Fish for sale

Wanna buy a fish?

Mrs Be, of Hue province, has 130kg of fish for sale.


For the past 12 months, Mrs Be has been learning to raise fish in the lagoon near her home. She's learned to record data and information; she's battled (successfully) against disease; she's learned to determine when the fish need more food, and when they have too much. She's even learned how to make suitable under-water cages to keep the fish contained.

This has all been part of a program to help families in Mrs Be's community improve their incomes.

Why is this important?

Mrs Be's daughter, Diep, is one of the 94 children we've rescued from trafficking. Her village is a 'hot spot' for child traffickers, who take girls and boys to Ho Chi Minh City to work like slaves in garment factories. Diep was just 13 years old when she was taken to the factories where she worked for 8 months until we took her home.


Mrs Be's fish harvest is worth about $500US - the most money she's ever made in her life! She and the other families will put some of this money back into a community fund to help other poor families; and in coming weeks Mrs Be will use some of her profit to start growing more fish.

Fighting trafficking is not just about rescuing kids from factories. It's also about ensuring the long term safety and livelihood of their family and community. Growing fish isn't a huge part of what we do here at Blue Dragon, but it sure has been important for Mrs Be and her daughter Diep.

Preparing for the big world

As part of Blue Dragon's program for disadvantaged kids in Hanoi, teenagers are invited to take part in occasional workshops on career choice and goal setting.

This afternoon, our psychologist and social workers ran a session for 10 kids from a variety of backgrounds - some were former street kids, some from generally disadvantaged families - to get them thinking about what they want for their futures.

Our psychologist, Lan, leading the workshop.

The 'expectation' tree: what I expect from the future.

Tell me more!

Trying to hit a goal without knowing where to aim...

Overall - a great success!

Every day is a happy day

... or so says the sign that welcomed me to a school in Bac Ninh province today.

More precisely, this says: Every day of going to school is a happy day.

That's not exactly how I remember my school days, but today was a happy day indeed.

I traveled this morning to 3 schools in a rural area about 40 km from Hanoi, where Blue Dragon supports kids to study. We're currently supporting over 500 children in this province, from Grades 5 through to 12, and that number will rise to 600 by January.

The kids in this province are usually living with their family, but without a helping hand they'd have to quit school and would end up working on the streets or be trafficked south. Just last week my staff had to intervene in an 'employment' situation in which one of the girls from Bac Ninh was clearly on the way to being tricked and exploited... that was no hairdressing shop...

Tuyen, our program coordinator, and I went to Yen Phong Secondary School (Grades 6-9) this morning to visit the school's brand new library. A private donor gave us the funds to build this - a neat little building inside the school grounds.


The kids were excited to finally be allowed to look inside, so of course the first thing they did was grab the books off the shelves and get reading!


At our next stop, a primary school a few kilometers down the road, we arrived in time for the kids' morning break... which was announced by some catchy pop music, instead of the normal 'beating of the drum'; and we soon discovered that the music was also a call for all the kids to get out into the playground and dance!


I've never seen anything quite like it. What a way to start your break time!

With the dancing behind us, Tuyen and I headed off to a high school (Grades 10-12), which was possibly the most impressive high school I've seen in rural Vietnam. It was super-well organised; many students approached me to speak in English; and the principal spoke proudly of the links he has forged with the locally-based foreign industries to ensure that his students who don't make it to university can still get a decent job. The school also had some terrific facilities which appear to have been paid for by the principal twisting the arm of local business leaders. Good job, I say!

Underlying all the niceties, though, was a disturbing common theme: the schools are battling a set of growing social problems as their province develops financially. Heroin use, each school said, was on the rise. Those most likely to end up with an addiction are young unemployed adults - especially those who quit school early and so have few job prospects.

Compounding the problem, ironically, is that some major electronic and mobile phone companies have set up and so bought land from the farmers. The compensation was very generous - and resulted in a large number of people suddenly having a lot of money and nothing to do. Their land was gone, so they had nowhere to farm rice; but they also had no idea of what to do with all their new money. Many families chose to knock down their perfectly adequate homes and build new, multi-storey houses... only to find they had little left to support their families into the future.

