Welcome!

This week at the Hoi An Children's Home, 7 new kids have moved in!

Older residents and staff have been busy showing their new brothers and sisters around the Home, and also around the town, as all of the newcomers are from rural areas far from Hoi An.

Coming to the Home means a new chance at life - the chance to go to school and have a roof over their head.

Welcome, kids!

Involvement

Blue Dragon has been working in Vietnam for about 8 years now. We started out as a couple of guys with good intentions but absolutely nothing else, and we've built up an organisation that's now helping about 900 kids around the country.

Some of the very first street kids who we helped work for us now. It's fantastic to see young people from tough backgrounds wanting to give back to others.

Last month, I wrote about our latest rescue trip to Saigon to retrieve rural children who have taken by traffickers. One thing that I didn't mention was that, apart from me and one Blue Dragon staff member, another person who came along was Nghia, a young man who we first met working on the streets of Saigon back in 2006 (click here for the original story - that's Nghia in the photo) and who now has a mobile phone shop in Hanoi. Nghia's job on the trip was to work alongside me in looking after the kids who we took away from the factories until they could start the journey home by train.

While we were in Saigon, we went to visit the Caravelle Hotel, which Nghia has always seen as a symbol of the life he has been denied: luxury, comfort, wealth. Despite the protestations of a security guard (he seemed to know that Nghia used to be a street kid!) we went into the Hotel to have a drink in a restaurant. We'd have had a meal, too, except that there's no way in the world I could afford to eat there! Sitting by the huge glass windows, sipping outrageously overpriced drinks and watching the city buzz by, Nghia came to the realisation that he'd be just as happy sitting on a plastic stool on the side of the street... He wasn't missing out on anything after all! So we had some laughs and got out of there pretty quickly - and the next morning, started meeting trafficked kids as they came out of the factories. Much more satisfying than the airconditioned paradise of a 5 star hotel.

Another of our kids who has featured on this blog in the past has also been helping out. In late 2007, a terrible event took place in Blue Dragon: one of our teens was stabbed repeatedly and left for dead in a case of mistaken identity. The story started here, and it was an awful time, but the boy, named Ngoc, made a full recovery and is now studying accounting at college.

Now that it's summer holidays, and Ngoc has completed his first year of study, he's traveled to Hue with one of our staff named Binh to teach dance and computing to trafficked children - including some of the same children who we brought back home to Hue just last month.

Binh and Ngoc are working in Hue for 3 weeks, living at our Youth Centre in a village on the coast where the electricity is off more frequently than it's on, and where unemployment, illiteracy, and poverty are rife. Through their workshops, they are rewarding the kids who have come back from the factories and are now in school, encouraging them to stay on in the villages and not be tempted by the traffickers who promise excitement and bright lights in the big cities.

Apart from his own awful experience a few years back, Ngoc (pictured above in the white shorts) has had plenty of hardships in life, and we are hoping that the kids will see him as a positive role model to emulate. Yes, life can be difficult, but stick with education, aim high, and things can get better.

As the founder of Blue Dragon, I am particularly proud to see young people like Nghia and Ngoc doing their bit to help others. I could go on with many more stories, too; such as the girls and boys from our street kids' program who volunteer to help children with disabilities go swimming each week. There are many more stories to be told.

I'm sure that around the world many more organisations also involve their 'beneficiaries' in community service like this - if any readers have a story to tell, feel free to say something in the Comments section below!

A week at Blue: Friday

And so to Friday!

Earlier this week I compared our drop-in centre to an ants' nest. Here's how it looked at 2pm this afternoon:

I think we need a bigger centre!

There are a few particular games that the kids are just crazy about: Connect 4; Uno; and a game involving stringing up an elastic way above everyone's head and trying to leap onto it with one foot. Our kids may be small, but they're extremely agile.

To keep the kids occupied, there was once again a great range of things to do - and once again, swimming topped the list.


I wrote some time ago about the need for children in Vietnam to learn to swim. It's certainly fun for the kids to go to the pool, but there's also a very important reason for them to come and practice their swimming with us. Ten children drown daily in this country.

We were on alert for a possible attempt at theft this morning, as one of the teens noticed a thief from the nearby market scoping out our premises. I think the young guy got spooked and disappeared pretty quickly once he saw all of us watching him.

A much more enjoyable moment was eating treats made by kids with disabilities in the Blue Dragon kitchen. I've written before about Mummy Dish Day, but this was the first time that I've been in the office when the kids (and one beaming mummy) carried their dishes downstairs to share with everyone. Man, were those kids proud as the staff team demolished their dishes!

Apart from all this fun and action, much of my day was taken (as usual) with emailing, planning, and the more formal side of running a charity. These days I receive about 40 emails per day - and I do try to answer them all before I get to bed. (Not that I am going to succeed tonight!) It was really nice this afternoon to meet up with Seb, who works here in Hanoi in an Embassy but in his own spare time organised a football tournament last month which raised funds for Blue Dragon and a local pagoda. Seb came by today to deposit the funds - about 50,000,000 VND! - which will go toward our Outreach work. Much appreciated!

With our chief lawyer and Child Rights Advocate, Van, about to leave the country for a year of study, tonight we met up for a farewell drink. It's sad to be saying goodbye - he's an amazing man, as long term friends of Blue Dragon know. But the important thing is that he will be back! And to that end, my farewell gift for him tonight was a boomerang...


This will be my final in my "Week at Blue" blogs. From tonight I'll get back to my regular routine of writing a couple of times each week about special stories and events. And yes yes, I realise I only counted 6 days in this week! I'm hoping that Saturday's blog would read "Woke up really late and went swimming with the kids from our Shelter." If anything more exciting than that happens, I'll post a story about it! I do hope these entries have helped our friends around the world gain some more insight into a typical week at Blue Dragon in Hanoi.

