A death in the family

Wednesday morning started with a telephone call from one of the boys who lives in our residence.

Minh (not his real name) was calling me from his family home, by the Red River. His sister was dead, he told me; she’d been in a motorbike accident during the night and had died in hospital a few hours later.

Minh’s story is so sad and special. I’ve written about him before – see the link here. He was born in prison, and in a few weeks more he will start school, age 14, for the first time in his life.

But he’s a beautiful kid. He has a genuinely innocent nature; he cares about those around him, and he lives by his conscience. When you see the squalor and misery that he’s grown up in, on the banks of the river, surrounded by drug addicts and hardened criminals, it’s hard to see how he can still be such a little angel.

I hurried over to Minh’s house along with our lead social worker, Tung. Minh seemed stunned. He lost his father about 5 years ago, and now his 17 year old sister was so suddenly gone – here yesterday, gone today. Completely senseless.

We spent the morning waiting for news from Minh’s mother, who was at the hospital during the autopsy. Even now, there are several different versions of how the accident happened, so I’m not totally sure what the truth is. It looks like Minh’s sister was one of three people on a motorbike, certainly none with helmets, probably nobody had a licence, and it’s likely that they were involved in racing.

But that scenario is commonplace here. This death won’t make the news. It’s not even particularly noteworthy, in a city where you see dead bodies on the road at least once a week. By official estimates, 30 to 40 people die in traffic accidents every day in Vietnam. Add that to the thousands more who are injured and disabled, and you have a nation-wide plague that nobody seems too concerned about.

Every now and then, some company or NGO likes to shoot off a press release proclaiming their efforts to improve safety. There’s one organization that claims to have given out 150,000 helmets, for free, to primary school children throughout Vietnam. But spend an hour out on the streets, and you’ll be luck to see more than one or two people wearing them. More money down the drain. A quick and easy program to run, with plenty of photo opportunities, but no apparent effect. Certainly not for Minh’s family.

Today we went to the funeral – Nadine from Australia, Tung, and our lawyer Van came to support Minh. He stood bravely beside the coffin, his head swathed in a white bandage as a sign of respectful mourning. His little face is all puffed up from lack of sleep and too much crying.

We’ll see Minh back at the residence in a couple of days. For now, he just wants to spend time with his mother. I am sure she doesn’t realize how lucky she is to have such a good son.

Leaving the funeral, a big group of teenagers piled onto motorbikes – 4 teens on this bike, 3 on that one – and sped off out of the hospital. No helmets, no licences. Nobody seems to have wondered if maybe there’s a lesson to be learned from the otherwise senseless death of a 17 year old girl.

In the kitchen

Reaching boys through our street kids' program in Hanoi is pretty easy. In Vietnamese culture - as in most cultures - boys have plenty of freedom to roam about.

But girls rarely enjoy the same freedom. Families are more concerned about their safety when they are out on the streets, so keep them at home to look after infants, and prepare meals. A bit of a raw deal, from my point of view.

It means that girls are less likely to come by our drop-in center, unless we have a specific activity that we can invite them to. So earlier this year, when the Royal Thai Embassy organised a donation to Blue Dragon, we established a nutrition club for girls.

One part of this involves a cooking club every second Sunday. The girls are taught to cook food that they normally wouldn't experience making - like chocolate cakes, smoothies, and pasta. There's an emphasis on hygiene and nutrition, but the classes are fun and should produce at least as many smiles as calories.

Last Sunday, our guest cooking instructor was Alison Kember from New Zealand; and muffins were the order of the day!

Mmm... Muffins...

Hot in the city

We've had a tough week with illesses; some strange infection has been hitting the kids, leaving them with fevers that rise to over 40 degrees (that's 104 Farenheit), then dropping back to normal for a few hours before spiking again. Our houses have had a few extra residents, as so far each of the kids with the fever hasn't had a family to look after them. As I type tonight, one of the boys is on the floor beside me, hooked up to a drip. Poor kid...

But some happier news, too... On Friday and Saturday, about 20 of our kids went to stay in Cuc Phuong National Park. We invited all of the kids who recieved special awards from their schools to take a two-day trip the the countryside, where went bushwalking, searching for turtles and, I'm told, lots and lots of singing.

I'll post some photos as soon as I can...

Money well spent?

Over the past few weeks, an old friend of Blue Dragon from Australia has been volunteering with us - Doug Everett, a senior accountant who has come to us for the second time through Australian Business Volunteers. His job is to work with our accountant to finetune the accounting system, prepare for an audit, and help us draft budgets for the coming year. I don't really understand all that much, but I think I have worked out when to smile and nod.

I like to think of us as a low-budget, high-impact NGO. There aren't many groups around that can do what we do, with as little as we have. That's my boast, and I'm sticking to it.

So when another organisation comes along and announces a multi-million project, I'm pretty interested. And just a touch jealous.

This week a media release has come through the email from USAID, the American government's aid agency. They are working with MTV (yes, that's right. MTV) to distribute anti-trafficking messages throughout Asia. At a cost of about $14million USD.

OK, so that sounds like an innovative approach, right? Reaching out to young people through a popular medium to warn and educate them about the dangers of being trafficked between countries.

Except...

Well, except that I don't think people who have cable TV in their home are at very high risk of being trafficked. And I am not so sure the traffickers will be tuned in to MTV, either.

One of the teen girls we have been working with here in Hanoi has recently vanished; her family has no idea where she is and the word on the street is that she's been taken to China. If she has, she's in pretty serious trouble. Trafficking from Vietnam to China and Cambodia is all too common - it's a very long border, and obviously difficult to police. Once across the border, the stories are terrifying yet very predictable.

Let's hope that this young girl and her traffickers are somewhere with cable, so they get the message...

Am I overreacting? Does this seem like a good use of $14million?

Going, going...

Gone.

The 2 lovely ladies who were peddling heroin around the corner, and using orphaned street kids as salesmen, are gone.

Thank you, Ba Dinh police.

Gutter scum

Blue Dragon Children's Foundation is based in a neighbourhood that has a substantial drug problem. The authorities know about it, and they do what they can. We have two teenage boys currently in drug rehab. Seeing drug users shoot up is a part of our everyday life.


I don't judge drug addicts; I do believe that, unless they have a real choice in life, nobody should judge them harshly for doing what they do.


But today I am drawing a line.


Two blocks away from our center there are two ladies in their early thirties who peddle heroin on the streets. To avoid trouble with the police, they have started using a whole new strategy. They are recruiting orphan and homeless children as young as 12 to sell the drugs for them.

Last night, they beat one of their new recruits with a stick, and took a few slashes at his leg and neck with a knife. He's got plenty of deep bruises and cuts to prove it.


I don't care what kind of hardship these women have endured. I don't care what excuse they have for turning to drugs, and drug dealing, as the best choice they have in life.


Anyone who uses children to sell drugs is gutter scum. Trash.


Vietnam has zero tolerance for drugs. And the death penalty for drug trafficking.


We have started working with the police, and their response has been immediate. The dealers are still at work, but not for long. I am looking forward to the full weight of the law coming down on these animals who think that nobody cares about the kids.


More to come - watch this space.

On the up

Some great developments at Blue Dragon over the past couple of days.

On Monday, two Blue Dragon kids started work at The Vine, one of Hanoi's finest restaurants, as waiters. And then today, four more were accepted as trainee chefs! (That's the 4 cooks-to-be below, celebrating with a fruit shake after their job interviews).

And this afternoon, the young guy below, Manh, was reunited with his father after spending about a month on the run in Hanoi. Manh and his dad spent some time sorting out their differences with the help of our chief psychologist, Khanh, and lef tus resolved to get things right. We wish them well!

Flat out

It's Thursday night, and I have spent the whole week so far studying the ceiling. Not that the ceiling is so interesting, but I managed to pull a muscle in my back - probably while practicing for the Olympic gymnastic team. Or something.

This means, of course, that I have not seen much action at Blue Dragon over the past few days. But I do hear bits and pieces from the kids who walk in to my office to look sympathetic and give me advice on what I'm doing wrong. Thanks guys.

There is something pretty exciting going on, though. Late last year, the Irish Embassy gave us a grant to open a computer lab, staffed with a full time IT guru. And then, early this year, a British company called Springboard4Asia gave us accreditation to train our kids in ICDL - the International Computer Driving Licence.

