Hope and disappointment

This blog has been a bit quiet in recent weeks, largely because there's been so much happening.

At the moment, the Blue Dragon kids are starting to go back to school. Last weekend, over 650 children in rural Bac Ninh province received their text books, school bags, and other school gear, all paid for by sponsors from around the world. (See a few photos here).


Among the many happy stories, Blue Dragon staff have been working with some teen girls who escaped sex traffickers in China earlier this year and returned to Vietnam. One of those girls started back at school on Wednesday, and she's so excited to be studying again that she can't contain herself.

Just a few months ago, she never thought she'd ever have a 'normal' day again in her life. None of the students or teachers at her new school have any idea of what she's been through, so she really has managed to blend back in with the crowd and is getting on with her life.

We've had some scary moments, too: one of the kids who frequents our centre went missing for a few days, and the only other children who had information about where he might be are profoundly deaf and hearing impaired. Some of the Blue Dragon staff are quite proficient in Vietnamese Sign Language, and it was fascinating watching them talk to the kids and gather information, sorting out 'imagination' from 'actuality' - not an easy task! Fortunately the boy returned after several nights, rather embarrassed about the stir he'd caused, but completely unharmed. Phew!

Our legal team have been kept on their toes with some cases of kids who have been arrested, or facing court... We seem to have just gone through a month of teenagers going in and out of detention.

We're all very happy to welcome back one boy, T, who was released from reform school last week and has returned to Hanoi with a new vigour. With a little support from our team, we hope that he'll stay on the right track. (He's one of our best soccer players, too, so the timing is great with our 1000th game coming up. T was all smiles when he realised he was home in time for that!)

It's always disheartening for us to see young people (usually boys) we've worked with over a long time getting caught up in crime, and eventually finding themselves in trouble with the police. At times it's like a slow motion car crash - you can see it coming but you can't do anything about it. And the regret that follows is just as inevitable.

A few days ago I received a letter from a young man, "Minh," in prison for drug offenses; Minh was very close to me as a teenager but just couldn't kick his heroin habit and is now serving a 4 year sentence. His letter spoke of 'disappointment and sorrow'; he hardly dares to hope yet for better times ahead.

At Blue Dragon, we see such different worlds every day. There are so many kids, young people, and families who find a way to make it work. With a little bit of help, they do all they can to get out of poverty and better their futures through education or training. But there are also those who just can't seem to make it, or who don't believe that they can ever make it and give up on themselves.

I can't judge them, though; and time after time I am caught surprised by kids 'turning the corner' and making a change when all seemed lost. My job is to keep on trying, and keep on hoping, even when 'disappointment and sorrow' is all that seems to be left.

Towards a goal

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I blogged... there's been so much happening that I haven't known where to start! So: more posts to follow this week (for real) with some stories about what the kids have been up to.

A few weeks ago I wrote that I was working with my staff on a plan to end the trafficking of kids from central Vietnam to the garment factories of Ho Chi Minh City. Since 2005 we've been getting kids out, and putting a stop to trafficking village by village in Hue province, but we want to see now if we can put a stop to this trade in children altogether.

I know that a lot of people who read this blog have supported our anti-trafficking, so I think it's only right that I share what has come out of that meeting, and give an overview of our plan.

First the bad news: we don't believe that we can completely end the trafficking. We can't take it from its current level right down to zero. Why not? Well, for the same reason that Australia, and the US, and every country on earth has human trafficking... People do bad things that we just can't control.

But we do believe that, given a time frame of about 5 years, we should be able to get as close to ending the trafficking as anyone can. If I have to put a target on it, I'd say we aim to reduce the trafficking by at least 80%... but that just raises the question "80% of what?" There isn't much data on how common this problem is. One of our goals is to try to get a more complete picture of how widespread the trafficking is by arranging community meetings where local people can talk with us about how many children from their village have gone to the factories, both now and in the past.

