- While I was in Ho Chi Minh City last week I met up with street kids around the tourist area of District 1. Some of the kids were tiny... one little girl was just 9 years old. A whole troupe of small children had come to the city from Thanh Hoa province, which is close to Hanoi; this is usually a 'red flag' for child trafficking. The kids seemed to be there to work for the summer holidays, so my staff and I plan to go visit them when they are back in their village in September. Perhaps we can get to the bottom of this and prevent it happening again in the future.
- Kids from the Hoi An Children's Home have just come back from a camping trip with, apparently, about 1000 other disadvantaged youth from around Vietnam. Sounds like they had a great time!
- About 30 children with disabilities - along with their parents, Blue Dragon staff, and a host of volunteers - went on an overnight trip to Halong Bay late last week. We organised a similar trip last year, and given the sheer joy expressed by all the kids we had to do it again. These children and their families never, ever get out of Hanoi. We made sure the parents had a morning to themselves, too, so they could have a break from looking after their children for a few hours.
- Back in April I wrote this blog in which I mentioned one of our boys, Truong, and the 'typical' teenage issue of working out what he wants to do with his life. A surprising update - Truong has just started a 3 month course in sales and marketing! So far, he's all smiles.
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