Normally, street kids are given a very simple choice of training options: motorcycle repair (if you're a boy), and sewing (if you're a girl). There's nothing wrong with either of those vocations, but there IS something wrong with the assumption that, somehow, all people from disadvantaged backgrounds are only capable of them.

In coming days, 8 of our kids - 4 girls and 4 boys - will go to a testing center and sit the exam. If they do well, they will have an internationally recognised certificate attesting to their computer literacy.

I'm really looking forward to the results... Now if only I can get up to go congratulate them...

Hieu and Thao’s comeback

In December 2005, Blue Dragon was building a house for a family in Bac Ninh province. The younger son, Hieu (then aged 14), was supported through our sponsorship program to attend school. Thao, then aged 16, had quit school at Grade 4 to support his chronically ill mother, Mrs Tat. Their house was in such bad condition that it urgently needed to be rebuilt.

On December 27, just weeks after the new building had been started, Mrs Tat died in her old home.

Thao and Hieu had little choice but to be brave and strong. They did a great job of it, too. In the following days, all sorts of relatives turned up to look at their land and their new house under construction, and to drop very blunt hints that the boys should repay a debt of gratitude by handing over the house, or some land. My staff and I were shocked by the outrageous display of greed, and we sent our lawyer in to make sure that Thao and Hieu didn’t lose any of their inheritance. Even their father, who hadn’t been around for 10 years, put in appearance and started talking about taking over the house.

The house was finally finished, with some help from Aussie school students and some of Thao and Hieu’s own friends. Blue Dragon started supporting the boys with extra money for rice and clothing, and Thao went looking for seasonal jobs. Things were looking bleak. None of us knew how these teenagers could possibly get through.

It’s now about 18 months since Mrs Tat died. And despite all the hardships, things are looking up for her sons.

Hieu has just passed his Grade 9 exams, and will enter Grade 10 in September. For a child in his situation, it’s very rare to carry on at school.

Thao has finally landed on his feet. Thanks to our volunteer mechanic Andrew, Thao has picked up a traineeship as a welder in a foreign-owned company in Hanoi. Up until recently, he’s been going home to the countryside every second weekend to see his little brother – but he hasn’t been going more frequently because the bus trip takes too long, and he gets travel sickness.

But this week, a teacher living in Hanoi named Andrea donated her motorbike to Thao; Andrea is leaving Vietnam soon, and wanted her bike to go to a good cause. Now that he has a bike, Thao can return home every weekend, as the trip will only take about 45 minutes.

You can never tell what will happen next in life. And of course, Thao and Hieu’s story is far from over. But it’s great to see them doing so well now, and making the most of the opportunities that they have.

Let the hols begin

School holidays have kicked off, which means the Blue Dragon center is bursting at the seams with kids trying to escape the steamy summer. (Cry for help - we really need a much bigger building!)

We are running plenty of extra classes and activities, and are planning a trip to a national park for our kids who received certificates of excellence from their schools. The pix below are to show you what life is like in our center.

1000 miles

Today I am writing about a 'street man' from the UK rather than a 'street kid' from Vietnam...

Iain Purdie is a full-time traveller who stopped in Hanoi long enough last year to design our web page and help out in the drop in center for a few months. Somehow, late one night, he found himself announcing that he would walk the last 1000 miles of his world journey, in order to raise money for Blue Dragon.

He already regrets that he comes from a country that uses 'miles' rather than 'kilometers'. But a couple of people have started sponsoring him to do this... which means he cannot back out.


Iain is keeping a blog of events here; check it out and see what he's on about. The photo below was taken last time he was in Hanoi. He stayed at the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel and when the owners knew what he was up to, they kicked in $200. (That's me with one of the owners of the hostel, another Aussie named Michael).



Iain will soon be taking to the streets in an effort to raise money for Blue Dragon's work with street kids. Drop him a line... let him know someone is watching him!

The return visit

Back in February, I visited the home of Australia's Ambassador to Vietnam, Bill Tweddell.

Bill and his wife Chris had organised a special afternoon tea - not for me, though! It was to farewell one of the Blue Dragon kids, Quang and his mother, Trang.

Quang and Trang were about to fly to Brisbane, where Operation Smile was to remove a neurofibroma (a type of benign cancer) from Quang's face.

From their tiny home on the filthy bank of the Red River in Hanoi to the Martyr Hospital in gorgeous Brisbane is a massive leap. But Trang and Quang did it. They flew to Australia, they endured the pain of the surgery, they spent a month convalescing in the home of a Vietnamese Australian, and finally they flew home.

Quan's face is still swollen, but gradually shrinking back to a normal shape and size. So slowly...

Last night, we made a return visit to see Bill and Chris Tweddell. In the midst of a billion other events and meetings that make up the life of an ambassador, they took time out to sit and chat with Quan and Trang about their experiences in Australia. In the pic below, Bill and Chris are seated; I'm the tall guy and beside me is Phuong, a Blue Dragon social worker.

Despite the remaining swelling, Quan's life is back on track. After a two year break, he'll return to school in August, and to prepare him for that we're planning to hire a tutor to help him revise his studies. As time goes by, the memory of his facial deformity will become more distant, and Quan can finally have a 'normal' life.

Last night's get-together was a most appropriate way of marking this new phase in Quan's life.

Multimedia

Here's a link to an article about a Blue Dragon volunteer, Andrew Souto, who works with us a mechanic trainer... A significant part of our work that not many people know about!

http://www.vidavolunteers.com.au/aspx/news_article.aspx?id=23


And while we're at it... Some AMAZING students from United World College in Singapore spent some time with our kids back in March - teaching rollerskating, and painting a house. Here's a movie they've posted in YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FlzN3oWfe6o

Getting there

In November 2005, Blue Dragon Social Worker Bich received a telephone call from a former street kid named Hieu. On his way to work past Hoan Kiem Lake, he had stumbled across one of his old friends, an older boy named Hung, who had been missing for many months.

Hieu asked us if we could come down to the lake to help Hung. He was sick, Hieu said, and unable to walk.

What Hieu did not realise was that Hung had advanced tuberculosis. When Hung was brought back to the drop in center, we were all shocked by his appearance. Previously Hung had been unusually tall and strong for a Vietnamese teenager; now he was hunched over, and bone thin except for his horribly swollen feet and lower legs.

Hung had contracted the disease in a rehabilitation center, and was released only a week or so before we found him. He doesn't recall much about that week, other than that sympathetic passersby gave him enough food and money to survive.

As our staff rushed Hung to the doctor, and then to the TB hospital, I remember thinking that we were facing our first death in Blue Dragon, and wondered how we could comfort all of Hung's old friends. I wasn't being dramatic; Hung was barely a step away from death.

The doctors were realistic about his chances; they told us not to expect too much, but they would try. And so they did. Blue Dragon hired a carer to sit by his bedside in the hospital for some months, and slowly Hung regained his strength.

But that wasn't the end of the story. After release from hospital, Hung was living in a Blue Dragon home and continuing to take his medication. But after some months, his condition deteriorated: he had developed TB meningitis.

This time, the doctors at the TB hospital weren't so helpful. They refused to readmit Hung, insisting he just needed some more exercise or some iron tablets. The fact that Hung couldn't stand up and was hallucinating didn't seem to bother them.

Finally our staff convinced them to accept Hung, and so he started his second stint in hospital. Once again, he remained in their care for some months, and when he was released he went to live in another Blue Dragon home with somebody to look out for him around the clock.

Hung is seriously weakened by these conditions, and he might never return to 'normal' health. So our staff have had to look far and wide for a place that can train and develop Hung despite his reduced physical capacity.

Two weeks ago, Hung started learning handicrafts in a training center for people with disabilities. The work is simple, but given his condition, and the fact that he is illiterate, there are no better choices for him at present.

Hung seems happy, and is learning quickly. He lives at the center where he works, and the staff are treating him well.

What would have come of Hung if not for the TB? And what would have come of him if Hieu had not found him and called us..?

Hung will still be recovering for some time yet. He's off the medication, but still needs to visit the hospital every month. And with every passing day, he's going to be a tiny bit better. He may not be fully recovered, but he's getting there.

Gettin' our hands dirty

Meet 13 year old Duong. He lives with his father (pictured) and mother in a little house in suburban Hanoi.

Duong has an intellectual disability, so Blue Dragon supports him to attend a special school called Vo Thi Sau.

