Search, rescue, celebrate

Recent weeks at Blue Dragon have been an unusual mix of urgency and enjoyment. I can confidently say that "boredom" hasn't been on our agenda!

With Lunar New Year, or Tet, is coming soon: February 10 is the first day of the Year of the Snake.

For the 1600 or so children in the Blue Dragon family, this is a time of celebration. Tet is the one real holiday of the year in Vietnam; it's like Christmas and New Year rolled into one and spread out over a week. And just like the end-of-year celebrations in western countries, it's an opportunity for reflection on the past and planning for the future.

So far we've already organised a fantastic Tet Awards party for all of the Blue Dragon kids in Hanoi, and over the last weekend we also ran 6 smaller parties for kids throughout Hue (in central Vietnam). These are children in rural areas who have been trafficked into garment factories, but found and returned home by Blue Dragon.

Children and volunteers dancing at a Tet party in Hue

Just by coincidence, on the same days that we organised these parties, our staff were also engaged in search and rescue trips looking for more trafficked children. While much of the east enjoys the build up to the Lunar New Year, kids in slavery have nothing to look forward to except even greater workloads and worse conditions. Children in garment factories have to work extra long days to keep up with the increased demand, and girls in brothels have all the additional horror of the parties that they are forced to serve.

So while it's important for us to be celebrate with our kids, it's also essential that our anti-trafficking work steps up and gets kids home.

On Friday January 18, Blue Dragon staff located 10 children from rural Hue who were working as forced, unpaid labourers in southern garment factories. The factory owners were massively displeased to see us, but we were working in conjunction with local government officials, so other than obstruct, lie, and argue, they couldn't really stop us.

And just yesterday, the staff located and rescued 2 Vietnamese girls who have been kidnapped and sold to a brothel in China. The team is not yet back across the border, so I can't say any more just yet, but after a few very tense hours they all now appear to be safe and well.

Side by side, these rescues and celebrations seem so different. But they're just 2 sides of the same coin. Our work is all about getting kids out of crisis, and onto a safe long-term path to a happy life.

A happy return

Fourteen year old Dat ran away from home 3 months ago.

Living in a remote rural community far from the city, he had long dreamt of the bright city lights; and with his family being very poor, he wanted to earn money to help them get out of their difficulties.

And so back in October, when Dat found himself getting into some trouble at home, he decided to take the leap and head to Hanoi.

Many kids come from rural areas to the cities expecting an easy life. There's a lot of wealth in Vietnam's cities, but the reality is that there are very few opportunities for poor people to 'make it big.' Wealth is for the wealthy. Kids like Dat have almost no hope of finding a way to make good money here in Hanoi.

And so Dat ended up begging on the streets, sometimes selling trinkets, and living from day to day. He slept under bridges and in trees, learning to camouflage himself to avoid trouble.

When he met Blue Dragon's Outreach workers, he jumped at the chance to have a safe place to sleep, and some warm clothes; but Dat was terrified about the idea of going home. He missed his mum, dad and sister, but knew he had done the wrong thing by running away, and dreaded the consequences.

After a month of caring for Dat, he finally agreed to try going home - but only on the conditions that our staff went with him, and brought him back to Hanoi if he decided to return.

Yesterday morning Dat and Blue Dragon staff headed off at 5.30am for the long drive to his home, way up in the mountains. Thank goodness we have a car and GPS - Dat's home was extremely difficult to find, and getting there required some serious 4WDing!

The result? Another beautiful reunion. Dat and his mother were in tears the moment they saw each other. All of his fears evaporated in an instant. And no, he didn't want to go back to Hanoi; he just wants to stay with his family and go back to school.

Dat and his sister in their family home

Unluckily, just yesterday Dat's dad made the journey to Hanoi to look for his son; so while Dat was heading home, his father was going in the opposite direction. There's a good chance they passed each other on the road! But he was hugely relieved to get the call saying that his son was safely home.

Blue Dragon staff having lunch with Dat's family

We're very happy to have this great start to 2013 - as are Dat and his family. Here's to hoping we can help more kids like Dat this year.

The simple things

I have some great photos to share from northern Vietnam: Lao Cai province, quite near the border with China.

A few weeks ago, a school in rural Lao Cai contacted Blue Dragon asking for help. They are a primary school in a remote area, and they explained that their students don't have enough warm clothes for the winter - which can be very severe in those parts.

With no heating in the school, and some of the classes held in timber shacks, the school knew that kids would start dropping out because of the cold. So they asked if we could help with some warm clothes and shoes for the kids.

We were hugely fortunate that the Hanoi International Women's Club was able to fund the purchases, and last week some of the Blue Dragon team traveled up to make sure all the kids received their winter gear. The excitement on the faces of the kids tells you everything.

 

The kids now have their shoes and jackets, and they've had the added bonus of seeing some visitors to their school... which is quite a rare thing in those parts.

It was nice to be able to bring some joy to the kids!

Make it pink

When Blue Dragon rescues kids out of factories, or girls and young women out of brothels, we get a lot of praise from the public on our Facebook page and through emails. And it's all appreciated very, very much.

Of course, there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that never gets any attention. Even right now, we are working on a plan to conduct a rescue of dozens of kids in coming months; the preparation is long and often tedious. It's all about gathering information, verifying evidence, piecing together clues, and so on.

Another important part of rescue trips is the fundraising. To be frank, no money = no rescues.

So Blue Dragon is hugely, incredibly fortunate to have friends and supporters here in Vietnam as well as around the world who chip in with amounts small and large, providing the funds needed to change lives.

One such 'behind the scenes' supporter - or rather, team of supporters - is Rally Indochina. This is an annual motorbike ride through Vietnam (every April) which raises funds that are then used over the coming year to rescue kids, build houses, and run community projects in areas being targeted by traffickers.

It's professionally run, using Ural motorbikes and traveling through some remote and untouched parts of Vietnam. Anyone familiar with a motorbike should look in to joining: it's superbly organised and the scenery along the way is stunning.

The amazing guys behind the rally are 3 Aussies: Glenn, Digby and Mark. When they're not running the rally, they have their own motorbike companies: Explore Indochina and Hoi An Motorbike Adventures.

Now, the guys are so keen to raise money to stop child trafficking that one of them, Mark, has come up with an offer:

For every $250 raised on his Go Fundraise page, Mark will wear a pink ao dai for one day of the rally.

Just to be clear, this is what a pink ao dai looks like: 

Meantime, this is what Mark Wyndham looks like:

Wouldn't he look so much better in a pink ao dai?

I say this is one cause we should all get behind. Let's help Mark raise the money he needs to spend 14 days rising through Vietnam in a pink ao dai. Let's do it for the kids.

Hideaways

Blue Dragon's Outreach Team in Hanoi has a difficult and often dangerous job. Their work is to look for, befriend, and protect homeless children around the city. 

Adding to the complexity of this job is that Hanoi's street kids have learned to hide themselves away; they are often invisible to much of the city, in order to prevent being caught.   

The photos below were taken on Wednesday night and Thursday morning by staff meeting with a group of homeless children at one of Hanoi's bridges. Tonight the kids will have a safe and warm place to stay, and 2 are in hospital now, but the images below capture the place they have been calling home in recent weeks.

Apart from being cold (and Hanoi has been pretty cold and wet this week) and dirty, the boys have been camped out on a ledge high up off the ground. This is where they have been sleeping; it's an extremely dangerous spot.

Two years ago, Blue Dragon appealed to our supporters around the world for donations to grow and develop an Outreach program for street kids. The children below are safe tonight thanks to our friends who helped with that campaign!