After some lengthy discussion about what impact our work has had so far, what's been working and what's failed, we came up with a set of 5 'conditions.' Our thinking is that the trafficking will come to an end when:

1. Children and their families no longer want or need to go to work in the factories.

This is a big one. To achieve this, we need not only some poverty alleviation work and income-generating training, but also some significant work on the local culture. In many of the villages we work in, we find that families consider it 'normal' to send their children to work in factories. This is not typical of Vietnamese culture, but is a sub culture specific to these areas that have long been targeted by traffickers. We'll need to help the families and communities change their minds by showing them the reality of factory life in Ho Chi Minh City - it ain't pretty.

2. Factory owners no longer want to employ children.

To achieve this, we will need to keep on taking the kids out of the factories - because every child we take home represents a significant expense for the business, and some weeks of lost labour. We also need to work with the police and Vietnam's Chamber of Commerce so that we're not alone in changing the minds of the factory owners.

3. The traffickers are too scared to continue their work.

If we can keep the stories of child abuse in factories alive in the newspapers, and if the police will arrest and prosecute the traffickers, they'll pretty quickly find a new career.

4. The general public considers child labour and trafficking unacceptable.

Again, the media will have a big role to play in this. Already the tide of opinion has started turning against having children in factories.

5. The government actively enforces the law.

Just a few months ago, a new law on trafficking was passed by the National Assembly, and for the first time trafficking within Vietnam is considered a crime. But of course, just because it's a law doesn't mean it's enforced. We'll need to work more closely with the police to enable them to go after the traffickers and shut down factories which use children.


Clearly, this isn't our action plan - just the set of goals we need to reach. We also need to be sure that, in reaching these goals, we don't simply end up with children from central Vietnam being trafficked to other types of work, or the factories filling up with kids from other regions. We really need to solve this problem by coming at it from all angles at the same time.

Even though we don't think it's realistic to achieve 'zero trafficking', we do believe we can change the context so that trafficking is no longer a common, widespread issue, but rather an occasional aberration.

In coming months and years we'll be rescuing more kids from factories, opening more community centres in the villages being targeted by traffickers, working more closely with the government and media, and spending more time getting to know the families who need our help.

It's bound to be a lot of hard work, but if we really can achieve these goals there's no question that it will all be worth while.

The thousands

Every month, my staff collate data on the kids they have helped, and we produce a simple list of our results which gets added to our email signatures. It's just a nice way of letting people know what we're up to.

This month's figures are below, and there are a couple of really exciting developments...

To date, Blue Dragon has:
Sent 2,036 kids back to school and training
Provided accommodation to 109 girls and boys
Served 221,930 meals
Built or repaired 45 homes for families
Distributed 21,475 litres of milk
Handed out 24,714 kilos of rice
Reunited 85 runaway children with their families
Taken 753 kids to a doctor or hospital
Put 5 teens through drug rehab
Obtained legal registration papers for 567 children
Rescued 101 trafficked children
Placed 62 teens in jobs
Played 936 games of soccer!

First, we've now helped more than 2000 children go to school. Woo hoo! (And if we say that we help each child go to school for 4 years, on average, then that means we've helped Vietnam with 8,000 years of schooling... right??)

And second, as I mentioned a couple of months back, we are quite close to playing our 1000th game of soccer. Looks like "the big day" will be in late August, and already the kids are hassling us for details of how we'll celebrate!

Apart from telling our friends around the world about our progress, these numbers are also a good reminder to my team here in Vietnam that we really are getting somewhere and making a difference.

And speaking of making a difference, I have returned to Hanoi after 3 days in Hue of planning and strategising. In coming days I will post again about the direction we will take with our anti-trafficking work.

I am a bit excited about these plans, though I am not sure that they're going to make riveting blogging!

Dreaming of endings

Ngoc was 13 when I met him, late in 2005. He was tiny and exhausted, selling flowers on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Normally he'd start work around sunset, and walk up and down outside tourist spots and nightclubs until 2 or 3am.

His traffickers, some middle aged women, had brought him from his village in Hue province, in central Vietnam. Every flower he sold was for their benefit; his "payment" was a place to sleep on a concrete floor and some plain rice or noodles a few times per day.

If he didn't sell his quota of flowers each night, he was rewarded with a beating.

Angered by what I saw, and shocked by the compliance of 2 other charitable organisations with this trafficking, I asked one of our volunteers to help me find a way for Ngoc to escape and get back to his family. That volunteer, a uni student named Van, is now Blue Dragon's Chief Lawyer.