A week at Blue: Thursday

This morning had a rotten start: my first duty of the day was to be a disciplinarian. Fortunately, though, the rest of the day just got better.

Last night, 2 of the kids from our Shelter came home waaaay past curfew, and in doing so broke their word to try harder at following the rules. With a couple of the more senior social work staff away, it fell to me to be the bad guy.

It's a role I don't enjoy at all.

But by the end of the day, both of the boys were able to sit with me to talk about what they'd done and why it was wrong, and we had a chat about the concept of trust. Let's see if they can rise to the challenge.

The Blue Dragon centre was full of life and activity. Today kids could join in rollerskating and swimming (not at our centre, of course! It's a bit smaller than that!), and one of the staff took some children with disabilities to see a movie in a cinema.

It was also Haircut Day, which is always a lot of fun. Once a month, we invite some hairdressers to our centre to offer free haircuts to kids and staff; someone always ends up with a mohawk or shaved head. But there's no surprise in that - take a look at the guy in charge of the haircuts!

That's him standing, with the black shirt and the... well, how can I describe that hairdo?


His name is Kien, and our kids think he's the greatest! I'm just glad he's no longer sporting the orange mullet he had last time he came to the centre!

Upstairs, a volunteer was running a workshop for kids on animals, with a focus on extinction. They watched Jurassic Park and then learned about Vietnamese native animals which are on the verge of extinction. This is a very hot topic right now, with the recent revelation that an extremely rare rhino killed by poachers in central Vietnam was probably the last of its kind in the country. The kids were really interested in learning about this and enjoyed the hands-on lesson.


Our centre also held the monthly gathering ('sinh hoat') in which we acknowledge all the kids' birthdays and achievements. Unfortunately I missed the whole thing! I was off at a hospital visiting one of our kids from outside Hanoi.

The little boy, named Tung, is having surgery to reconstruct his left hand. When he was just a toddler, he had a terrible accident which burned his hands and feet. Because his family never had the money to have him treated, he's grown up with awful deformities and limited use of his limbs. Two years ago, we brought Tung to hospital to have some corrective surgery - I wrote about it here - but there's still some more to be done.

Today I visited him with Tuyen, who coordinates one of our rural programs, and it's clear that apart from being in great pain following last week's surgery, Tung is also bored out of his brain. And he has 3 weeks left to go before he can return home! Tuyen will go back to the hospital in the morning with a supply of comic books for Tung, and some newspapers for his equally-frustrated grandfather who is staying with him in the hospital.

Nghia's shop is getting close to opening; I dropped in on him as I rode home tonight, in the midst of a huge rainstorm. Well, now he knows which bits of the roof leak, and I guess it's best that he finds that out sooner rather than later....

A week at Blue: Wednesday

Hanoi's heatwave is here to stay: there's been no let-up all week. Our drop-in centre remained full all day, but by this afternoon the kids were so quiet that from the offices upstairs you could hardly hear a sound.

Each day for the last few weeks our social workers have organised activities - mostly involving swimming! - but today there was a real sense of "lets just lay here under the fans." Our centre is intended as a safe place for the kids to hang out, as most don't have very decent places to stay; so we're happy for them to just come, have a shower, and relax.

In the afternoon, a social worker named Chau ran a 'life skills' workshop on co-operation. The kids chatted and played games, all on the theme of how working together makes things easier. They were also pretty pleased when the plates of fruit came out at the end!

One of the games the kids played: 2 children sat back to back, linked arms, and had to stand up.

Here's the group attending the workshop. The girl in the foreground is translating the class to her friends who are deaf.

Away from our centre, we have heard that the boy who was arrested on the weekend has been released and has returned to his countryside with his mother. Seems to me that that's about the happiest ending we could have hoped for. Now if he can just learn from this...

The young guy with the prison sentence hanging over his head hasn't come back to see us! It's a bit strange, considering the gravity of his situation, but he knows where to find us if he wants to. Our philosophy has always been to offer the best possible service we can, and it's there for those who want and need it. I still think he'll be back in coming days, but I'm a bit confused as to why he's taking so long, and why his mother doesn't seem interested at all in getting some legal advice.

I mentioned yesterday that one of our teens, named Nghia, is preparing to open a new mobile phone shop. He spent today working along with some Blue Dragon friends to get the new premises ready, and as I write he's moving all the equipment and furniture from his old shop.

A very happy Nghia!

One of the Blue Dragon staff, a cleaner named Cuong (pictured below) helped out too, especially with fixing up the VERY shonky electrical system.


Apart from all these activities, a good chunk of my day involved preparing to take three of our older teens to New Zealand. The National Technology Institute in Auckland has offered them full scholarships, and Jetstar is donating free flights - so we really feel like we've won the lottery. The kids don't go until September, but there are many arrangements to take care of in advance.

And I haven't mentioned this previously, but I usually finish off my days at the Blue Dragon shelter, just a few doors down from our centre. Sometimes I eat there with the kids, or else just take part in the daily meeting that they have. It's a nice way to end the day, and to stay in touch with the kids despite the mountain of admin that usually piles up on my desk!

A week at Blue: Tuesday

Given the worrying events that took place yesterday morning, it would be fair to expect that today would have been fraught with fears and challenges. But Vietnam is much too random for that. Tomorrow there might be a hurricane, or maybe a snowstorm, but today was pretty calm.

About the Chinese traffickers: no news or developments. The teenage boy in lock-up: no news. The 16 year old who (thinks he) has been sentenced to prison: his mother didn't come to meet us yesterday or this morning because, woe betide, she has a headache.

So of all the big dramas that we were dealing with on Monday, not one so much as poked me in the ribs today. Maybe tomorrow?