As a former teacher, I always enjoy visiting schools and getting a feel for how the 'school community' works. Today I was reminded of what an important role schools play in our world. It was truly heart warming to see how these 3 schools each grapples with the social problems of their neighbourhood - one through building a library, one through dance, and one through business partnerships.

It's a great feeling to be a part of that, and to know that we are making a difference.

Rising tide

Spare a thought today for the kids and staff of the Hoi An Children's Home who are battling the annual floods that have hit the town.

So far there have been no serious problems - the first flood has been fairly low and is receding already. However, the radio is warning of a much larger flood coming down the river soon.

The kids are all OK - their spirits are higher than the water! - but when the time comes to start cleaning, they're all in for a challenge!

Some pics below to show how it's been so far...

This is the view of the front yard, taken from the steps of the home:





And here's the front view of the Home. All the kids have to move up to the top floor to escape the flood - and all the equipment, files and electrical items must be carried up the stairs.



And finally... here's how the staff get to work, and how the kids get to school:

A moment of pride

I'm starting to sound a bit like an old drum at the moment - constantly banging on about road accidents in Vietnam. But for the last couple of weeks, they've been a recurring theme at Blue Dragon.

Two older teens who have both lived in Blue Dragon's shelters in the past, and have since been living independently, were involved in a pretty awful crash just over a week ago. The details are still unclear but they were riding around Hoan Kiem Lake at midnight, probably racing, and naturally without helmets.

They crashed hard, the rider slamming into a pole and his pillion being thrown into the front wall of somebody's house.

The pillion - who I'll call Nam - has just been released from hospital after a couple of days in intensive care followed by a week in recovery. The rider is still in intensive care, and doctors are not optimistic about his chances of survival.

My feelings about this are terribly mixed. I'm worried, concerned, angry, and sad all at the same time. What were they doing racing the streets? Why weren't they wearing helmets? The rider was in a very serious accident just last year - did he learn nothing?

And yet, I can't forget that these are young guys running wild in a world that cares little for them. Maybe they feel that they have nothing to lose.

I was visiting Nam in hospital early in the week with 3 of the Blue Dragon kids. Nam's uncle was looking after him (in Vietnam, you need a relative to look after you round the clock in hospital) so we made quite a crowd around Nam's hospital bed.

Like me, Uncle was confused and upset by all this. But unlike me, Uncle believes that lecturing Nam is the best way to go; just keep on telling him what he's doing wrong, and he'll certainly improve! The distant, long suffering look in Nam's eyes told me that Uncle had something of a history of lecturing.

At this point, the 3 kids who were with me decided to speak up. Not in a rude way, either: they couldn't be faulted for their politeness. But they wanted Uncle to understand more about Nam, and to have some empathy with street kids.

The boys knew what they were talking about, too.

One is a 23 year old, studying in Grade 8, who ran away from home at age 16 because he'd never been to school and he wanted to learn to read and write. He had to twice escape from a detention centre to get back to his studies, and he now works part time for another charity.

One is training now to be a mechanic, but he was one of the first of the trafficked children who we helped to escape from Ho Chi Minh City back in 2006.

And the third boy has recently returned to Hanoi after 18 months in a reform school. He has an amazing history of his own - he's lived an absolutely wild life on the streets at times, but is now making an incredible effort to 'buckle down' and do his best. He's living in our shelter and working full time at a local restaurant, while also studying English in the evenings.

So these 3 young guys knew what they were talking about when they spoke up in defence of street kids.

Each took a turn at explaining to Uncle that they, too, have been through periods of running on the wrong side of the law; that they too have spent time on the streets, living from day to day and not thinking about tomorrow. But, they reasoned, they made it through - with a helping hand from people who cared about them. Uncle nodded, understood, and asked them more about their experiences.

Nam listened to all this too - I guess you could say he was a captive audience - and although he said nothing, I know this had an impact on him.

And as for me - what a great moment to stand and listen to these 3 guys sharing their experiences, warts and all, and argue that every kid deserves another chance. I left with tears in my eyes.

It's a trap!

Well... maybe or maybe not...

But we've recently discovered a book being sold called Blue Dragon Children's Foundation for over $80... and the publishers, known as Alphascript, seem to be well known for taking free articles off the internet and selling them for rather a lot.

