I spent the weekend and Monday in Saigon, visiting our young guy in rehab, and meeting up with children from central Vietnam who have been trafficked to the south to work on the streets. It's such a frustrating experience to see the children, to see the traffickers, and to be so restricted in what I can do...
There was some good progress, though, with a few of the children who were keen to go home. So sad to see their long faces as they walk about the street, unenthusiastically trying to sell flowers and gum to tourists who just see the kids as trash. So many wasted childhoods.
Just by chance, I ran into some friends, Miriam and Robyn, who were en-route to Hoi An after being back in Australia. Robyn is starting up her own charitable organisation called CHIA - Children's Hope In Action - which will work with families of dieing children, as well as kids in need of urgent surgery and medical care. It was inspiring to see them, because I KNOW they are going to have a big impact. It isn't a question of IF they will be successful, just a question of HOW successful. Go girls!
And then today I met with Corey and Rose from an American NGO called HSCV, which stands for (deeeep breath) Humanitarian Services for the Children of Vietnam. Corey and Rose have been seeing street kids on the other side of Hanoi to us for quite a while, and last night they came across a crew of girls who have been sleeping, quite literally, on the street. I can't imagine a more dangerous scenario for 14-15 year old girls...
So we had a big meeting with three of the kids today, and two accepted our offer of some short term accommodation while we work out a longer term solution. For the rest of the week, our Social Worker Giang and the chief Psychologist will see what they can do to help these girls get out of their predicaments. Every case we deal with is unique, and this case is certainly different to any other we have faced. We'll work something out, though. Because we have to...