Much of my day was occupied with catching up with people: coffee with Jim from Language Link, who has been a huge help to Blue Dragon over the years (as well as a fantastic friend); a meeting with our Communications department; and a very long chat with an ABV volunteer, John, who is here in Hanoi helping us to review and develop our IT department. Back in 2006, the Irish Embassy helped us to set up an IT room, and since then we've had a couple of amazing IT guys working with us. It's time now for us to figure out the direction of IT in Blue Dragon, and how to best use our resources for the street kids and children with disabilities who visit our centre. We have lots of decisions to make, so today was just the start of discussions.

And throughout all this chatter, a few notable events marked the day.

First, one of our teens who used to work as a shoeshine boy in Ho Chi Minh City is preparing to open a mobile phone shop near the Blue Dragon centre. We helped him to open a small business late last year, but for various reasons he needs to move and fortunately he's found a little place for rent not too far from where we are. Today he and some of the other kids scrubbed down the walls and repainted the interior - in just a few more days he should be ready to start his new shop!

Second, I was thrilled to get a call from Paul, the Country Director of Saigon Children's Charity, telling me that his staff have had something of a breakthrough with a street kid I contacted them about last month. Since January 1 this year I have been in contact with a family working on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Each time I'm in the south, I spend time with them at their motorbike-helmet stall by the side of a filthy road, and Blue Dragon has been helping out with some money to support a newborn baby in the family. However, one of the kids in the family really needs help to get back to school, so I called on Paul to see if his organisation could be involved. Originally I was just after some advice and introductions, but he's gone much further than that, and it now looks like the teenage son will be starting school next month! That's fantastic news.

And third, one of our longest serving staff members has been granted a visa to study in the US for a year! Van, who is well known to readers of this blog, leaves on Saturday. I'm thrilled for him, and I know he deserves this opportunity; but selfishly, I also hope the coming year goes VERY quickly. Van is one of our two lawyers, and has been involved in just about every major event / development / crisis since I met him in 2003. I'm not sure how we're going to survive without him!

A week at Blue: Monday

When the first person to speak to you at the office in the morning is a lawyer saying "We need to talk," you get the impression that the day is going to be 'colourful'. And it was.

The Blue Dragon boy who was detained by the police over the weekend spent last night in lock up, while the authorities work out what to do with him. He hasn't been charged with any crime - he was picked up for loitering and some suspicious behaviour - but the boy's mother has told the police that she wants him sent to reform school. I don't think that's the right thing to do, but Blue Dragon doesn't have any right to intervene; we can only wait to see if he will be released.

Next was the news that the child traffickers who kidnapped 3 girls and took them to China back in March have sent some of their colleagues to Vietnam to gather information about how the girls were able to escape. This is fairly ominous, and we are working closely with the police to ensure that the girls, and our staff, will be safe.

And to make it "an even three", one of the Blue Dragon boys who used to live in our shelter, and now lives with his mum, turned up to say that he's been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. We have hardly seen him this year, and he didn't let us know that he was even going to court, so this is rather shocking news. He has a couple of weeks to appeal, but at this stage it looks like he might have misunderstood the court verdict - we're certainly hoping that's the case. He's only just turned 16; a stretch in prison will be shattering for him.

So after a pretty heavy dose of bad news this morning, it was nice to head down to Hanoi's Old Quarter in the afternoon to meet up with a couple of friends from Australia who are passing through Vietnam. My mobile phone didn't ring or buzz even once during lunch - a record!

Throughout the whole day, our drop in centre was like an ants nest, with kids coming and going non stop. Because of the summer holidays, we have at least triple the usual number of children coming to see us, and to cope we have a whole range of activities organised, with everything from flower arranging to roller skating. But the social workers are right on top of it all, and somehow things flowed smoothly.

Before heading home for the day, I spent some time at our street kids' shelter to talk to them about the two former residents who are in some trouble with the law at the moment. None of them had heard this news about their friends, so they were a little surprised. We finished up by talking about what each of them can do to prevent getting into trouble like this themselves in the future. Hopefully, hopefully, they'll take that seriously.

A week at Blue: Sunday

This week - something different for the Blue Dragon blog!

To give readers some more insight into what life is like here at Blue Dragon in Hanoi, I'm planning to write an entry each day this week about what I've been doing and what's been happening in our charity.

While I usually try to write a couple of stories each week, there's so much that does not get said... so here goes an attempt at filling in some of the gaps!

Sunday

I skipped football this morning because... well, ok, because it's really hot and I wanted to sleep in. And seeing as my only job there is unpacking drinks, the staff are fine without me! So on to a morning catching up with friends, including a farewell lunch with an old friend, Adam Gordon, who is heading home to Europe in a few days.

This morning I did get to chat briefly with some of the parents of kids in our program who have kids with disabilities. One Sunday each month they gather at the Blue Dragon centre with our staff member, Phuong, to take part in a 'self help' group. The parents love this group - they run it themselves, with a proper agenda each month, but much of it is about sharing ideas and experiences with other parents in similar situations. They were all smiles when I saw them!

And then in the evening I headed off to Noi Bai airport to meet Nam (not his real name), the Blue Dragon teenager who has been studying in Singapore on a scholarship. School's out, so Nam is home for the summer hols. A couple of the kids came with me and we had a terrific taxi ride back into the city, laughing and joking and looking over Nam's report card. (Pretty good- in fact, Nam earned a certificate of commendation from the principal!)

While I was at the airport I received a call from Giang, our Social Work Coordinator: one of the Blue Dragon kids has been arrested and the police have called us to come down to the station. Our Child Rights Advocates are dealing with this as I write, so I'm not yet sure why the boy was arrested.

Overall, a relatively quiet Sunday!

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Inside the factories

This is why we do what we do...



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The source of the problem

I often write on this blog about the work that Blue Dragon Children's Foundation does to rescue kids who have been trafficked within Vietnam. Typically, they are taken from rural provinces under false pretenses (usually for "training") and end up as unpaid workers in home-based garment factories.

Finding trafficked kids, and getting them away from their "employers" is an exciting and rewarding part of our work.