We found a way to get Ngoc away from the traffickers, and in doing so learned that his situation was not an isolated case. Dozens more kids just like him had been brought from central Vietnam to the south and put to work as slaves, mostly under the pretense of 'vocational training'. The parents were extremely poor - often living in tin huts or tents on beaches - and were easily convinced that their children were being offered an opportunity to escape from grinding poverty.

And so, in addition to helping street kids, Blue Dragon started helping kids who had been trafficked.

Six years on, we've rescued 92 kids who have been trafficked for slavery within Vietnam. The trafficking rings that took Ngoc and his friends to Ho Chi Minh City to sell flowers are long gone; we interrupted their business so much that they just gave up. We've effectively ended trafficking in 4 communes of Hue province, but there's still a huge trade in children from Hue being taken south to work in the garment industry.

The question for Blue Dragon remains: Can we end this trafficking of children from Hue to the garment factories permanently?

If we could bring down one trafficking ring, can't we bring down some more? And if we could end trafficking from 4 communes in Hue province, then can't we end it in all communes?

These aren't just hypothetical questions... These are the issues that my staff and I will be talking about this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Van and I are in Hue now, to meet with our staff who are based here. We intend to come up with a strategy that will put a permanent end to the trafficking of children from Hue to the garment factories.

It won't be easy; and we're going to need a few years to really make an impact. But it's time for us to take this dive into the deep end. Our work so far has had some terrific results, and I am proud of what we've achieved. However, I think we can put our knowledge and expertise now to an even more powerful end.

Why is it important?

It's all about the kids. Ngoc is a young man now, and he has done brilliantly for himself. Although he had never been to school when I met him, he has since gone on to study a few years of primary school, and now works in a restaurant in Hanoi. He's an excellent chef, much loved by his employer, and he is one of the most responsible Blue Dragon kids yet. He's a great role model to all those around him.

There are just so many more Ngocs out there. The photo below is of some of the other trafficked kids we've rescued and have gone back to full time study. Last week our staff invited those who achieved excellent school results on an outing to a bookstore. The idea was for each of them to buy whatever reading material they wanted... but they saw some painting activities and decided to have a go at that, too.

These are kids who were working 18 hours a day in garment factories not so long ago. The chance to go to a bookstore, buy whatever they want, and join in some art activities must have seemed like a ridiculous fantasy - but why shouldn't they have the chance? Why should such a simple pleasure be denied them?


Dreams can indeed become reality; and my dream is that kids from Hue don't have to sell their childhood to produce cheap clothes in Vietnam's factories. Over the coming days, my challenge is to figure out how to do this!

We made it!

Back in May, Blue Dragon launched an important funding appeal. We needed to raise money to expand our outreach services for street kids.

For the last year or so we have had one Outreach worker, a young man who once worked as a shoeshine boy himself. His job has been to go out at night to the places where street kids hang around to look for anyone who needs help and make sure the kids know where to come if they have trouble.

In particular, he looks for the little kids and those who have newly arrived in the city, before they get caught up in the gangs and prostitution.

It's difficult and sometimes dangerous work, but I feel pretty strongly that it's also extremely important. And having a single staff member with all of that responsibility really isn't good enough. For every kid we meet, there are many more who we don't have the time to get to.

In Outreach, every case is urgent. Letting kids fall through the cracks can have severe consequences. This means that we need to have Outreach staff on call 24/7... Street kids don't normally stick to the 9-5 routine!

And so we conceived of holding an appeal to raise the money needed for expanding the service. The total goal was about $67,000: enough money to hire 2 new staff for 2 years; provide food, clothing and emergency care for the kids we find; offer a counseling service; and buy a 2nd hand car so that we can drive the kids back to their homes and reunite them with their families. (Nearly all of the kids on the streets of Hanoi have come from the countryside - often way up in mountainous regions).

I am HUGELY PLEASED to say this morning that we've made it. Our friends and sponsors around the world have agreed that this is important work, and sent the funds needed to double the number of street kids we reach every week.

We'll be contacting all of the donors in coming days to let them know. Donations have come in amounts from $5 to $15,000 - and every one of them has been greatly appreciated.