As well as being disabled, Duong has the double disadvantage of growing up in a family that is quite poor. His dad is not well enough to work, so his mother is the sole breadwinner: she works, when work is available, as a housemaid for her neighbours.

Some of our social workers came up with a plan to bring some cheer to a gloomy situation: Paint the house!

Yesterday, a team of social workers, uni students, and 4 street kids from our center spent the day scrubbing, painting and rebuilding. That's the group below, with the exception of Mr Hai who took the photo. This is the 'after' shot - notice the difference!

The nice new look for the house was intended as more than a paint job. It was our way of showing this family that we care for them. It also gave some of our street kids, who receive a lot of help from us, to give back to the community.

A happy day for all. I hope we'll be doing more projects like this soon.

Something old, but new

I first travelled to Hoi An, in Central Vietnam, as a backpacker in 2000. At that time, I had no idea that I'd eventually live in Vietnam and work with street children.

With Hoi An, I had no 'love at first sight' experience. One of the first things I did there was book a ticket to leave. The town itself struck me as being beautiful, but somebody tried to rob me (inside my hotel room!) and some of the street vendors were driving me crazy.

But something changed: I met a family. "Big Nam", the head of the household, was selling ceramics in front of his shabby, run down house. He was very poor, but had taken in a street kid - "Baby Nam" - and was raising him as a son. This family was so warm and welcoming that I changed my mind - and my ticket - very quickly. My love affair with Hoi An had begun.

I've been back there at least 20 times since. It's where I spend my holidays, and my favourite place to go to the beach. Hoi An is very quiet, with its own pleasant pace of life and a very relaxed attitude.

While I'm there, I usually visit a children's center, called Cahors. About 30 girls and boys live together under the supervision of the elderly Mrs Diep. She's been there since the center opened, about 12 years ago. The kids are orphans, or from extremely poor families in the districts around Hoi An.

As a Center, there's obviously a welfare aspect to Cahors. The children live there, eat there, and grow up there. But the real reason that the kids are at Cahors is to go to school. Without the Center, they'd be street kids.

Cahors is a great place, but has been seriously under-resourced for some years. Different groups have pitched in to help - NGOs, local associations, and individuals - but Mrs Diep and the kids never know how their next set of bills will be paid.

Over the last few days, I have been in Hoi An again. This time, I was not on holiday. This trip was about Blue Dragon getting involved in the running of the Center, to help out with the long term needs.

Blue Dragon has been involved at the Center for some years already. A few months back, when the roof blew off the building, I posted a blog and some good friends sent some money to get the place fixed. Long before that, I've been visiting the kids, providing bicycles at times, and helping out with small needs here and there. So our involvement there is nothing new: but we're about to start working in a new way.

If all goes to plan, Blue Dragon will begin working there on a permanent basis, starting in April. We'll be taking our unique social work and psychology program to the kids, which means individual planning and a 'whatever it takes' approach to getting kids out of poverty.

The really great part to all this is that the Center's children will be the winners. They come from difficult backgrounds, which for various reasons mean that they can't go on living with their families. Living at a children's Center is only a second best solution. Our goal is to make it worthwhile and fulfilling for everyone there.

I'm off

Time to head south...

Today I'm heading out of Hanoi with some key members of Blue Dragon to work on our project in Hue. On Tuesday we'll head to Hoi An to talk with officials there about supporting a street children's program.

Will write an update when I return!

He's in!

Our first day back after the long weekend started with some GREAT NEWS.

One of our kids, a boy named Ky, has been accepted into the KOTO training program.

Ky was a shoeshine boy for some years, and turned up at our weekly football game one Sunday in early 2005. His background is tougher than many of the kids we have met, and he's had a really difficult time over the last year and a bit. When we first knew him, his behaviour was kinda unpredictable, but we were patient and forgiving... and expected him to improve. So he did.

This latest milestone sets him on a path to develop his vocational skills over 18 months, preparing him for a career as a chef or a waiter.

Being accepted into KOTO is an accomplishment in itself. KOTO is a foreign-owned training restaurant, with limited placements and a reputation for high quality. It's almost certainly the best hospitality training organisation in Vietnam. Only one Blue Dragon kid has been accepted into KOTO before today.

And so, Ky is moving on... but never leaving. He'll move out of our residence in coming weeks, as KOTO trainees have their own accommodation. But he will still be part of our family, and I guess I'll be going to eat at KOTO more often now.

Newcomers

It's May Day!

This is a long weekend in Vietnam, so the pace at Blue Dragon has slowed for a few days.

Over the last 2 weeks, we've had some newcomers to Blue Dragon who are still settling in as part of the family.

Hung arrived first; he has lived in Hanoi for a few months, working as a shoeshine and living under bridges. I accompanied him home on Thursday last week to reunite with his family; but the final outcome was that he should return to the city to live and study.

Next came Cuong... One of the quietest street kids I have ever met. He's been on the streets for 3 years, and we still have a bit to learn about what he's been through. Seems to be a great kid, though.

And today's newest arrival is Bear! Some of the Blue Dragon kids returned to their countryside over the weekend, and this morning one boy, Nghia, arrived at 7am with a pup. My own dog, Wheels, isn't quite sure what to make of this new situation, but it looks like Bear is here to stay. (That's Nghia holding Bear).

Turn around

Procrastination! Drug of the nation... It's been far too long since I blogged, and my list of excuses is long but totally uninteresting.

Unlike events this week - which have been hugely interesting.

ON WEDNESDAY, I travelled to Bac Ninh to meet the province level Red Cross and chat about the progress of our sponsorship program. All very good and well. Then in the afternoon I went to see some children who had previously run away to Hanoi, and we helped them return to their families.

One of the children was a boy named Duong, about 12 years old, who we met in Hanoi just last month. His father beats him badly - and often - so even though Duong went home, we are worried about what will come of him.

The father clearly had mixed feelings about me and my colleague turning up to tell him how to raise his son. So we were relaxed, and won him over with some smiles before giving some friendly advice about how to deal with 'young people these days'. I won't fool myself into believing we've solved all of that family's problems, but I hope that we had a bit of an impact.

THIS MORNING saw another moving case to deal with. In January last year, I was blogging about the many children in our program who were mugged and robbed in the lead-up to Lunar New Year.

Each time one of our kids was mugged - often in daylight, once with a knife - my staff and I would try to track down the robber and get the money back. We were usually successful.

One of the muggers came to see me today to ask for help. He has a heroin addiction, and is desperate to get off. A few years ago he spent 8 months in rehab, but before long he was back with a needle up his arm.

He happens to know Binh, who we helped through rehabiliatation last year, and came asking if we could do the same for him.

After a very long meeting - it's on. He flies to Saigon on Saturday, he's said goodbye to his family already, and we have a rough plan for what to do when he gets out in a year or so.

It's going to be an expensive process; the cost will be somewhere around $2000, which is about 3 times the national GDP. But then, it's only a small amount to give somebody back their whole life.

Medical Mission

This is a message especially for readers based in Vietnam!

Vietnam Family Medical Practice (with branches in Saigon, Danang and Hanoi) are organising a medical mission to rural Quang Binh Province. This is a charitable act that they undertake on their own goodwill, but it's also a great opportunity for others to make a contribution.

They are calling for donations of medication, rice, food, personal hygiene products, eg shampoo, soap, toothbrushes/paste, children clothing and toys - or the money to buy them. They're also hoping to be able to provide some pigs to villages, to address protein shortages. (Any pigs out there who want to volunteer?)

If you can help - contact the Practice on: kien@vietnammedicalpractice.com.

Must be something in the stars

There's a U2 song I like called "Some days are better than others."

Around Blue Dragon, a more suitable title would be "Some days are stranger than others."

Yesterday was one of those days. For absolutely no reason I can see, it was simply destined to be more bizarre than usual.

From the start of the day to its very late end, we dealt with 7 runaway boys. Some have been living in Hanoi for months or even years, but come out of the shadows from time to time, covered in filth and oozing from open wounds. They always refuse medical help, but are happy to have a hot shower and sit about chatting and munching chocolate before disappearing again down the alleyways.

There were some 'new' runaways as well. One boy, named Duong, was from nearby Bac Ninh province. He'd had an argument with his dad and wanted to punish him by running away for the day. But Duong caught the wrong bus, and didn't arrive at his uncle's house in the next village; he found himself at Long Bien market in Hanoi, with no money to pay the return fare home.