However, it is only a part of our work. Once the kids are free from the traffickers, our job is to ensure the kids are safe, and can return to their communities and schools.

This part of our work is even more difficult than getting the kids out of factories. It involves finding out why the children were trafficked in the first place - getting to the source of the problem, and then developing the cure.

One of the common causes is a lack of community awareness of the dangers of children going to work far from home.

Another is a family's inability to pay school fees, which causes the children to drop out and then have nothing to do.

And sometimes, families let their kids be trafficked because the family home is simply inadequate.

When we take the trafficked kids home, we have to quickly evaluate the child's living conditions. If the physical building is obviously run down, too small, or (as sometimes happens) non-existent, our top priority is to build a new house.

Here are 2 houses which we have just built for kids who we rescued from factories last December.

BEFORE

AFTER

... and another:

BEFORE

AFTER

Apart from fulfilling the very important role of providing a safe roof over the heads of the children, the construction of a new house tells the families that they were right to bring their kids home; that their life is now getting better and they needn't fear the future.

You might notice that we don't put a plaque on the new houses, which is the standard practice for "charity houses." We don't want the families to feel indebted to us - this is their house, which they need and deserve, so we don't need to put the Blue Dragon name on it.

In coming months, we plan to build some more houses in Hue, but there's one that stands out as particularly urgent. This is for one of the boys, named Xiu, who we brought home just a couple of weeks ago. His house is in a perilous state and I can't imagine that it will survive the coming typhoon season.






Anyone with a $2000 - $2500 who wants to change the life of a family - drop me a line at bluedragon@bdcf.org!

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Changing minds

I spent yesterday in Yen Phong district of Bac Ninh province, about 40km outside of Hanoi.

There were two important events going on.

First, we had the official start of a building project in a school. Thanks to a private donor from England, we are about to start constructing a library inside the grounds of Yen Trung Secondary School. This will be our second library.

Our role is to fund the construction of the library, but the local community also has some involvement. One local building expert, Mr Quy, has donated his time for free to oversee the construction. The local government is paying for all of the furniture and equipment to go inside the library. And we expect that some families of the students will be helping with some of the work. So - an all-round team effort.

After we had a short ceremony to mark the start of construction, I traveled with our program coordinator, Tuyen, to visit the home of a girl named Thoa who lives with her mother and a little sister. She's just finished Grade 7, and her school results were so good that she was invited to Hanoi to receive an award from the Prime Minister! Chatting with her for just a few minutes was enough to see that this girl has a real spark - not only brilliant academically, but she has a real character... there's just something about her that tells me she's got an amazing future ahead of her. (There she is with her award, outside her new house).


However, when Tuyen first met Thoa last year, the family was living in dreadful conditions. They had taken up residence in one third of a relative's open-fronted barn. Looking at it today, I can't imagine how they survived the freezing winters in there. I don't think they even had electricity.

Today was the "Opening Ceremony" of a new house for Thoa and her family. With a grant from St Elizabeth's University in Slovakia, Blue Dragon has built a new house for the family - and it's a great house if I do say so myself! The shower, toilet and kitchen are all separate facilities, and there's even insulation in the ceiling.

As with the library, though, we called on the community to make a contribution too. The most valuable contribution was the donation of land by a relative - who initially refused to help the family in any way. In fact, when Tuyen was first talking to the community about helping the family, everyone refused. Nobody wanted to help at all. In the end, though, they not only donated the land, but they went further to help with the construction. The final result was one of the best houses we've built yet - and all for about $2000US!

After these ceremonies, Tuyen and I went to visit a primary school that is asking us for help. The deputy principal met us and showed us around - he didn't care one bit that it's summer holidays. He really cares about his kids and he was super keen to know if Blue Dragon might be able to support local kids from poor families to go to school, so they don't have to drop out.

Of course we are going to help with that - how could we not? - but it was the deputy principal's reasoning that really blew me away.

To paraphrase, he was saying: Please help us. If you can just help a little bit, I can then use that to encourage the local community to do their bit, too. Right now there are people around who could help, but they don't want to. If I can show them that you are helping, I can make them change their mind and see that they also have a responsibility to help.

I've never heard it expressed so succinctly before. But how true it is: whether it's building a library, building a home, or supporting kids to go to school, part of our impact is in getting the broader community to step up and start helping out.

We've been doing this for years, but until yesterday I'd never realised it!


(And just on a side note, Blue Dragon funds much of its work in Bac Ninh province through a child sponsorship system. THANK YOU to our wonderful sponsors around the world. If you're not a sponsor but would like to be, email James - james@bdcf.org - or check out our website).

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The wrong side

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been writing a lot about the good things that our kids have done - and there's much more that I could say!

But Blue Dragon is not an organisation that only helps the kids who are well behaved. There are some charities here in Hanoi that work that way. If a kid stuffs up, she or he gets kicked out. There's one group I can think of that boasts a 100% success rate for its 'graduates'; but they only achieve that by kicking out any kids who are difficult to help.

Our kids, by contrast, are a mixed bunch. Some of our children really are the angels that I make them out to be, while others spend much of their time on the wrong side of the law.

This morning, one of our boys here in Hanoi was in court on a charge of aggravated robbery. He's 15 years old now, but was 14 when he and a group of 5 others attacked and robbed another 14 year old on the street. Our boy - let's call him "Nam" - received a suspended sentence for his role in the crime, in part because his father recently died, and in part because he is with Blue Dragon and our lawyers could testify that he's been trying really hard lately to get his life back on track. The other teens involved in the robbery were sent to prison - one of the boys got 3 years.

There's one other Blue Dragon kid in detention at the moment, awaiting trial for burning down his school. One boy is in prison on a serious drug charge. Two more were picked up by police for sleeping on the streets and are now in a "social protection" centre, while 3 more are in reform school. Another three are in drug rehab.

So what does all this mean? Are we doing a bad job? Should we really be helping kids who are getting into trouble and disobeying the law?