To our donors: Thank you. It's time now for the Blue Dragon team to get working on reaching more street kids and making good use of the support you've shown us.

A trip to the sea

They went, they swam, they conquered!

Blue Dragon's annual "Excellent Students Trip" was a great success. In total, 46 Blue Dragon kids traveled to Cua Lo Beach for 2 days of fun as a reward for their excellent results and behaviour at school.

The pictures say it all...

The "Tug of war" game ended up attracting the
entire beach to watch and cheer them on...

OK, I have no idea what's going on in this picture, but everyone looks happy

The games went on into the night...

Could this little girl look any happier??

The whole crowd on the beach

Outrageous

Child trafficking in Vietnam is rife.

Since 2005, Blue Dragon has been helping kids escape traffickers and get home to their families. So far we have helped 92 children escape from trafficking within Vietnam, and 9 girls and young women escape from sex trafficking in China.

When I say "trafficking within Vietnam," I mean kids being taken from their homes - almost always under false pretenses - to be put to work as slaves. The first kids we rescued were selling flowers in District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City; these days most of the kids we go looking for are working in garment factories.

We haven't even started on the issue of kids being trafficked to work in cocoa plantations or gold mines.

A report out by World Vision today finds that "for every trafficking victim subjected to forced prostitution, nine people are forced to work." And yet, because of the brutality of sex trafficking and the attention it has had in the media, most work by charities and agencies around the world focuses exclusively on stopping the sex trafficking. Relatively little work is being done to help the kids who are slaving away in the factories and farms, for little or no pay, in horrid conditions.

(See Tim Costello's article on this issue here).

This week, one of the Vietnamese newspapers has run a feature on the issue of kids in garment factories. The images they've captured are quite moving (and, from experience, I know how difficult it is to capture such footage - the factory owners do not appreciate people turning up with cameras).

Have a look at the article here - Tuoi Tre News - but a translation of the text is below.


Child Labor Article, Tuoi Tre Newspaper June 2011


... and here's the video clip with subtitles:





Anyone with half a conscience must be outraged by this.

School's out

The school year has ended here in Vietnam, and at Blue Dragon we like to celebrate our kids completing each year of school.

Last weekend we held the 'Closing Ceremony' for all the kids we support out in Bac Ninh province. These kids are part of a program we call Stay In School, because that's exactly what we help them to do: stay in school!

Bac Ninh is a rural province, not far from Hanoi but with a significant problem of students dropping out of school and subsequently being trafficked for labour exploitation. I once spoke to a truck driver who told me how much money he could make by transporting children aged under 16 to Ho Chi Minh City to work in factories. The bounty back then was about $25 per child.

We started helping kids in this area back in 2004. At first we were supporting just 75 children, mostly girls (as they are at higher risk than boys of dropping out of school). These days, we are helping close to 600, and our sponsors around the world pay for their uniforms, school fees, health insurance, books and stationery.

Our sponsorship system ensures that we help not only the individual children we've identified as needing support, but also the entire school. The students we support are spread across over 25 schools, from Grades 5 through to 12. So far we've built 2 libraries and provided desks, teaching equipment, and a whole range of supplies that the whole school community can benefit from. Next on our list is to build toilet blocks in one of the primary schools... and we're starting to offer university scholarships to the year 12 graduates, too.

At the end of the day, it's the kids who are most important, so last Sunday we took the opportunity to congratulate them for their success. Because there are so many kids, we held 2 ceremonies - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There was some singing and dancing, a few games on the stage, and of course gifts for everyone.

Holding an event like this shows the kids how important we think their success is. Those who did particularly well at school received a special certificate, but regardless of how they went everyone received some gifts to take home.

The 'Closing Ceremony' is a simple affair - well, as simple as an event for 590 children and teens can be - but it's an important way for us to acknowledge that the kids can and do succeed at school, in spite of whatever difficulties they may have in life.

Kids arriving for the Ceremony...

The community hall is packed!

These are the kids who did particularly well at school.
Each receives a certificate and extra gift from us.

The kids love to get up and sing!