Our good friends at Wikipedia explain it here.

Anyway, if you seriously want to part with $80 or $90, go for it! Just beware that the book isn't from us and doesn't benefit our kids in any way! (We'd hate for one of our supporters to buy it thinking that it was our own publication!)

The price of gold

Spot the difference:

The Super Rich Are Buying Gold

vs.

Runaway prompts police probe into gold mine slavery

Yes, "gold mine slavery". I've written about this once before, just over a year ago - the link is here - and it's clearly still a common and widespread practice here in Vietnam.

That article is worth reading. The photo below, taken from Thanh Nien News, is of a 15 year old boy who fled a brutal gold mine and spent a month lost in the mountains.


In another news item, billionaire George Soros suggests that the surge in gold prices won't last because gold "is costly to dig up."

Not in Vietnam, Mr Soros.

That time already?

Blue Dragon has launched its annual Christmas campaign!

This year we're trying something new. I haven't seen other charities doing anything like this, so we thought we'd take a different approach.



On our website, there are 13 photos to choose from. You can receive any of the photos by giving a donation to our Christmas campaign. Some photos are taken by the kids, and some by professional photographers who have donated their images to us.


And here's the deal: You get to choose how much you will donate for each of the photos. There are set amounts to choose from, corresponding to specific needs of our kids.

For example: a $10 donation will buy a set of text books for a school kid.

$25 will buy a huge bag of gifts for a child at Lunar New year.

$100 will provide medical care for a very sick child.

... and so on.

There are more details on the web site, of course - click here to see. Donations of under $50 will get you a 12cm x 15cm photo, slotted into a blank card - so it can be used as a Christmas card for friends and family. A donation of over $50 will get you a 20cm x 30cm print, which can be framed and hung.


We've kicked off the campaign early so we have plenty of time for postage. The website does have all the details, but email James - james@bdcf.org - with any questions.



Special thanks to the photographers who have let us use their images!

Particularly as this is something so new, we're happy to hear some feedback from you on what you think of the concept...

Wrap up

I'm back in Hanoi now, and the 11 kids plus 2 staff have just arrived in Hue on the train. On Wednesday morning, their local People's Committees - roughly equivalent to village councils - will have an official 'welcome back' party, and each of the kids' families will receive gifts.

Blue Dragon's 2 staff in Hue will then start their job of finding out more about each of the children and working out what needs to be done to keep them safely at home.

Three of the 11 are from a commune we've never worked in before; rescuing them from the factories was the first step in us ending trafficking in an area called Vinh Hung. With a population of over 7800, government estimates are that there are 50 children working in southern factories at any given time. I'm hoping we can verify that figure - collecting data and gathering accurate statistics are among the myriad challenges we face in this work.

Two other great challenges stand out at the moment.

First, the issue of collecting evidence of conditions in the factories. I have posted some images and video clips in the past to give an indication of what it's like for the kids, but it seems that this latest trip has yielded nothing in the way of 'visual evidence'. There's still a chance there are some photos that haven't been handed over to me yet, but so far what we have is really uninformative.

It's very difficult to capture such evidence. Naturally, the factory owner and his family and colleagues will do everything they can to prevent us from taking video and photos. Sometimes they do this by surrounding the staff, which can be rather intimidating. Unless you have considerable experience, it's not easy to take photos while you are feeling physically threatened.

But the conditions that the kids live and work in are dreadful. Here's a typical example:

The 2 boys pictured below are aged 14 (yellow shirt) and 15 (red shirt). They are among the 11 who have just returned home. The woman beside them is a Blue Dragon staff member; the man in the middle is Mr Sa, an official from Hue; the man in blue is the factory owner; and the man on the end is a Red Cross worker.


For these boys, the working day in the factory started at 6am. They sat on the concrete floor cutting out cloth until 12pm, at which time they had a 2 hour break for lunch and a nap. From 2pm to 6pm - back to work, then an hour for dinner. Finally, they worked from 7pm to midnight.

Sunday was their "day of rest:" they worked as normal, but finished at 6pm instead of midnight.