Are we making the problem worse by supporting them?

These are tough questions, and we do face them from time to time. The police aren't very happy when they arrest a young person on the street who says "I'm from Blue Dragon." It does make them wonder what on earth we are doing.

But it would be simplistic to say that the problems would disappear if we withdrew our support from kids who are getting in to trouble. With young Nam who was in court this morning, we know for sure that he would have been involved in that crime whether or not he was coming to Blue Dragon. The difference is that, by having an association, we are able to influence and guide him down a better path.

There are also plenty of kids in our programs who used to lead lives of crime, but now have jobs or attend school and live in stable homes. We could never have predicted which kids would choose to change, and which would not. Of those who have made a change, none made it very quickly. They all took time, patience, and (in many cases) a whole lot of 'second chances'.

Now that Nam's court case is over, he too has another chance to make some good choices. Our job will continue to be to offer support, some role models, and guidance. Whether or not we 'succeed' is almost beside the point. We've got to try.

Who's going to believe in these kids if we don't?


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Text me

OK, I confess: I'm a texter.

I guess it's the introvert side of my nature that much prefers to send text messages from my phone than to ring. It drives some people crazy, so it's always nice to meet others who also prefers to text than to talk.

Over the 7 years or so that Blue Dragon has been in operation, I can't imagine how many messages I've sent and received. The irony is that when I left Australia, back in March 2002, one of my quiet joys was packing away my mobile phone, thinking: I won't be needing that again.

I was wrong!

Many of my days are shaped by the messages that reach me. Sometimes I need to keep my messages recorded (or at least transcribed) for the sake of keeping evidence!

This morning started off with this one: Can you buy me some rice or something to eat? I want to be safe. Last night someone tried to kill me.

Going back a few years, I was having what we Australians call "a shocker" of a day. Among countless other messages going back and forth, one of my staff sent me this: I am with her in the brothel now. An hour and a half later, in response to my message asking Are you OK? the reply was: Not yet. Can you ask someone to contact the police? (This was one of our rescue trips to retrieve trafficked girls - and everything turned out fine in the end).

At times the messages which reach my phone can be quite emotional. In January this year, I met a street kid in Ho Chi Minh City who had apparently never had somebody show any real concern for him before. I was in town for just a few days, and spent a lot of time with him and his relatives, who saw him as being nothing more than a worker for their family business. When I left to return to Hanoi, the boy sent me this message: Em khoc sap het nuoc mat roi, which roughly translates as: I've nearly cried away all my tears already. Looking back at that message still leaves me feel a pit in the bottom of my stomach.

Other messages bring me real happiness. After our China trip in March this year, one of my staff accompanied the three girls back to their villages to reunite them with their families. This was the message I received: I just came back from the village. It was great. The girls were very happy. Wish you could hear a thousand thankful words.

And then there are the abusive messages - I get some of those, too! Not everyone appreciates the work I do, it seems. But I won't repeat any of them here...


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We made it!

I'm really happy to announce that Blue Dragon's special appeal for our street children's shelter in Hanoi has reached the $30,000 mark!

This means that Planet Wheeler in Australia will donate a matching amount - giving us about enough rent money to ensure we can stay there for 5 years.

Phew. Thank you, everyone.

We are still able to accept donations for the appeal - more funding means greater security - but please be aware that further contributions cannot be 'matched'.

To all who donated - big smiles from the Blue Dragon team!

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Such things

The Vietnamese journalist who wrote this article put the question to me during our discussions: Do you agree with the experts who say that Vietnam can not stamp out child labour and trafficking?

Vietnam has a problem with child trafficking and exploitation. There's no question about that. Yesterday, my team removed a 10 year old girl from a factory in Saigon.

She was 1 of 11 kids we rescued altogether. The oldest was about 15 - but of the 11, only one knew their date of birth, so precise ages are a bit hard to determine. What I can say is that they were all tiny, and none should have been working in a garment factory.

Of the 11, 3 are completely illiterate. Only one has completed Grade 6. Another 4 have an education level below Grade 4.

Yes, this is a problem. But it is not unique to Vietnam, and it is not insurmountable.

A few hundred years ago, the poet William Blake was writing about the awful atrocities inflicted upon children in England. Kids were being stuffed down chimneys as a way of clearing soot - and this was considered a legitimate job for a child!

"Are such things done on Albion's shore?" he asked. Yes they were; but not for much longer. Such things would today lead to lengthy prison sentences and a massive public outcry.

Vietnam is now headed down the same road. In taking those 11 kids out of factories on Monday and Tuesday, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation - along with the Hue Red Cross and government officials - were not just restoring freedom to a few disadvantaged children. We were hurting the traffickers and factory owners who have invested their time and money into recruiting these slaves. We were also drawing public attention to the crime of exploitative child labour.

This is exactly what needs to be done for Vietnam to shake off the shackles of child trafficking.

I'm not sure if there really are any experts who say Vietnam can't get past this problem. If there are - well, I'm not sure that they should be called "experts."

I believe completely that child trafficking and exploitation in Vietnam can be brought pretty close to an end. (I qualify that, because every country in the world has this problem; it's just a matter of scale).

I also believe that the end may be in our lifetime. Such things cannot be tolerated much longer.

The 11 kids freed from factories on June 14 and 15, 2010

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Lost and found

Blue Dragon staff are working in Ho Chi Minh City at the moment looking for trafficked children from central Vietnam.

So far, from among the garment factories of the industrial districts, we have retrieved 6 kids - 5 girls and one boy.

As the search goes in, it becomes harder, as we lose the element of surprise and word gets around the factories that we're in the city.

I'll give a full report in the next day or so, when we've wrapped up and the children are on their way home.

A related matter - this article appeared in Thanh Nien newspaper over the weekend, discussing the issue of child trafficking and exploitation within Vietnam.


