The first lines of the letter that won the first prize at UPU-45 

The contest is open for Vietnamese students under 15 years old. The entries must be written by hand in the form of prose and are not published in any newspapers or books and they should be under 1,000 words. 

On the occasion, the national organising board presented awards to Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, a ninth grader at the Nguyen Trai secondary school in Hai Duong who won the first prize at both the national and international rounds of the 45th international competition, which had the theme “Write a letter to your 45-year-old self”. 

In her letter, Trang played the role of the late Aylan Kurdi - the drowned Syrian refugee child washed up on a beach in Turkey earlier this year, as seen in the world-shaking photo on the tragedy of wars, conflicts and illegal immigration into Europe. Her letter drew up a heaven of a world without violence or discrimination 

Trang was invited to the award ceremony held in Turkey in October. 

She is the second Vietnamese to win the first prize of the contest. The first was Ho Thi Hieu Hien, a student from the central city of Da Nang, who won the competition in 2010. 

The annual International Letter Writing Competition for Young People has been run at the national and international levels since 1971, drawing millions of under-15 children from all over the world. 

Vietnamese students so far have won 12 prizes in 27 times of joining the contest, with two first prizes, one second, three third and six consolidation prizes.-VNA