Dragons and bears

On Thursday, some of the Blue Dragon children attended a special event: the opening of a bear rescue centre about an hour's drive out of Hanoi.

Vietnamese people commonly believe that bear bile contains powerful medicinal qualities, so the bile and other 'bear products' are extremely valuable. As a result, bears are considered precious commodities, and kept in tiny cages so that their bile can be extracted daily. Their conditions are invariably atrocious.

In Hanoi alone, there are about 600 moon bears kept in cages in people's houses. As unbelievable as that sounds, it's true. So one NGO, called AnimalsAsia, has set up a rescue centre and is working on getting bears out of cages and into safer environments.

Blue Dragon kids were interested to find out more, so they went along with and spent the day learning all about moon bears. A very worthwhile outing for them all!

Maggie Q flew in to Vietnam especially for the opening.
(Maggie, you were in town and you forgot to call me!?)

The bears are living in large open spaces
for the first time in their lives.

One of our volunteers, Skye, and two of the Blue Dragon kids.

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