Fairytale ending

Could it be true?

Could we really have such a fairytale ending?

In late 2005, Blue Dragon met a 13 year old boy selling flowers on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. That boy, Ngoc, had been trafficked by gang of women who forced him to work through the night, taking everything he earned and beating him if he failed to sell enough.

Ngoc was the first victim of trafficking we had ever met, and so became the first trafficking victim we rescued.

As we investigated how Ngoc had been trafficked, we discovered an extensive problem of child trafficking for labour throughout the province of Hue in central Vietnam. Several months later, we set out on our first "rescue mission" to bring home a group of children trafficked by that same gang.

Among the group was one young girl named Bich Ngoc - the first girl we rescued from trafficking.

Yesterday, with a day of noisy parties in a village in central Vietnam, Ngoc and Bich Ngoc became husband and wife. The first boy we ever rescued from trafficking and the first girl we ever rescued from trafficking are now a family.

Both Ngoc and Bich Ngoc work in a restaurant in Hanoi; they are a fine young couple, supporting their families back home in the countryside, as is the culture, while also saving for their future lives together.

If ever we need evidence that rescuing trafficked children has a long term impact, surely this is it. Even I would never have dreamt of such a happy ending.