Of course, when he met us, he didn't tell us all this straight away. When we first started helping runaways, it would take up to 2 weeks for them to open up to us like that. These days it's much quicker - Duong broke down and told his life story in less than 6 hours. But that was an emotion-packed 6 hours, and as I said, he wasn't the only runaway with us.

While the staff and I were talking to these boys, another of our kids rushed in to warn us that a young man had been acting suspiciously outside; he'd been pacing the street for at least 15 minutes, and had also been sitting watching our center from a distance. I hopped on to a motorbike straight away and scoured the streets, but our mystery man was gone - it's very easy to vanish in the thousands of narrow alleys of our suburb.

A few hours later, as I was walking home after dinner, I ran into a young guy we know who has a bit of a weird history with Blue Dragon. He mugged one of our kids once, in broad daylight, and when I found out where he lived I made his family pay back the money he had stolen. (We even got a note of apology!) This guy is a drug addict, about 20 years old, and last night he was floating in the clouds when I met him. Putting 2 and 2 together, I worked out that he was probably the man who had been watching our house earlier - and yep, the kids confirmed that it was him for sure.

But there's a twist to the tale: it seems that the young guy might be trying to ask us to help him go to rehab. That's definitely not what he was asking for when I spoke to him, but some of our other kids have told us that he's been sounding them out about the possibility. Nothing is ever straightforward. Looks like I'll have to pay another visit to the family, but this time will be a much friendlier occasion than the last.

So we all finished the day pretty exhausted. We still have kids down with the chicken pox (C'mon guys, who's next?) and in the midst of it all our two lawyers, Van and Hong, are preparing their wedding - for this weekend!

It's a satisfying feeling to see the Blue Dragon team dealing so well with such complexities. But I am hoping that the next few days are just a little more sane.

Back to Nam

The last couple of weeks have gone by in an incredible blur.

Early in March, I headed to Australia to see my family, attend a fundraising dinner, and spend time with young Quan, who went to Brisbane for surgery on his face. It was an extremely busy three weeks, but all with good results.

Quan is out of hospital already and relaxing in the home of his host family. His mother has been very stressed, but she can now see the outcome: the neuro-fibroma is gone, and soon the swelling and pain will be gone too. Quan should return to Vietnam in about 10 more days.

The fundraising dinner, organised by the Vietnamese community in Sydney, was spectacular - over 700 people attended, including my niece and nephews! (Aren't I a proud uncle?) The money we raised will be used to support more children in central and southern Vietnam.

While I was in Australia, our kids in Hanoi were hit by a chicken pox epidemic, which also laid up some of the staff. Ouch. Our center has also been affected by the rolling blackouts that are hitting the whole city... although the electricity has been fine since I got back. Fingers crossed that the problems get sorted out.

Our next big challenge is to find a new center in Hanoi where we can all fit in. Our current building is way too small for the number of kids who visit us each day, and we never seem to have enough classrooms. The search for a new home has already begun, but I imagine it will take a while. I look forward to the day I announce our big move.

A few other interesting things have been going on... I will get back to regular blogging now, and write more in coming days.

On another street

Many of Blue Dragon's friends and supporters around the world know - or at least know about - a 15 year old boy named Quan, who has a benign but very large tumour growing on one side of his face. Just recently, I wrote about Quan here.

Quan is in Brisbane now; only a 10 hour flight, but a world away from his home in Hanoi. His mother, Trang, has come as well, and they are preparing for surgery this Saturday at Brisbane's Martyr Hospital. If all goes well, the tumour will be removed and Quan can get back to a normal life.

It's truly amazing how many people around the world have pitched in to help Quan. Some friends from Catholic Relief Services in America have donated money; Operation Smile in Australia has organised the doctor and the use of the hospital; and an Australian-Vietnamese family has provided free board and lodging for Quan and Trang for 6 weeks.

Over the last few days, some Vietnamese newspapers in Australia have written about Quan's journey and treatment. Since then, he has been approached by complete strangers, Australians of Vietnamese descent or origin, who want to help. I heard one story today of a man who saw Quan in a shop and tried to give him $20; he cared so much that his first instinct was to give. I know that Quan tried to refuse the money, but I am not sure who got their way!

A Blue Dragon volunteer, Skye, who has finished her volunteering assignment with us, is accompanying Quan and Trang on their trip. Even though she's exhausted after 12 months of intense work at the Blue Dragon centre, Skye is hanging in there for a couple more weeks to ensire that Quan and his mother are well taken care of.

What do Quan and Trang make of all this? I can't imagine. Such an outpouring of concern and compassion must be overwhelming, at the very least. Sadly, they are more used to discrimination and rejection than to random acts of kindness.

The above pic is of Quan and Skye, taken by a great friend, Alison Vidotto.

Get out of here, Spielberg

... Because the Blue Dragon kids are taking over!

Late last year, the Irish Embassy in Vietnam donated funds for us to start up an IT center. Among other subjects, our kids have been learning to make movies.

Here's their very first movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l88P1GR_LpI

It's HUGE, I tell ya

A couple of months ago, some great volunteers, Kai and Nate, created a short film about the work of Blue Dragon Children's Foundation.

At long last... here's the link. It's about 5 minutes, and features Chinh (a former shoeshine boy), Phuong (a female social worker) and me (Brad Pitt wannabe).

Take a look - but look at Nate and Kai's other films, too. They are two highly talented guys...

http://hugeinasia.com/2-8-07.html

One at a time

One of my usual boasts is that Blue Dragon's work in Vietnam is unique. Our trademark approch, which differs from everybody else's in the country, is that we do case work: we develop IAPs (Individual Assistance Plans) for each of the kids in our program.

This is very effective, but the downside is that our programs are relatively more expensive than other charities in Vietnam. And with very limited funding, we always face the issue of whether we should reduce the level of support we give each child by moving to a more standard, 'one size fits all', approach.

In short, though, it's not going to happen. The kids we deal with have very different needs. Two cases that we've been working on lately highlight this.

The first is the case of a 13 year old boy who was born in prison, where he spent the first five years of life. He's never been to school, and seemed to be illiterate. He is unable to write anything, even numbers, and he's the first child I've ever met who cannot write his name.

But - and this is a big 'but' - he chats online.

My own training is as an English teacher, and I've sure never come across anything like this before. When you put this boy in front of a computer, he can type away for hours. There's nothing he can't do. It's just that he's never been taught to read and write on paper.

The second case is of a 16 year old runaway boy who we met last week. He was brought to us by another street kid, who saw him sleeping on the street and invited him to our center. It turned out that the boy had run away some time ago - I'm not sure exactly how long, as you'll soon understand - and had just come out of a detention center, so had no money or resources at all.

After getting to know the boy, Blue Dragon staff convinced him to make contact with his family, and he subsequently decided to go home. All pretty usual stuff. One of the staff members joined him for the 4 hour trip home to make sure the reunion went well.

And it did... but (here we go again) there was one obstacle to get through. The mother did not recognise her own son. She was so uncertain that the boy standing on her doorstep was really her son that she demanded to see some identification or proof. Once she was convinced, the tears started to flow - from both mother and son. And my staff helped sort out a few of the problems that had led the young guy to running away in the first place.

One size fits all? I just can't see how it would work. I'd rather spend some more and make sure we get results.

Ready to fly

A big day is approaching fast...

One of our young guys, named Quan, is flying to Australia mid next week with his mother.

Quan has a growth on his face that is totally harmless, health-wise, but has left him with a terrible disfigurement that is embarrassing and has already been a hindrance to him being accepted into schools.

Within coming weeks, doctors at Martyr Hospital in Brisbane will remove the growth and restore Quan's face to the way it should be.

This is hugely exciting for Quan and his family; a chance for life to get back to normal!

The photo below is of Quan and his mother with the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, Bill Tweddell, and his wife Chris. (Oh yeah, I'm in there too, along with Blue Dragon Social Worker Phuong, and volunteer Skye).

We had afternoon tea at the Ambassador's residence as a way of marking this great step forward in Quan's life. He and his mother were treated like royalty, and left the residence with extra confidence for the journey that lies ahead.

Soon they'll be flying, for the first time in their lives, and spending the next 6 weeks in Brisbane. Skye will accompany them on the flight, and I'll meet them in Brisbane shortly after the operation.

And when we all get back: another afternoon tea with the Ambassador's family. Can't wait to blog about that one...