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The Appeal - Part 2

Just a couple of weeks ago, we launched an important appeal to help Blue Dragon secure a residence for street kids in Hanoi.

The goal is $30,000 US, which will be matched dollar for dollar by Planet Wheeler.

We're almost there - we have so far raised $27,385!

At this stage, we're excited by the possibility that we might even go beyond our target, which will help us even more with securing the home.

Friends and supporters around the world have done their bit to help. Schools, companies, and individuals have contributed whatever they can... It's been truly inspiring!

Below are some photos sent by the Girl Guides of Wyong in NSW Australia. They raised $502.10 by having a garage sale one weekend! Thanks, girls!!





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Celebrations

Today, some pics of Blue Dragon kids in central Vietnam celebrating...

In Hue, a family has a new house:

The old...

And now the new.

The son of this family, a boy named Tri, was trafficked to work in a garment factory but returned with our help over a year ago. The family home was falling apart and leaking every time it rained... so we built a new house!



Also in Hue, the official opening of our Safe and Sound Community Centre:



This centre, in Hai Tien village, is a place for kids and family members to come and learn, or play, or just hang out. It's part of our overall strategy to end child trafficking from this area.


And in Hoi An, a Children's Day celebration:






The kids and staff of the Home had a brilliant time; first at the Home and then at the beach.

Happiness all around today!


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Paper days

In my last blog entry, I wrote that Blue Dragon staff were in central Vietnam helping families to register their existence with the government.

They're done now - with a total of 90 individuals and families now having paperwork!

These 'papers' include birth certificates, marriage certificates, and household registration books - all essential for anyone to have a job, go to school, or have access to health care.

Our staff even managed to fit in some training for local government officials so that they can keep doing this in future without any further help from us.

Of all the people who were helped, one particular story stands out.

Blue Dragon staff met one elderly woman - nobody has any idea of her age - but she's a grandmother, so presumably she's in her 60s or 70s. She has lived her entire life on a boat; not once has she lived on land.

Because she never had any paper work - her birth was never registered - she's never been to school. Her own children also could not have paperwork; nor could their children. So in a single day, three generations of one family has suddenly acquired legal recognition, and all that that entails.

Definitely worthwhile!

Some pics below of families registering with government officials....

Pieces of paper

As I write, Blue Dragon staff are working in the countryside around Hue - in central Vietnam - in communities where dozens of families live without any form of official registration.

No birth certificates, no marriage certificates, no ID cards, no driver's licence, no land ownership papers.

I'm the first to admit that this is the 'less sexy' aspect of our work. It's hard to get people excited about registering families to receive official recognition from the government. But you just can't fight poverty if that basic first step has not been taken.

The staff are way out of town, along rivers and in beach areas, so I don't have a whole lot of info yet. All I know is that they've turned the usual procedure on its head. Instead of families having to travel to the nearest government office to apply, the government officials are out in the communities going from house to house with Blue Dragon staff to arrange the paperwork there and then. And on Day One, they registered about 40 families this way.

Pretty exciting stuff, if you ask me.

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Busy times

The last 2 weeks have been busy times at Blue Dragon - I've hardly had a chance to update the blog.

Last week I spent 4 days in Hue, visiting families in our anti-trafficking program. We've rescued about 60 children who were trafficked from Hue to garment factories in Ho Chi Minh City, and we're in the early stages of preparing another trip. My trip, though, was mostly to see how our work there is progressing.

Once kids have been freed from the factories and returned home, Blue Dragon's work involves getting them back to school; building homes if needed; and helping parents learn to become self sufficient.

Many of the 'solutions' to child trafficking are in simple, practical approaches. For the past 6 months we've been running a pilot project teaching aquaculture to some parents to help them improve their incomes. It's been a great success, so now we're getting ready to extend it to 10 more families. In another village, we've identified that the poorest families are struggling because their access to the main road is limited, meaning they have to travel much further than everybody else to get to the markets to sell their produce. So we're hatching a plan to build a new road to link their village to the highway.

We've never built a road before, but if that's what they need then that's what we'll do.

Back to the north of Vietnam, and last weekend we held the Closing Ceremony of our Stay In School program. We gathered about 300 students together, from Grades 5 to 12, to celebrate their completion of another school year. These are kids who are from the poorest families in their district, and without some outside help are pretty unlikely to stay in school.

This year, 35 students in our program have completed Grade 12. That's 35 kids who otherwise would be working in factories and shops now, despite their academic ability.

Over the past week a lot of my attention has been taken with matters at our Hanoi HQ. We've started our first ever fundraising appeal, and I believe we're almost half way now to our goal of $30,000. Blue Dragon has also said farewell to some staff who are moving on from us - never a happy time.

To top it all off I've been struck down with a recurring muscle problem in my shoulder, but thankfully was still able to give a speech to the Hanoi International School Year 12 graduation ceremony.

So, a busy couple of weeks, but some great progress with our work. Summer holidays are starting now, which means our drop-in centre is about to get a whole lot busier.

More to come soon!


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The Appeal

Blue Dragon's shelter for street kids in Hanoi is among our most important programs.

Seventeen boys are living at the Home at the moment. Some of these are kids who were rescued by our staff from child traffickers; some are orphans; some just don't have family they can live with.

All of the kids at the Shelter are trying to make a better life for themselves.

The Shelter is a rented building, and right now we have a chance to secure a long term lease on it: but we need to raise $60,000US, which is way out of our league.

Except... Planet Wheeler in Australia has made us an amazing offer. If we can raise $30,000 by July 31, they'll match every donation dollar for dollar. In other words, they'll double all donations so that we can be sure of keeping our street kids' shelter.

We've never made a public appeal like this before, but this is something really important to us. This is a chance for us to provide security and certainty to the kids who rely on us for their livelihood.

If this is something that you, or your school, company or church can help with, go to our donations page; and be sure to email us to let us know that your donation is intended for this appeal.

