similar captions: youth from commune A sweeping the streets; youth from commune B picking up trash; youth from unit C cleaning the environment... We really wanted to choose many photos to present for variety, but the sources of information and photos from the base were all similar.

To the point that he had to call a collaborator at the base to complain: "Why do I only see pictures of green shirts walking with trash and no other pictures?" The collaborator replied that it was because it was a collective activity that was easy to get pictures of, and on the other hand, besides that activity, there were few other activities.

The story shared by an editor friend a few years ago made me think a lot. Honestly, youth union members or anyone else who does the job of picking up trash and cleaning up the environment are very respectable and welcome. Everyone must be responsible for their living environment.

Therefore, with the spirit of volunteerism and initiative, the youth union members participate in picking up trash and cleaning up, spreading the meaning throughout society about the necessity and urgency of having awareness to protect a green - clean - beautiful living environment.

Blood donation festival in Do Luong had many youth union members participating. Photo: Document

However, it must also be said that many grassroots organizations abuse this, whenever there is a request to organize collective activities for young people, they immediately organize activities such as picking up trash and cleaning up. Discussing this with an officer in charge of youth work, he said that in reality, picking up trash and cleaning up is easy to organize.

On the other hand, many units are still “poor” in terms of organizing activities for young people. Because they have not focused on and invested in rich and diverse ways of activities for young people, organizing cleaning and picking up trash is the easiest to do. Just notify all members to wear youth shirts, gather at a designated time and place, you can choose a location in the school yard or the yard of the agency, a local road... and there is immediately a task to organize, to gather young people, and also to... report on achievements.

Representative of Nghi Loc District Vocational College of Economics and Technology presented a model of youth innovation. Photo: Document

It must also be recognized that if environmental sanitation activities are overused, they will become boring, monotonous, and unattractive to young people. Therefore, in addition to picking up trash and cleaning, many other practical activities need to be organized.

On the occasion of the recent anniversary of the Youth Union, I asked my friend who is an editor how things were this year. He excitedly said that he could freely choose photos because the source of photos was very rich. There were blue shirts participating in the English singing contest, blue shirts participating in the "bowl of love porridge", blue shirts participating in high-tech youth models, blue shirts getting rich to become millionaires and billionaires, blue shirts of young doctors examining and giving free medicine to people in remote areas, blue shirts joining hands to manage sidewalks, blue shirts winning intellectual talent competitions. There were countless photos of youth that could be chosen because this year's blue shirts appeared in many creative playgrounds, many programs, activities, and exchanges that were useful and interesting...

I am happy for my editor friend who has many images to present, and also excited because in just a short time, the way youth organize activities has changed very quickly. The images of activities have somewhat reflected the relatively diverse and complete youth strength in all fields, many outstanding contributions and achievements. There should continue to be images of green shirts protecting the environment, picking up trash, cleaning up; at the same time, there are also green shirts with countless other activities. Because it is not just simply green shirts that only pick up trash and clean up!

Chi Linh Son