They were paid, sort of... at Lunar New Year, the factory owner will (or says he will) send money to their parents, as originally agreed. It will come to about $200 in total, if they are lucky.

So they've been working 100 hours per week, and their families will receive the equivalent of less than $20 per month.

You see why I worry about how we can collect better evidence about this?

The second challenge we face is one that starts now: how to best help the kids once they get back to their villages.

All of the 11 are aged 13-15, and each has been out of school for too long. Very few are likely to want to, or be able to, return to school. They each have the idea of "hoc nghe", or vocational training, but none is old enough to study a trade. And who's to say they are suited to vocational training anyway?

Back in their villages, the kids are likely to be bored. If they do return to school, they'll be in classes with much younger students - and not only much younger, but vastly less 'worldly wise.' The kids might have trouble fitting in.

Ideally, I can imagine creating an informal school that might be seen as 'pre-vocational training,' without necessarily leading on to vocational training. But some hands on, child-appropriate learning of a range of disciplines to give the 'returnees' a taste of several different fields of study and employment - IT, mechanics, beauty, hospitality, languages. Sadly, that's just a dream for now.

Without diminishing our joy at having 11 kids out of the factories and back with their families, I acknowledge that there continue to be some grave challenges ahead.

This work really is for the long term, and not something we can finish off neatly with a single trip to the south.

Eleven, and done

We're finished!

In complete contradiction to my blog this morning, we've had the smoothest and quickest rescue trip yet.

Six boys and 5 girls, aged 13 to 15. Lots of tears were shed - tears of relief.

Homeward bound we go!

Making waves

A quick update from Saigon...

We've had terrific progress this morning - we already have 7 kids out of factories, and it's only midday here in Vietnam. The team is working like a steamroller, going from factory to factory. The traffickers have been taken by surprise.

Hoping to post a photo tonight...

It's on!

This morning I am blogging from Saigon, where a team from Blue Dragon and Hue government officials have come to look for kids trafficked into garment factories.

We have a window of 30 hours. Even by now, word will be out that we're in town, and traffickers will be starting to hide the kids away so that we can't find them.

For a few reasons, this is a logistically difficult rescue trip, so we're not expecting to take home a great many kids. However, getting just one child out of slavery is worthwhile, so we know our time and resources won't be wasted.

I'll post another update within the next 12 hours - but be aware that I don't have constant access to internet for the next day or so. Apologies in advance if I'm slow to respond to messages.

Hoping to have good news VERY soon...

A day out

Last week, I received a text message in Vietnamese which said, roughly translated: "Michael oi, do you have free time? I want to spend a day with you before I go away."

The message was from a 16 year old whom I'll call Han. He used to live at the Blue Dragon shelter; at age 14, he'd never been to school before so he lived with us for over a year while he studied and learned basic literacy. But then he moved out to live with his mother again, and sadly he didn't seem interested in either continuing to study or finding a job.

Like teenagers anywhere, having nothing to do inevitably meant that he ended up getting in to trouble - and lots of it.

In January this year, a few months before his 16th birthday, Han was out with a group of friends looking to make some fast money. They robbed a young man on the street, injuring him quite badly, and made off with his cash.

Brash and brazen, but not well planned. They were caught pretty soon afterwards and before long found themselves in court.

Blue Dragon employs 2 Child Rights Advocates - supporting and defending kids in trouble with the law is a major part of what we do. But Han told us nothing of this; it was only after the court case that we found out he'd been in trouble.

The court verdict: 3 years in an adult prison.

I have no doubt that Han deserves a strong punishment. He used a knife in the robbery. He attacked someone on the street. He has no excuse for any of that.

However, the severity of the sentence seemed shocking.

Han and the co-defendants indicated that they would appeal, and so they were not sent immediately to prison; in an act of leniency, the court allowed them to go out on bail until the appeal was heard.

At this point one of our lawyers, a young woman named Hong, became involved, but we held out little hope. Some research and meetings with court officials indicated that the most likely outcome of an appeal would be a 6 month reduction. We were told that Han could try offering compensation to the victim, but the suggested amount was well over what most staff at Blue Dragon earn in a year. Han doesn't have that kind of money, and nor did we think it was morally right for us to pay it on his behalf; it would be like we were helping him avoid punishment. That's not why donors give us money!