My colleague James is keeping a record of donations to see if we can reach the target - drop him a line at james@bdcf.org.

Thanks!

Michael
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Buffalo shirts

Buffalo Tours in Vietnam has created a set of kids-sized T shirts featuring artwork by Blue Dragon children. How cool are these!





Buffalo is selling them - for about $10 each (plus postage)! With all of the proceeds going to Blue Dragon! How many more exclamation-pointed-sentences can I write??!!

To get your hands on them, write to Rick at Buffalo Tours: rick@buffalotours.com

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Safety

Every Sunday morning, the Blue Dragon football team gets together for an hour of soccer by the Red River. Anywhere from 40 to 80 kids attend, most of whom are street kids or from seriously disadvantaged families.

Last Sunday we organised a workshop for the under-15s on injury prevention and treatment. A total of 21 kids joined in, spending an hour with a brilliant young doctor (pictured in the white shirt) who gave the kids some really practical advice on staying safe while playing sport.

The kids learned lots and had a great time. This coming Sunday: a workshop for the over-15s!






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Sorrow and adrenaline

I started last week by writing a well defined "To do" list. In hindsight, that was just tempting fate.

Two major events came to dominate the week; both involved the homes of Blue Dragon staff being attacked, in completely unrelated incidents.

One staff member had a couple of men turn up throwing rocks and calling out; shortly after, one of our program homes was also attacked, presumably by the same people. Eventually the men fled into the night, leaving everyone afraid but unharmed.

A few days later, another staff member started receiving threatening phone messages, only to find that a group of men armed with knives were waiting near his home to create an ambush. Fortunately, we were able to talk reason with the men, and finished up shaking hands and going separate ways. We still have no idea who they were or what they wanted, but it all seems to be resolved now.

These events have been stressful on everyone, but equally I have found them deeply saddening. The 2 staff involved are both great people; each has made many sacrifices to make life better for disadvantaged kids, and neither deserves to be made to fear for their safety.

I'm pretty sure (or at least very hopeful) that both of these incidents have been more about creating fear than threatening real harm. If the attacks had been aimed at me - well, I could be more understanding about that. I've dealt with plenty of threats over the past few years, and while I'd rather not have any more, I'd still prefer to be the one taking the blows.

This week, I won't bother with the "To do" list - last week's version will most likely remain current for a while longer!
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Swim time

Here's a frightening fact:

Today in Vietnam, 10 children will drown.

And tomorrow, 10 more.

Despite being a nation inundated with water, very few people here know how to swim. Add to that the general belief in luck / fortune ("No need to supervise the kids down at the lake, nothing is likely to go wrong") and you have a recipe for disaster.

And 10 kids drowning every day is a disaster.

In a country with 85 million people, this is a tricky problem to solve. That's a lot of people who need to learn how to swim - but who can teach, if so few people have the skills?

One 'easy' answer is to run awareness campaigns. Blue Dragon once ran such a campaign for the kids in one of our programs; but awareness is nowhere near enough. Even the UN and the Vietnamese government seem to be stuck on this - telling people that they should fence off houses near water is woefully inadequate. Action, not words, are need.

Vietnamese kids need to learn how to swim.

With summer coming on, Blue Dragon is preparing to start up it's annual swimming program. Foreign volunteers taught our Vietnamese staff to swim back in 2005; those staff have now taught all our other staff, and each year we teach the kids from our Hanoi centre basic water survival and swimming techniques.

The kids love it, of course, and there are a handful of teens at our centre who have lost family members to drowning accidents, so they also appreciate the opportunity to learn.

We've just had some good news, too, that the German European School in Singapore is holding a swim gala this month, and all the money they raise will be for us to run our 2010 swimming program.

We won't be able to teach thousands of kids to swim, but every child who learns will be better able to survive in the water. And in years to come, they'll be teaching their own children how to swim.

... and another, not quite so.

After our success at reuniting 15 year old Son with his family on Tuesday, we've had a more difficult time with the 14 year old boy, Hoang, who we've also been working with.

On Wednesday afternoon, Hoang agreed to go home to his family - and it turned out that our fears of his safety at home had been a little overstated. There were (and are) definitely some issues, but nothing that should really prevent Hoang from being with his folks.

Two of the staff accompanied Hoang back to the countryside, and spent some hours talking to his family. Our experience with runaways - all of whom are from rural areas - tells us that kids often leave home because there's a tremendous gulf between them and their parents. It's more than just a 'gap'.

Vietnamese teens are exposed to the world through TV and the internet; they see hip hop culture, city life, and fast money. It all seems so exciting and attractive, and a small problem at home (an argument with dad, a rude comment from a teacher) becomes the spark to cause the child to run away to Hanoi.

The parents, meantime, have no way of understanding such behaviour. Their own teenage years were spent in hardship and deprivation. Having lived in Vietnam for 8 years, I am yet to meet anybody aged 25 or over who does NOT have memories of going hungry. But to the kids, that might as well be a story from ancient history. There's so much more to the world now! Concerns about this are regularly raised in local papers, too, like this story.

Little Hoang is in exactly this position. His parents are strict and want him to do well at school; they don't understand his obsession with computer games. Every chance he has, Hoang is at the internet shop. He's been skipping school, borrowing money, and focusing entirely on games. Not knowing how to deal with that, his parents and teachers have simply tried being stricter and stricter - until he ran away some weeks ago.

Finally, though, we got him home and we thought everything would be fine - but Hoang only lasted one night. He ran away the next morning, and headed straight back to the internet cafes of Hanoi.

So... we still have some work to do. I think the next step will be to bring Hoang's parents to Hanoi and try to get both Hoang and his parents to attend some counselling.

Looks like this little guy is going to need some ongoing help to get through these difficult times.

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One happy ending...

This text message just came through my phone:

Son is with his family now. Everyone is happy.