A word of thanks

In recent months, Blue Dragon has been coming across many runaway children who've come to Hanoi from rural areas.

These are often very small children, aged up to 14 but tiny and looking frightfully vulnerable on the streets of the city.

Increasingly, we're finding that parents of runaway children are coming to Hanoi to look for their children, and the police are advising them to come and see us. This is something of an honour, and of course something we're more than happy to help with.

One such family from Hung Yen province approached us last month, desperate to find their son. They were plastering the city with "Lost" posters, having no other ideas of what they might do.

Thirteen year old Tri had run away after a small problem at school, and one small problem grew into a bigger problem... Eventually Tri was much too frightened to go home, but we were able to reconnect the child with his parents, and after a tearful reunion Tri went home and back to school.

Another happy ending!

Shortly after, Tri's father, Mr Han, sent us this letter - with the rough translation below. (I've removed identifying info, such as the full name and address). I thought this was worth posting...


Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Independence - Freedom - Happiness
Dear: Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation
Date: April 10, 2011
My name is: Han (35 years old)
Address: Hung Yen province

I would like to send my sincerest thanks to all staff at Blue Dragon because you helped me find my son, Tri. During the time my son away from home, he was cared for, and helped a lot by Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. And Blue Dragon also provided me all of his information, then helped us find our son.

Once again, on behalf of my family, I sincerely thank everyone in Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation.

Sincerely

Mr Han

Launched

Yesterday the Blue Dragon team did something we haven't done before: We launched a couple of books.

Over the past months we have been working on this as a side project to our legal advocacy work. Since about 2004 we've accumulated a wealth of experience in protecting the rights of children in Vietnam. Our work has included advocating for children in court... helping kids and their families obtain birth certificates... supporting young people who have been victims of crime... and even enrolling kids in school in cases where the schools have tried to deny them access.

So we wrote a book about all of these experiences, enticingly called: Guidelines for good practice in providing legal advocacy services for children who are in conflict with the law in Vietnam.

We then went a step further and wrote a comic book for kids, called Truoc Dot - or Slippery Slope - about a teenage boy getting into trouble with the police. Apart from the story, there's specific information for young people who are arrested.

Both of these publications are available for free on our website:

http://www.streetkidsinvietnam.com/publications/

The Guidelines are in both English and Vietnamese.

We're hoping that this launch will be a good start to helping other organisations in Vietnam learn from our successes and our mistakes.

Greening the Blue Dragon

Blue Dragon's Hue staff have been teaching the village kids about looking after the environment - starting with creating a garden right in our Youth Centre.

It's early days, but the kids are keen!

Choices

When Blue Dragon started back in early 2003, we were focused on helping street kids get off the streets and back into school or vocational training. Some were old enough to get jobs, and their most popular choice was in hospitality, where jobs are relatively easy to come by.

Over the years, the horizons of the kids coming to us have broadened. We're supporting one teenage girl to study Civil Engineering at university; we have teens studying Business Management, motorbike mechanics, and languages.

And, of course, we still have kids interested in hospitality and vocational training.

Our challenge is to help the kids with their career choices. It's rarely easy for young people to decide what they want to do with their lives; even moreso for kids who believe they don't have any chance at success anyway.

To deal with this, the Blue Dragon psychologist has been organising career orientation programs, involving field trips to places of business, and arranging weekend workshops at the Blue Dragon centre in Hanoi. Last weekend about 30 kids turned up to learn about a range of job options, including:

- cooking, with a presentation by a former street kid who now works as a chef at Don's Bistro

- mechanics, with trainees and staff of VIP Bikes sharing their experience

- hairdressing

- sales and marketing

- web design

... and a presentation about becoming a Social Worker, by one of our own.

Altogether, a very successful day!

The struggle

The last week has been pretty exciting.

Emails from around the world have been pouring in with heartfelt expressions of thanks and support. My whole team has been humbled by these; I only hope people realise how much these mean to us.

I'm on the road, and have been catching up with supporters in Western Australia, including Shenton College, some Rotary Clubs, and a couple of radio interviews.

Being 'on the road' is important to our work. Blue Dragon has no office or staff outside of Vietnam, so for us to raise the funds that we need to do our work, I need to get out and meet up with our supporters at least ince a year.