So when the court case finally came around, we were expecting the very worst. A sentence to an adult prison for a 16 year boy who looks quite young for his age would be disastrous.

But the result of the appeal: 2 years in reform school!

Now, I have to admit that I'm usually sad to see the kids go to reform school. In Han's case, though, I'm thrilled! Reform school is a much more suitable punishment; it's not going to be an easy ride, but it's more appropriate to his age and he'll still be deprived his freedoms for long enough to think seriously about what he's done.

And then the icing on the cake: Hong asked the court to delay sending Han to reform school in order to allow him to attend his brother's wedding a couple of weeks later. They agreed!

I don't think I should say that there's a happy ending to this story; I will only be able to say that in a couple of years if Han comes out of reform school and has had a genuine change of heart. Here's to hoping.

For now, it was nice to spend some time riding about Hanoi with Han, drinking coffee by the Opera House and visiting another young man, a former gang leader who is opening his own business.

The police will be coming soon to detain Han - he doesn't know when, but the brother's wedding is over so it won't be long now. And in 2 years, or less with good behaviour, he'll be back with a chance to make something of his life.

A 17th, a first

Monday night was one of those occasions that remind me of how special our work here at Blue Dragon really is.

Hung (pictured - in the red shirt) invited a few of us to celebrate his 17th birthday with him. Alongside Hung in the photo below are Giang, our Social Work coordinator; Vi, a volunteer who has been teaching Hung; and yours truly.


Being asked to join in this party was special for a few reasons.

Above all: this was Hung's first ever birthday party. He's never celebrated his 'special day' before; never had a cake and people singing "Happy birthday" for him.

Personally, I find some sorrow in that. I feel a bit guilty. I've known Hung for about 4 years - and I've never known his birthday.

But I've come to realise that Hung has never before told us about his birthday; he's never wanted us to celebrate with him. It's been his own secret, and only now does he want to share his birthday with others.

Hung's birthday was also special because of where he's come from.

All of the Blue Dragon kids have a powerful story; there's always pain and sadness. That's why they're with us. On a public forum such as this blog, though, I cannot always go into the details. For Hung, suffice to say that he's had a rocky ride, and it's just in the past few months that he's really started getting his life together.

He's working in one of Hanoi's best restaurants... he's living in our shelter again... he's studying at the centre after work... and I've never seen him with a more positive outlook on life.

After dinner (pizza!) as we headed out into the autumn night, Hung couldn't stop thanking us for taking him out to dinner. And yet, each of us felt that we should be thanking Hung for letting us join in his special day.

Monopoly...

... it's the new favourite game at Blue Dragon!

Grandma

The past was marked by a very sad event: the death of one of the Blue Dragon grandmothers, Ba Thi.

Many of the kids at our centre live with grandparents; typically, the older generation is looking after grandkids who have been abandoned by their own parents, and sadly this is often because of drugs. The grandparents who are in this situation, raising infants, children and teens, strike me as being true heroes: sacrificing everything to help the kids.

Ba Thi was one of those heroes. Aged 72, she was caring for 3 grandchildren, aged 2 to 12, and supported this makeshift family by selling tea at Hanoi's famous Hoan Kiem Lake. Earlier this year, as I watched the Lunar New Year fireworks at the lake, Ba Thi spotted me there and plied me with green mango and sweets, asking nothing in return.

Blue Dragon's main involvement with Ba Thi has been to support her eldest grandson, Hiep. He's a very serious little boy, too old and wise for his age and tiny demeanour - he's already seen way too much of this world. When he was a bit smaller, his grandmother would ride her bicycle to Blue Dragon in the mornings with Hiep dangling on the back, then she'd ride back in the afternoon to pick him up. She always had a smile and wanted to chat. Just from seeing her, you'd never know the hardship that she lived in.

On Tuesday, Ba Thi was riding her bicycle over Long Bien bridge with her 2 year old grandchild on the back when a passing motorbike hit her from behind. She was thrown onto the road and hit her head, knocking her immediately into unconsciousness. The young man on the motorbike called for help and made sure Ba Thi was rushed to hospital - but after a day or so in a coma, she passed away. The grandchild, fortunately, was uninjured.