Sinking the traffic

In November 2005, Blue Dragon rescued a young boy from child traffickers who had taken him from his village by the beach in Hue to Saigon, where he was a virtual slave.

Friends around the world who have been following the story will know that Ngoc is now 13, and studying at a special school which uses an accelerated curriculum, as he had never been to school before in his life.

A couple of weeks ago, some friends of Ngoc travelled with us to Hue to visit him in his family home. Jutta and Johann are a German couple who met Ngoc when he was working in Saigon; they desperately tried to help him, but because they never stayed for longer than a few weeks all of their efforts fell flat.

The main reason that Ngoc was originally trafficked is that his family is extremely poor; his father is a fisherman who was earning from $12 - $40 per month. For this, he would be at sea 15 days at a stretch, with a 2 day break at the end to see his family before setting out again.

But no more.

With some help from Blue Dragon staff, Johann and Jutta bought a boat for Ngoc's father. On his first day, he caught $12 worth of fish. And he was only away from home for a few hours.

That's Ngoc below, with Johann and the boat. Now, if only we could do this for all of the families...

Going home

Lunar New Year - Tet - is officially over, and it's now the Year of the Pig. I have no idea what that means, other than it's apparently a great year to have a baby.

Vietnam shuts down for Tet, although the lead-up to the holiday is the most maniacal shopping-spree you can imagine: thousands of people buying trees, flat-screen TVs, and furniture, and carrying it all home on motorbikes.

Blue Dragon didn't really shut down this year. Our Residence closed, but we still had kids with nowhere to go, so they ended up staying at the HQ watching DVDs and riding bikes around town. A few of us worked through, ploughing through piles of admin that have been glaring us in the face for too long.

Tet is the time that everybody goes home to their families, and that mostly means visiting the countryside. For our kids, Tet can be a difficult time, as they don't all have families, or families who will welcome them home.

Shortly before Tet, a 12 year old boy came to our centre and asked for help to go home. He had runaway from home four years earlier, and had not seen his family since. Apart from a few months in a detention centre, this boy had spent the whole time sleeping on the streets, in trees, and under bridges.

We accompanied him back to the countryside and found his family, who were astonished to see him again. They were sure he was dead. But now he's back home, and will return soon to school. Looks like a happy ending.

On the very first day of the Tet holidays, one of our street kids turned up at the centre with a child he had 'found' roaming the streets collecting scrap. The little guy (pictured) is 11 years old, and had run away from home two months earlier. He stayed with us over the new year, and yesterday our laywer, Van, accompanied him back to his family home near the Chinese border.

These runaway cases are always incredibly complex and sensitive. So much could go wrong... And we don't even have funding or staff specifically for this role of working with runaways and reuniting them with their families. But I can honestly say that this part of our work is the most rewarding of all.

Heroes

The past week has had some amazing events...

Last Wednesday we held our annual Lunar New Year celebration for the 160 boys and girls in our Hanoi program: The Second Annual Blue Dragon Children's Foundation Tet Awards Night.

Two hours of presentations, drama by the kids, guitar recitals, and (not too many) speeches.

Tet Awards is an unusual event. People may wonder why getting all the kids together in a hall and handing out gifts and certificates, half-Oscars / half-school-graduation style, would be such an important occasion.

But for our kids, it's the one time of the year that they can be recognised for their achievements. They all have a turn coming on to the stage and being congratulated; some by Ambassadors and special guests. Tet Awards is a fun-filled night, but it's also very emotional and significant for the children.

I promise to post some pics as soon as I get them!

And today, another momentous occasion.

Many readers have been following the story of "Binh", who went into drug rehab last March. This morning, Binh returned triumphant to Hanoi. He's a totally new person: he's all smiles, he's confident, and there's no evidence at all that this kid was ever an addict.

Binh is very special to us here at Blue Dragon, and his return home is a cause for great celebration. Of course, we are not naive, and we know that there may still be obstacles ahead. But we're off to a great start...

I'm a big man, look at me!

Tet is looming... Lunar New Year, the one major holiday in Vietnam that the country really cherishes. Preparations have started, although Day One of the new year isn't until February 17. On the 17th, and for at least a few days afterwards, Vietnam will come to a stand still. It's a beautiful time to be in the country.

But the next weeks will be anything but beautiful. Everyone is madly racing around buying furniture or clothes, renovating their home, looking for the trees people traditionally put in their homes, washing their motorbikes, and visiting the relatives they've been avoiding since last Tet.

Here at Blue Dragon, we had an idea to help out one of our neighbours. Mrs Thanh lives close to our HQ, and gets around town in a wheelchair. Her chair has three wheels, and is driven by a hand-pumping mechanism.

We support Mrs Thanh's two kids to go to school, as the money she earns from selling soft drinks on the street at night is a pittance. She's had a tough life; she lost the use of her legs in a bomb blast during the Vietnam-America war, and has spent all of her life in poverty.

When I first met her, Mrs Thanh lived in a slum that she had built herself. Last year, the local council demolished the entire slum settlement - some hundreds or thousands of homes - and relocated all of the residents. Home owners were given advanced notice, and allocated a fairly generous compensation for their loss of a home.

Except Mrs Thanh.

Somehow, she was overlooked when it came to paying compensation. The money, which would have set her up for the rest of her life, has never appeared. Go figure!

So she's had to move from home to home, renting cheap places with dirt floors and holes in the roof.

On Friday last week, some of us decided to offer a small gesture to Mrs Thanh: an overhaul of her wheelchair. The plan was to wash it, replace the cushions, fix up the brakes and steering, and repaint it.

Step One: Wash it.

At the end of our street is the Group Leader's home. He's elected or appointed to oversee security on the street; it's his job to deal with neighbourhood complaints and report to the police the goings-on of residents and visitors. And he happens to run a small business, washing vehicles.

Some of our kids took Mrs Thanh's wheelchair to him, asking him to wash it. For money, of course, because that's his business.

But - no. He refused to wash the wheelchair.

"But we'll pay you."

"I don't wash wheelchairs."

"Please?"

"No. No wheelchairs."

End of story. It would seem that Tet is not a time for charity.

I still feel confused as to why this guy should refuse a fairly simple job. Some of my staff have suggested that it's because he would feel inferior by washing a wheelchair. He wants to be seen washing a Mercedes, or an expensive motorbike, not a rusty old wheelchair owned by a poor disabled woman.

So, he's a big man, and apparently too big to condescend to such a task.

This week, Blue Dragon is going to use this incident to teach a bit of community spirit to our kids. We're going to ask our kids to contribute a few cents each to pay for new cushions, paint, and any parts needed in the repairs. We're going to wash the bike ourselves.

And we're going to show Mrs Thanh that people do care for her.

Hellooooo Singapore

Time for another plug!

United World College in Singapore is holding its annual fundraiser for charity in Vietnam, and part of their funds will be donated to Blue Dragon.

The students have planned a HUGE night at the Grand Hyatt on Saturday April 28. Everything is organised by the students of UWC - an amazing event. Go there! Have good night!

Their web site has all the details: http://alumni.uwcsea.edu.sg/general/announce.asp

World peace achieved; but so what?

Forget world peace. Something much bigger happened today at Blue Dragon.

Two things, in fact. And I swear I am not exaggerating.

FIRST: Quan and his mum got a visa to go to Australia!

Quan is a wonderful, bright 15 year old boy who lives with a large tumour on one side of his face that grows visibly every month. He's been braver and bolder than most teenagers I have met, but the deformity has certainly held him back from achieving his potential. One school even refused to accept him last year.

In March, however, the tumour will be permanently removed by some BRILLIANT doctors in Brisbane. The final hurdle in this incredibly challenging marathon was obtaining a visa; today, that obstacle has been cleared.

Quan is on his way to a whole new life.


AND SECOND: Blue Dragon's lawyer, Van, travelled to the countryside to reunite a boy with his family, after FOUR YEARS on the run.

The little guy, named Dzung, says he's 14, but he can't be much older than 12. He's tiny, and has spent the past four years sleeping on the streets, in trees, and under bridges. Plus about 13 months in prison.

Tonight, he's sleeping with his family.

And Van is still in the countryside - seems the journey from Hanoi took a bit longer than expected. Or maybe the real reason is in his text message: "It's so hard to say goodbye..."

This has to be the best job on earth.

I can't believe it IS butter!

An important part of our philosophy at Blue Dragon is that family members should be involved in our work with their children - if possible. Often it isn't.