But as I travel about, each day reminds me that my heart really is back in Vietnam with the kids.

Of course, I like to write about the success stories on my blog - the stories of kids who make it, who change, who get out of terrible situations and thrive. These are the stories that get me going in the morning.

But very often, it's the stories of the kids who are really struggling to get by that occupy most of my time and attention. Being far from Vietnam, I rely entirely on my staff to keep me informed, and there's no greater joy than getting their emails with updates.

We've had 2 kids leave our Shelter this week, which is awfully hard on us. Both are kids who have lived for long periods on the streets, but have been with us now for 18 months and 4 years respectively. They've mostly been doing pretty well, but in the last weeks they just couldn't hold it together, and left for the streets.

Within days, they came back to ask for forgiveness.

Our hearts are bursting to say yes, to take them back, but we need the kids to know that their relationship with us really matters; that they can't just come and go. (For both of them, this is not the first time this has happened). And so, with the summer holidays beginning, we've told each of the boys to return to their villages where they have only distant relatives, and come back to us in a month.

This will be a tough month for them, but we want to see them do it. We want to see them struggle for a better life; take control of themselves and make a change.

We only hope that this strategy will work. And so, while I am in Australia, the 2 boys are in their villages. I guess each of us has to struggle with being away from where we want to be, and believe that our time away will be worthwhile.

The Spotlight

This week has certainly ended on a high note, with Blue Dragon's work being featured on CNN:

CNNHeroes.com

We haven't received a great deal of media attention until now, so it's quite exciting for our team to watch how people respond. So far we've been stunned by the outpouring of support from people around the world, and in particular people of Vietnamese origin living in other countries. (Thank you!)

I was in Ho Chi Minh City when the story broke, and a few hours later I caught up with a boy named Vu who I met living on the streets over a year ago but who now lives in a shelter and goes to school. He had no idea of why I needed to answer 50 emails - he clearly hasn't been watching CNN! - and really just wanted to go out for a sinh to (fruit shake). So the emails had to wait a while.

Although much of the focus of the story is on my own role in establishing and running Blue Dragon, the spotlight really needs to be shared with those people who have worked alongside me over these years: the volunteers, the staff, the donors, and all those who have made a contribution along the way.

And then, of course, there's the kids, who give meaning to what we do. Kids like Vu. Without them we're nothing.

So far...

Here's what Blue Dragon has done since we started in 2003:

To date, Blue Dragon has:
Sent 1,928 kids back to school and training
Provided accommodation to 109 girls and boys
Served 213,425 meals
Built or repaired 42 homes for families
Distributed 17,923 litres of milk
Handed out 23,454 kilos of rice
Reunited 84 runaway children with their families
Taken 733 kids to a doctor or hospital
Put 5 teens through drug rehab
Obtained legal registration papers for 557 children
Rescued 101 trafficked children
Placed 62 teens in jobs
Played 918 games of soccer

... I think we need to start planning our celebrations for the 1000th game of soccer!

The centre of the universe

A few weeks ago, I read a novel by Alan Philps and John Lahutzky: The boy from Baby House Number 10.

It's a terribly sad story about children with disabilities being abandoned and neglected in Russian institutions. Not a feel good story at all, but it is true and ends beautifully for the young man who is the focus of the book.

Throughout the novel, one of the narrators used a phrase several times that really caught my eye. When speaking of a little girl or boy who had given up on life and was either dieing or wasting away, the narrator would comment: "She was not the centre of anybody's universe."

Here at the Blue Dragon centre in Hanoi, I can see many kids who have come to us just so they can be the centre of someone's universe.

The really street-hardened kids usually do this by being loud and aggressive; they've learned over the years to take what they need by force, but once they're with us they gradually calm down. When they see that we care for them and pay attention to their needs even without their wild behaviour, they transform into completely different children.

Others come through our doors with their total lack of confidence written all over their faces. We have one young girl with us now, about 12 years old, who has been handed from family to family, used as a slave, abandoned and neglected. She sits on the carpet of the drop in centre playing card games with the staff so so quietly that nobody could guess the inner turmoil she must experience.