Of the two runway boys we've been caring for, we now have a great result for one. Son, the older of the 2, is now back with his parents. Two of the Blue Dragon staff accompanied him to his village, after helping him to see that he does need to be back at home instead of living on the streets.

The staff have also just spent a couple of hours talking with Son's family - they too need some ideas and strategies for looking after their kids to prevent this from happening again. Apparently Son has run away many times before! But it appears that the family's problems are not insurmountable.

Son is pictured below, outside his house. Tomorrow we will spend time with the other runaway boy, whose situation seems much more complex. Here's hoping for some more good news soon.



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Runaways for the long weekend

I returned to Vietnam on Wednesday night, and after just one day at the centre, Vietnam has been on holidays - a 4 day long weekend!

Although the centre has been closed, there have been 2 tiny runaway boys, aged 14 and 15, in our care. A couple of the staff - both former street kids themselves - have been helping me to look after them. The 2 boys (from different provinces) have apparently run away many times before, and it's clear that they both have some serious issues at home. Our only progress so far is that we've been able to find out their real names, and make contact with their families over the phone. At this point, though, there's no sign of them agreeing to us visiting their homes.

Dealing with runaways can be very complicated for Blue Dragon. Our first priority is to protect the kids, but we don't have any legal authority to support children or let them live in our homes without their parents' permission. Which means that in cases where we are sure there's some kind of abuse taking place, we still have a legal obligation to either reunite the child with the family, or refuse the child any ongoing support from our organisation.

To date, we've mostly been able to work out compromises. Some of the 56 runaway children we have helped so far have gone to live with a relative, such as an aunt or grandparent, instead of going back to an abusive home life. Others have eventually moved in to Blue Dragon homes, with the permission (or at least the knowledge) of their parents.

For these 2 new kids, I'm really not sure how we're going to find a safe, long term solution!

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Giving and taking in Singapore

Today I am blogging from Singapore; I have traveled over for a quick visit to catch up with one of the Blue Dragon kids - I'll call him "Nam" - who is studying here at Chatsworth International School. I first wrote about Nam going to Chatsworth here.

Being offered a scholarship to Chatsworth felt like winning the lottery. Blue Dragon has been extremely fortunate to receive strong support from several great schools in Singapore, but the day we were invited to send a Blue Dragon kid to study at Chatsworth, I felt like crying with joy.

For Nam, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. He's close to finishing his first year, and will have 3 more years of study to follow. Upon graduation, he will have a certificate that will allow him to apply for whatever university or job he chooses. Even more than that, he will have a set of life experiences, and friends, that will be invaluable to him moving on to a great career.

But life in Singapore isn't all sweet and easy for Nam. He's far from friends and family: this year was the first time he's ever been away from home at Lunar New Year. Not a happy experience. And of course he's studying in a second language, alongside students whose own lives have until now been vastly different to his own.

Chatting with Nam over the last couple of days, I can see that he's determined to do his best and to make this scholarship work. It's Sunday morning, and I've been ditched because he has homework to do - he has his priorities!

Nam is starting to talk about his dream of one day being able to help other disadvantaged kids, just as he was helped. He already has some ideas about what he might do. It's a long road ahead, but it sure is gratifying to know that he is thinking not only about how much more he will gain, but also about what he will be able to put back in.

Here's lookin' at you, kid

Back in February, I wrote about one of the Blue Dragon boys who had serious problems with his eyesight.

Vuong, age 11, could barely see more than 2 metres from his face; but thanks to surgery at the local hospital, he's well on track to a full recovery. One of our Social Workers, Tung, took Vuong and his mother back to the doctor today, and the results are great! One of his eyes now has 80% vision; the other is better than 50% but needs some therapy for further improvement.

Vuong's thrilled, and his mother is all smiles!

Awesome!

The Australian Embassy in Hanoi invited Blue Dragon kids to visit this morning for a few hours of the most amazing hip hop fun with an Australian group called the Indigenous Hip Hop Project.

Hip hip is the 'in thing' among Vietnamese teens, so we took about 10 kids along... and what a great morning we had!

The group started off with a demonstration, and the leader of the company had a chat with our kids about his own life. In short, dance was his life line as a teenager growing up in pretty tough circumstances. This was great for our kids to hear - they need to know that even people in other countries can live in difficulty, too!

Then the kids joined in, learning some dance moves and how to beatbox. They had so much fun! Pics below... the smiles say it all...

Holding off

Quite a bit has been happening over the last weeks. I realise people are wondering how the story of the 3 trafficked girls has ended, but in fact it has not yet ended and for safety I need to hold off before writing more. When I eventually can explain the whole story, it will be a happy ending.

Meantime - below are some pics of kids in Hue, who were trafficked from their villages to work in factories in the south. As part of our support for them now that they are back home, we've been buying bicycles for those who live far from school, and we're about to start building new houses for 3 families.



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Moving on

Over the weekend, the kids and staff at the Hoi An Children's Home held a special celebration to farewell one of the Home's residents, 17 year old Nam.

Nam has been living at the Home for 5 years. He grew up on Cham Island, off the coast of central Vietnam, in a loving family but was faced with so many difficulties that his parents could no longer keep him in school without some substantial help.

For kids who come to the Home, although they are materially much better off, they struggle with being far from their families. So while they are fortunate to have the support of the Home, life isn't easy.

At times Nam has struggled too, but he's persevered and done pretty well for himself. He's done fine at school, he's much loved among both children and staff, and his farewell party was a touching send off. Nam will be missed.

Where's he off to? Not far, as it turns out: Nam has been accepted into a vocational training program in Hoi An called Streets. It prepares disadvantaged kids for jobs in Vietnam's burgeoning hospitality industry, and with demand for places so high, Nam really had to prove himself to earn a place.

Nam's dream is to become a great cook so that he can one day prepare a fine meal for his mother that will make her proud. Go for it, Nam - we're all proud of you already!

(In the pics below, Nam is wearing the red shirt).

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