Some kids have no family, of course; and some do have family, but they are uninterested in their own kids, and so don't want any involvement.

Still others have families in the countryside, and while we communicate as much as possible with them, it isn't possible for us to go and visit all of the families of the kids in our programs.

About a year ago, we started working with a teenage girl named Tuoi; she's bright and has a heart of gold, but was trapped in a domestic labour position, working 10 or 12 hours a day for $10 a month. A local community center, called Mai Am, alerted us to the situation and we helped Tuoi to get out of her situation and go back to school.

As usual, our work was multi-faceted. We helped Tuoi's mother in the countryside get medical help (Tuoi was working so that she could send her mother medicine). We helped Tuoi find accommodation, gave her a bicycle, enrolled her in a school, and we continue to supply her with food and clothing. During last year's summer holiday period, she joined a 3 month vocational training course in cooking, as she wanted to learn some extra skills instead of taking a break.

All good - and all pretty normal for the Blue Dragon staff to cover such a broad range of needs for one child.

This week, one of Tuoi's aunties came in from the countryside, a four hour bus ride to Hanoi. She not only wanted to see Tuoi; she also needed to see us.

Her neighbours, she said, had urged her to come and check us out. Why? Because they had never heard of a program that would do so much for one young girl. They were suspicious of us, because they couldn't imagine anything quite that good!

So she came to the center, had a look around, talked to the staff... and went home satisfied. We are real, after all!

I receive a lot of compliments, and they don't go to my head because I get an equal number of insults. But this is one compliment that I truly am proud of.

Anyone for dinner?

Time for a promo!

Some of my good friends in Sydney, Australia, are organising a dinner for March 23rd to raise funds for Blue Dragon. Last year's event was huge - a massive cultural experience, with Vietnamese food, dancers, and music. This year will be even bigger!

Contact Mr Minh if you want to go, or if you can lend him some support: bringonthesmile@hotmail.com



(Click for full size)

A day of openings

Tuesday was an unusual day at Blue Dragon. I spent most of the day in Bac Ninh province, north of Hanoi, attending opening ceremonies for two buildings that we have funded.

Our first stop was Tram Lo Primary School, where the principal has been hoping for years to have a library that her students can use. Libraries are rare in this part of the world, although Vietnamese people in general LOVE to read. Somebody once had the audacity to tell me that libraries are an unnecessary extravagance in Vietnam. I won’t tell you what I said in reply.





The principal organized a big party, with a cutting of the ribbon and lots of dignitaries. She wasn’t the only one bubbling with excitement – if only you could have seen the way the kids raced in to get hold of the brand new books that were on display.

Keep in mind that for many of these kids, without our support they would end up in garment factories in Saigon working 18 hours a day. Instead, they are reading, studying, and playing in a brand library. Beautiful. BIG THANKS to the Schmitz Stiftung for footing the bill!

My team and I then went to the opening of a new house. Thinh is one of our sponsored children; he lives with his mother and 87 year old grandmother. When I first visited them, their house was a brick hut held up with bamboo poles. The sun shone right through the cracks in the roof and walls. It was dark and, frankly, uninhabitable.

A donation from some of our friends in Australia, Doug and Carolynn, has resulted in a new, huge home with large windows, a high ceiling, and a safe electrical system. Thinh’s mother was in tears; she couldn’t believe the change in her fortune.



It was especially nice to see that the local community contributed to the costs of the house, and a builder from another province helped us with the design and supervision of the building – totally for free. He was there on Tuesday, with a gift that he had bought for the family.

Before we headed back home, our contact in the Red Cross took us to visit one more family. They had heard about our work, and wanted to know if we could help them, too… Another case in urgent need of a new house. The father of the household lost an arm and a foot in a work accident, and now lives with his wife, three daughters and one son in yet another dark, dangerous hut that will certainly fall down before too long.

Time now to go looking for some more funds…

Meantime, back in Hanoi, we are facing a few new and challenging runaway cases – more on those in coming days.

Greetings from Sozo

Once again I am blogging from steamy Saigon. Blue Dragon's work here in the south is growing each month; for the past two days I have been meeting street kids from all over Vietnam, talking to them about why they are here and what they want to do with their lives. As always, I am finding everybody friendly and helpful. I really love this work.

Last night I had dinner with Hoang, who was a shoeshine boy when I first met him and now studies in a college. He's such an inspiration.

I also got talking to some girls from Hue, one aged 11 and the other 15. They have both been trafficked to Saigon to sell flowers and chewing gum. The smaller girl, Huong, told me sadly how she would be beaten if she could not sell all of the flowers she had in her bag. If only that trafficker had been close by...

But today what I most want to mention is another charitable endeavour I have stumbled across: a cafe / centre called Sozo. I am writing this blog as I sit in their cafe, sipping dynamite coffee and breaking my vow to cut back on cakes.

Sozo employs families from disadvantaged backgrounds and trains them in baking, serving and running the business. Simple and brilliant.

I am often asked why Blue Dragon does not create a self-sustaining business, along the lines of the Sozo model. But for us it's a bit different. Most of our kids are - well, kids. They should be in school, and playing, rather than running a shop or a restaurant.

Sozo is different, though: it's working with families, young adults, and people with disabilities. And they're doing a really professional job.

I've got to get back to the streets! But for visitors to Saigon: go have a coffee in Sozo. I've only been to their Pham Ngo Lao centre (address: 176 Bui Vien Street) but they also have one at 844 Su Van Hanh.

Update: from 2016, Sozo is located at No. 51, 24A Street, Area 5, An Phu Ward, District 2.

Nghia goes to school

Tuesday was a big day at Blue Dragon: one of the boys we recently met as a shoeshine boy in Saigon returned to school.

I first wrote about Nghia here, and almost immediately a good friend (who I have never met, mind you) sent money from Canada to ensure we could give Nghia the support he needs. (Thanks, Nadja).

What Nghia really wants is to go back to high school; but he's missed out on too much and it's half way through the school year here in Vietnam. He still plans to go back to Grade 9, but will wait until the new school year in September.

Meantime, yesterday he started a part-time course in repairing mobile phones, and he's learning English and computers at our center in the morning. One of our staff, a young man named Minh, is helping him to revise his school work in preparation for September.

A pretty good, all-round result, I think!

Calling Brisbane

18 months of working and hoping have paid off... One of our young guys, a 14 year old boy with a tumour growing on his face, has been accepted for surgery in a hospital in Brisbane, Australia.

Last year, the boy - Quan - was refused access to a school because the tumour would 'be a distraction to other students'.

Operation Smile has organised the surgery. Quan arrives in Brisbane around March 10, and leaves 4 weeks later. If all goes according to plan, he will return to Vietnam with a whole new appearance, and the discrimination and taunts will be just a bad memory.

BUT - we need to find a Vietnamese-speaking host family in Brisbane, who can provide accommodation and some support to Quan and his mother for a month! If any blog readers have contacts in Brisbane, please pass the message along...

Minh's story

Death anniversaries are important events in Vietnamese culture. Many of our kids do not know their own birthdates, but all remember the date that their mother, or brother, or uncle died. These dates are held sacred, and important rites observed.

Yesterday was the third death anniversary of the mother of one of our boys, Minh (not his real name).

Minh's mother died after an agonising three year illness, that dragged the family from happiness and prosperity into misery and poverty. Minh told me yesterday about how his father had sold all of their belongings to pay for medicine and treatment over three years, hoping that one day they could buy everything back when their mother was well again. It wasn't to be.

Three years ago, Minh and his younger sister came home from school to see their mother laying on the bed, cold. Their older sister was sitting beside her weeping. Minh was 15 years old.

But Minh's decline into poverty, and the loss of his mother, isn't the end of his suffering. After just a year, his father remarried, and the step mother decided she didn't want the kids of the 'old' marriage. So, out they went. Aged 16, Minh moved from his rural paradise in Nam Dinh province to the hostile, filthy streets of Hanoi. He worked as a shoeshine, dodging gangs and avoiding arrest until I met him and found him a home and a school.

And then, another blow: Minh's father and step mother had another child. Minh still does not know if this child is a boy or a girl. If it is a boy, then Minh has lost all inheritance rights. His father's home, the house in which his mother died, will go to this new brother, 18 years younger than Minh. Insult upon insult upon injury.

