The Vietnamese Girl Scout Association was the organization for Girl Scouts in South Vietnam

South Vietnam

South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...

. Girl Scouting began in Vietnam in 1928.http://vintagegirlscout.com In April 1957, the Vietnamese Girl Scout Association was established. In 1966 the Vietnamese Girl Scout Association was recognized as a member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is a global association supporting the female-oriented and female-only Scouting organizations in 145 countries. It was established in 1928 and has its headquarters in London, England. It is the counterpart of the World Organization of the Scout...

, last mentioned in 1973.

Outside Vietnam since 1975, the Vietnamese Girl Scout Association and the Vietnamese Scout Association have merged into a single group and operate under the leadership of the International Central Committee of Vietnamese Scouting, formed in 1983. Inside Vietnam, Scouting was initially banned. Moves by some Communist Party

Communist party

A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

 members to reestablish a nationalist version of Scouting have been rejected by the General Secretariat of the World Organization of the Scout Movement

World Organization of the Scout Movement

The World Organization of the Scout Movement is the Non-governmental international organization which governs most national Scout Organizations, with 31 million members. WOSM was established in 1920, and has its headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland...

. A few semi-official Scouting groups exist in Vietnam at present, which include both boys and girls together.

Girl Scouting may again be making inroads in Vietnam, as in 1993 a reception was held in Manila, Philippines in conjunction with WAGGGS' Asia Pacific Symposium

Symposium

In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara...

 of NGOs for Women in Development

Women in Development

Women in Development is an approach to development projects that emerged in the 1970s, calling for treatment of women's issues in development projects...

. The aim was to introduce or reintroduce the Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting movement and to explore possibilities of starting/restarting Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting in Vietnam, as well as Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

 and Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

. Fifty women leaders from those nations attended the Asia Pacific Symposium, sharing their Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting experiences.

However, like overseas Vietnamese Scouting, girls and boys may now be seen together in coeducational Scouting groups in Vietnam.