Increasingly we're meeting young teenage boys who have no male carers or role models other than gang members and drug dealers. These boys long to be the centre of someone's universe, and that longing makes them incredibly vulnerable to being exploited.

One of our staff, the young man who does our Outreach Work, always has half a dozen kids around him - teenage boys who have been abandoned or run away from home and want nothing more than a big brother to talk to and hang out with. From my point of view, it's much better that the kids find their "Big Brother" figure among the Blue Dragon staff than among the gangs around the Long Bien bridge.

We all need to be the centre of somebody's universe. For street kids in Vietnam, the most important role that Blue Dragon staff can play is letting the kids be the centre of ours.

Plans, plans, plans

I have just returned to Hanoi after a few days on the road in Hue and Hoi An. It was great to visit the kids we're helping in central Vietnam, catch up with the staff, and I even squeezed in a day riding down the Ho Chi Minh trail in a jeep with Rally Indochina.

Some of it was like this....


And then other bits were like this....


Overall, it was a brilliant day!

Back in Hanoi now, we're preparing for the end of the school year, which means kids are studying for exams and some of the older teens are thinking about what to do next. University? Jobs? Training? More schooling? It's great that we can offer them so many choices.

At the risk of sound like an advertisement, I want to mention a couple of events coming up in Australia and New Zealand.

First, in Wellington there'll a book fair held on Saturday May 7. More info is to be found here, on the Blue Dragon NZ website. The organisers are looking for donations of books and CD, and are happy for people to promote the event - the more people come, the better the day will be!

And second, there'll be a dinner in Melbourne on Tuesday May 24. This is being organised by a friend who used to volunteer with us. Intrepid has donated a grand prize for the event - a 10 day trip through Vietnam!



As always, lots happening...

The ride

You may have read of the Rally Indochina bike ride from Hanoi to Hoi An; 14 travelers from around the world riding Urals through some astonishingly beautiful countryside to raise money for Blue Dragon.

The trip is a bit more than half way now. One of the organisers has been uploading photos to his flickr site - they're definitely worth checking out.



There'll be more photos added each day. And if these pictures make you want to get on a motorbike and start riding through Vietnam, keep an eye on Rally Indochina. This is their first such rally - not their last.

Hip Hop of the day

A couple of kids showing their moves in the Blue Dragon centre...

When the floodgates open

One of the Blue Dragon boys - let's call him Trung - has increasingly been acting out in recent weeks.

Not that he's usually an angel ("he's a character" is what we would politely say in Australia), but Blue Dragon staff have noticed a fairly rapid shift in his behaviour. As each day goes by, Trung has been becoming increasingly aggressive, and throwing tantrums over the smallest problems.

Today I called him in for a chat with our most senior social worker.

We started out by watching a YouTube clip of a cat cuddling a dolphin. Just to let Trung know that this was not going to be a conventional "You've done something wrong and need to be punished" kind of chat. It seemed to work.

Then we got down to business.

We started by asking Trung if he had any idea why he was behaving like this. "You're not usually aggressive like this," we explained. "This is really unusual for you. Any idea what's been causing you to act this way?"

Straight away Trung launched into his justification: This person said that to me; that staff member did this wrong...

But clearly this was not the reason. So we put to him a proposition.

We know that Trung has had some major family issues in the past few months. He's recently had some experiences which have left him feeling alone and uncared for; still just a little kid, Trung has discovered that he'll be growing up without a mother, father, or even an extended family to call on.

Very gently, very tenderly, we put the question to Trung: Does he think that these experiences might be causing him to behave this way now?

Trung didn't need to answer with any words. No sooner had we asked the question than a floodgate opened and the tears started flowing.

Talking to Trung today was just the beginning of what will be a long healing process for him. Healing? Well, I hope so. Maybe it will just be 'coping', but I have to be optimistic and believe that he can get through this. Without a family to believe in you, it's very hard to grow up believing in yourself. We do our best here at Blue Dragon, but I know we can never take the place of a loving family.

Our work at Blue Dragon is so much more than running activities and providing material support. Some things we do just can't be quantified or measured. But those little things we do from day to day, those chats with the kids behind the scenes, really are what Blue Dragon is all about.