Yesterday, Minh did not return to the countryside to observe the rites of the death ceremony. He just couldn't bring himself to visit his home and see the family who lives there now - his father, who kicked him out, and his stepmother who is bent on disinheriting him.

In the evening, Minh and I went to a cafe on a boat, indulged in some cake and italian soda, and watched the sun sink into West Lake. There's no happy ending to Minh's story - not yet, anyway. In a few years, he'll go to university, and then he'll find a good job and live a comfortable life. I only wish I could erase the pain of the past that he will always have to live with.

I'm back

I have been out of contact even more than usual these last few weeks... Apologies to people who have been (and still are!) waiting for email replies. This time it isn't just the usual busy-ness, but also a lack of internet connection in Vietnam.

So a quick summary:

CHRISTMAS was wonderful. On Sunday 24th we gave out gifts to 66 street kids at soccer, and held a party for kids living in our residence in the afternoon. We also had a HIV/AIDS workshop scheduled for the day, so the morning tea turned into something of a party too. And then on the 25th... Blue Dragon was sorta-kinda closed, except for a huge party in the Botannical Park. The staff had organised a great morning - it was so much fun - but just went too, too quickly.

Some of our staff have been organising PRISON VISITS for our kids. Many of the children in our Hanoi program have relatives in prison; some have both parents behind bars. The prisons are often far from Hanoi (as most of our kids are not originally from Hanoi anyway) so the children only get to visit once a year. So far the visits have gone well; a mix of joy and trauma, so it's great that our staff are there to help.

And I have just been in HUE working on our ANTI-TRAFFICKING program. So many heart breaking stories. One of the boys we reunited with his family has a younger sister named Cam. She's about 10, and wears a permanent grin on her face. But when I started to speak to her, everyone in the room immediately cut in - "She cannot speak! She's dumb!" and used sign language to tell her to back off and leave me alone.

Grrr...

For a "dumb" girl, she ended up having a fairly decent conversation with me! She most certainly can speak, but has some speech impediment that is probably physical and probably can be improved.

But this lack of education, and the poverty that has prevented the family ever taking their daughter to a doctor, is the fuel for the child traffickers. These are the issues to be confronted. And they will be...

I am back in Hanoi now, vigorously resisting the temptation to write a blog with my new year resolutions.

To all of you out there in the land of Blog... Have a glorious year. Take some risks, buy less, and do something for your neighbour.

A wild ride

It's a beautiful winter day in Hanoi - the sun sparkles through the pollution and the morning looks absolutely amazing.

Riding my Vespa to breakfast, another rider came alongside and, rather than slowing down or going around me, rammed into my bike, hitting the leg of the teen pillion who was coming with me. The young guy lost his shoe, but was otherwise unharmed. And the rider who hit him? Not a hint of regret, not even the slightest look of apology. So, he just hit a kid - but so what?

Tarah, a young Canadian volunteer teaching art to street children, was riding her bike, on the way to meet us at breakfast. Stopped at a traffic light, a local woman caught her eye. Tarah flashed a smile, thinking the woman might be somebody she knew. The woman replied by calling out, in Vietnamese, "Your motorbike is ugly."

Good morning, Hanoi.

Life as an expat here is not easy. There are daily frustrations, cultural misunderstandings and crossed communications. Not so long ago, I wrote about our neighbourhood being on the verge of riot in anger over a homeless child in our care having a small accident on the street. Since then, two more incidents have occurred - the latest being a drunk man attacking one of our staff and warning that he planned to hire a hit-man to finish him off.

There are easier jobs than this, and easier paths to walk.

The lead up to Christmas and new year is always a time for reflection and self evaluation. What am I doing with my life? Have I done something worthwhile this year? How will I use my time and resources next year?

My own conclusion: 2006 has been a wild ride.

The year started with a spate of muggings - Blue Dragon kids were being robbed, sometimes at knife point, by local thugs. We put a stop to it eventually, but not before many tears were shed.

In February things settled down considerably: we moved our center into a new building and I travelled to Singapore with two former street kids, Vi and Minh. When I got back to Vietnam, I was faced with one of the most emotional cases of the year: one of our young guys made the huge decision to go into drug rehab, and he has been there since.

While I spent most of April in Australia, April to June saw the beginnings of our work to stop child trafficking from central regions to the south. That work is still in its early days, and definitely still a work in progress, but we have had a significant impact already and are well placed now to launch an official project in 2007. Battling with child traffickers was definitely one of the major events of the year.

The summer months had some rough patches: our office was burgled, and then we went through an extortion attempt that culminated in a bomb threat. We were all glad to see a resolution to that. Our swimming lessons for street kids are much happier memories of the summer months.

In August and September, I set off on my own adventure across the sea, sailing from San Fransisco to Hawaii. To summarise in two simple words: Never Again.

Since getting back to Vietnam in mid September, I have been concentrating on consolidating our growth in Hanoi, while also planning for an expansion of our work in Hue and Saigon. We opened both a residence and a Learning Center in the space of 10 days, while dealing with the hostility from our neighbours over their disapproval of street kids being given access to a chance at a better life.

A wild ride, indeed. Huge highs, and some lows that I would rather not have seen.

And now the big question: What about next year?

The low points of 2006 are not a reason for me to give up; actually, they are the inspiration for me to keep going. If people treated our kids well, and if the opportunities for them to get ahead in life were alredy there, what work would I have to do? The "lows" are not an obstacle: they are the very reason for me being here.

I couldn't have predicted most of the developments that occured this year, so I surely cannot predict how 2007 will turn out. Undoubtedly it will be another wild ride, with great joys and awful sorrows, as well as all the frustrations and difficulties in between.

Bring it on, I say.

In the Que

Since returning from Saigon, I have spent most of my time either in the countryside, or working with people who have come from the countryside to visit Blue Dragon.

Here in Vietnam, the local word for 'countryside' is 'que' - pronounced something like "where" with a "k" on the front. The word is also often used as an insult... When somebody has an accident, or does something silly, they might be put down as a "Nha Que", meaning their home is in the countryside.

But for a foreigner living in Hanoi, getting out into the que is a highlight of the week. Even, it seems, for Vietnamese people: a chance to escape the constant noise and rush of the city is a blessing!

A team of staff, volunteers, and street kids travelled together to Bac Ninh, about 30kms from Hanoi, to help paint a house. The family is very poor, and we support their children to attend school through the Stay In School sponsorship program. The kids and adults alike painted the entire house in just one day - quite a feat, I think!

A few days later, I travelled to Hung Yen to meet a boy named To. In recent weeks, To had run away from home and found himself on the doorstep of Blue Dragon Children's Foundation. He's a great kid, and his family loves him very much - in fact, it occured to me that if only ALL of our kids had such loving families, our jobs would be over! The family had organised a small feast, and we celebrated together over lunch. A very happy visit.

And then on Friday of last week, I travelled to Thanh Hoa province with our lawyer, Van, to visit some of the families we support in that province. It was a 4 hour drive each way, but only 130 kms or so.

We met with several kids, but in particular the family of Nghia, who I wrote about in my last blog. He's at home now with his folks, and much happier. He's thinking about doing some vocational training, but not sure just what yet. Before now, he's never really had the luxury of choice!

Over Christmas and new year, we expect to meet up with more of our 'old' kids - the girls and boys who have been and gone, but stay in touch and often still recieve our help, if they need it.

Some of the kids have also been making a journey of another kind to mark the passing of the year. Here at Blue Dragon, many kids have relatives in prison, and it's quite common that the prisons are far from the city. Getting there and getting in is something of an ordeal.

On Sunday, one of our Social Workers, Phuong, started to take the kids, one at a time, to visit their mums and dads in prison. It's such a sad thing to do, such a miserable task, and yet the kids are so happy to have this chance. Most of them keep the fact of their parents' imprisonment a secret: the children will often say that their mother is dead rather than admit to the truth. It's so painful for them, but seeing their parents or relatives for just one hour brings great joy. A difficult journey, with an invaluable result.

The Big Secret

This evening I am writing from Saigon - I flew here on Thursday night for a quick holiday, and will head back to Hanoi on Sunday. Just a few days' escape.

Thursday finished on an awfully sad note; one of our kids and his mother were given some bad news from the children's hospital.

The boy, Duc, is about 14 and has a growth hormone deficiency. Mother and son have been to so many doctors, and had so many contradictory diagnoses, that their levels of hope for recovery have risen and fallen a hundred times over. One of our Australian volunteers, Skye, and a staff member, Lam, have been accompanying them to various hospitals and doctors, both foreign and local, in search of a definitive answer to their questions - can Duc be treated? What medicines does he need? How will his condition impact his health and future?

Simple questions, but no simple answers. Some doctors at Hanoi Family Medical Practice have become deeply involved - one doctor even accompanied Duc to a local hospital on Thursday. But the final verdict is that Duc cannot grow any more. There is no possibility of treatment.

Duc and his mother are pretty upset. They have been through so much - Duc's health is just one of many problems - and this is yet another blow to them both.

But... when I get back to Hanoi I believe I'll have some good news for them. It won't make up for all the suffering they have been through so far, but it will help. More on that during the week.

There have been some good developments, too, for some other kids. Another of our teens, who has a facial growth that keeps getting bigger, seems to have been accepted for surgery in Australia in March, and has just been issued with a passport. Now we must get him and his mum a visa, and find somewhere for them to stay in Brisbane.

And here in Saigon, a very sudden and unexpected development: a new street kid has joined us!

Blue Dragon has no official work in the south - not yet! - but there's an increasing number of street kids here with whom we have contact. Yesterday, I met a shoeshine boy named Nghia (That's him in the photo below). He's from Thanh Hoa, in the north, and has been working here for about two months.



He hates it; he's miserable and he misses his family. But poverty and some family breakdown have lead him to the south, where he earns money for his mother and send it home every couple of weeks.

Nghia is one of these kids who just breaks my heart. He's smart, kind, and honest - and shining shoes on the street. Such a waste of a great, valuable life.

I had one of the Blue Dragon staff help me talk to Nghia to see how we could help - what would I do without a mobile phone? - and Nghia says he wants to go home, finish Grade 9, then study a Vocational Training course. He refused to take any money, and told my staff over the phone that he has already saved enough money to buy a bus ticket back home. But he was very anxious to know that we will help him once he returns to the countryside: Can we really help him and his mother? Will we pay his school fees? Is there a way that we can send him to study a vocational course?

If only I could tell him: It's all so easy. The Big Secret of charity work is that it's ALL easy. It's just a matter of will.

Our growth-hormone deficient boy, Duc: We can't make him grow, but we can ensure a high quality of life at least until he gets through university. We've recently employed his mum, so she no longer has to sell fruit in the market from 5.30am until nightfall; now she's a carer during the weekdays, looking after a small group of homeless kids.

And Quan, with the facial growth: In Australia, the operation that he needs is not such a big deal. It's no walk in the park, but it's fairly routine. There's no need for him to spend his whole life with the deformity.

Now for Nghia: Yes, we can get him home and back to school. Why not? All we have to do is talk to his school, visit his home, and organise to pay school fees and check his attendance.

It's so, so easy. Just a matter of will; and my staff and I have plenty of that.

Ouch

Here's an article of interest: Study Finds Wealth Inequality Is Widening Worldwide

The key finding of the report is astonishing: the wealthiest 1% of the world owns 40% of the "world's net worth".

The poorest 50% own 1.1% of the world's wealth.

Ouch.

And that was in 2000...

Bazaar Days, Royal Nights

Hanoi’s International Women’s Club held its Christmas Bazaar on Sunday – always a huge affair, and one of the Big Days on the calendar for expats living here. It’s a day of mad shopping and meeting up with all the friends you haven’t seen for months, and 100% of the money goes to charities, like Blue Dragon. Christmas shopping without the commercialism!

Each year, Blue Dragon has a stall selling some of our wares – honey, jewelry made by the kids, greeting cards and shirts. This year, we went even further… We helped the Club out by managing the parking (1500 motorbikes!) and a troupe of the Dragon Drummers put on a terrific performance – the best they’ve done yet, I believe.


(So good, in fact, that the New Zealand Ambassador and his wife, James and Alison, shouted them all to NZ ice cream afterwards! Woo hoo!)

It was a big day for us, with almost every staff member volunteering at least half of their Sunday.

And on Tuesday night, a royal affair at the Melia Hotel… The celebration of the King of Thailand’s birthday. Long live the King!

The Thai Embassy has done something quite special. They have asked other embassies and international organisations to NOT send the usual bouquet of flowers; but instead, to make a contribution towards Blue Dragon.

We’ve committed to using this money for a nutrition program aimed specifically at the girls. At the time of writing, I don’t know how much money this has raised, but regardless of the final outcome, I am touched by the Ambassador’s generosity. I had only met him and his wife once before this!

As Director of Blue Dragon, one of my duties is raising funds for our work with street kids. I call it a ‘duty’ because that’s what it is – if I don’t raise the money, the kids don’t go to school. It’s something I have to do.

But it isn’t something I enjoy. If anything, I see it as a distraction from my ‘real’ work, of overseeing Blue Dragon’s programs and getting to know the kids. So when somebody like the Thai Ambassador, or the Head of Irish Aid (see my last post!) calls me to offer support, I am always deeply grateful.

It’s also very moving to be contacted by people around the world who know me only through the blog, and want to lend a hand. Of course, it’s not me they want to help – it’s our kids – but I can’t help but feel like a lucky guy to receive such support.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Catherine Hancock in Australia who, totally out of the blue, emailed to ask if she could donate the proceeds from her New Year’s Eve party to Blue Dragon. She’s calling the evening “A touch of Blue” and has invited all her friends.

In Singapore, the staff of Barclay’s Bank got together to send us a shipment of hygiene and toiletry products that we will use for the kids who visit our center every day. What they have sent amounts to a year’s supply for us!

And this week, we received a donation of shampoo, soap, OMO and toothpaste from the local staff of a Russian company here in Hanoi. Initially I was contacted by a woman named Phuong, who said that she had just received her first paycheck and wanted to make a contribution to charity. She then got her colleagues involved, and others at CBOSS joined in the collection. From Phuong and her friends, we have a year’s supply of toiletries for the kids at our residences. Thank you!

We are fortunate to have such good friends…

All of these events remind me, though, to never lose sight of what Blue Dragon is really here for: the kids. We spent the weekend and Monday working with another run away boy, To, who seems to have been in a fight with his school teacher, and fled in panic! His parents came to Hanoi and were delighted to see him again.

And we have been keeping in touch with Loc, who I wrote about earlier, and is back with his family in the countryside. A couple of photos of Loc’s home are below; you can see he kind of poverty he is living in. We’re looking for some ways to help the whole family out.





Finally… A salute to Our Man In Hanoi, aka Steve, an English volunteer who has been working in a Vocational Training restaurant the past couple of years. Steve is moving on – a difficult thing to do after being here so long – and I understand his next move is to work with another project for street kids in another country. Farewell, OMIH…

Blue Dragon's Irish Heritage

Another huge week at Blue Dragon, and another occasion for me to apologise that I have not been blogging more!

Last week - November 29 to be exact - we had a visit by a member of Ireland's parliament, Mr Noel Dempsey, along with the new Irish Ambassador to Vietnam and a team of staffers involved in setting up the Embassy and organising Mr Dempsey's trip.


The occasion was the launch of Blue Dragon's Learning Center, a facility with a computer lab, reading room, and psychology counselling space for the street kids in our project.

I have to boast for a moment about the Blue Dragon staff... we set the computer lab up in just a week, which included painting the room; getting the computers, desks and chairs; installing everything; and then preparing the rest of the house, which used to be a residence, and so was pretty dirty. Another minor miracle performed by the most amazing staff team in Vietnam.

The Irish delegation were great - they really connected with the kids, which took me by surprise at first. I later found out that the Minister used to be a school teacher and counsellor, so I quickly offered him a job with us, should he get tired of politics. I'm still waiting for his call...

Of course, there are some strong links between Blue Dragon and Ireland. One of our volunteers is the daughter of the man who founded Finnegan's Bar here in Hanoi. And somebody once translated Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as Young Man" into Vietnamese and then donated the proceeds from the launch to us. All of this is very impressive. But the real connection between us came through soccer games at the United Nations International School, where I often meet Sean Hoy, Head of Irish Aid, while his son and the Blue Dragon kids played.

All those early mornings at soccer have been worthwhile! The best thing about this new Learning Center is that it provides our kids with resources that are the very best available. There's no organisation or business in the country with a better computer lab than ours; even the teacher is one of the best in the country.


No wonder, then, that we've already had an attempted break-in... But thankfully, the Irish grant included funds for an alarm system.