Thursday's funeral was a strange event: the whole thing was run by the father of the motorbike rider and Blue Dragon's newest and youngest staff member. I figured that half of the mourners were either high or drunk, and most stood around in clusters angrily damning the young man who had hit Ba Thi. None of them seemed to be paying any attention to little Hiep or his brothers, who comforted each other and looked just like sad little men, all alone.

It was pretty clear that the one person who truly loved and cared for Hiep has now died. And Hiep is well aware of that.

(Incidentally, the man who caused the accident is in police custody, and I can't help but feel terrible pity for him. He's only 21 himself, and as far as I can tell he wasn't doing anything particularly dangerous or malevolent).

For now, Hiep is staying at the Blue Dragon shelter. We're not sure yet if a family member will want him to live with them, or if his move to our Home will be permanent.

He's more than welcome to stay with us - he's a terrific little guy, and would fit in well. But I'd like to think that some family members will want to put up a fight to look after him themselves.

(I have changed the names in this story to protect Hiep's identity. This article, in Vietnamese, also reports on the incident but has maintained anonymity. The child pictured was with Ba Thi at the time of the accident).

Heading back

After 2 weeks away from Vietnam, I'm finally en route home!

It's been an exciting 2 weeks - for various reasons. The time in New Zealand and Melbourne has been great, with some terrific offers of support and some great time spent with friends. The 3 boys are seetled into their courses at NTEC and loving Auckland!

There's also been some excitement back in Hanoi - but the sort of excitement related to break-ins, gangs, and an attempted stabbing. Not quite the excitement we like, but unfortunately that's the nature of our work! The Blue Dragon staff have been amazing in how well they have dealt with everything, and I'm looking forward to getting back to the centre on Monday to support them.

I've said it before, but a HUGE thanks is due to Jetstar for covering all the flights on this trip...

Festivals and football

It's the mid Autumn festival in Vietnam - time for moon cakes, parties, and dancing dragons! Here are some pics of the kids at the Hoi An Children's Home...




... and in Hanoi, our football team has once again joined the Hanoi Youth Football League. One of our 2 teams won their age group in the last tournament; we're hoping to do well again this time!

In the first week, our teams came second in their games (yes, yes, I know what 'second' means in soccer...) but they had a terrific time!

A week on the north island

For the past week I have been on New Zealand's north island; mostly in Auckland, where our three boys have started their courses at NTEC and are off to a flying start.

The oldest boy, Chinh, has started a diploma of business management; the two younger boys, Son and Khanh, are studying English and in a few months time will join some hospitality courses. They're on a real high now: the teachers are amazing, the students are friendly, and they are learning LOTS.

Our biggest challenge now is to secure sponsorship for their homestays and living expenses, which has turned out to be rather difficult. I'm leaving Auckland on Monday, but will have to keep working on this as it's rather urgent!

While here in New Zealand, I traveled to Wellington for launch of the Blue Dragon Children's Trust (New Zealand). The event was hosted by Wellington College, and we had a terrific turnout for the start of what should be a pretty dynamic and exciting organisation.

I caught up with some great friends there and spoke at the Harbour City Rotary Club before heading to Taupo, where Chinh studied English last year. I was only there for about 24 hours, but spent time with his former homestay family, who have remained in close contact with Chinh, and was able to thank the school where Chinh studied. Incidentally, while I was in Taupo we had the news that Chinh's IELTS test results had come through: he scored a 6!

Visiting New Zealand has been fantastic, and I am already planning to get back here next March. But for now, it's just about time to pack my bags...

Hello New Zealand!

The Blue Dragon boys have made it to Auckland, ready to start their scholarships on Monday!

Time for the Tales

The latest Blue Dragon newsletter, Dragon Tales, has just been emailed out - another great read!

If you're not on the mailing list, drop my staff a note and they'll be happy to send you the quarterly newsletter: info@bdcf.org.

Bits and pieces from Hanoi

As usual, my lack of regular blogging doesn't mean that nothing is happening... In fact it's quite the opposite. There's so much going on that I am not sure where to start!

Most of our kids are back at school now, with the summer holidays behind us. People sometimes mistakenly think that Blue Dragon is, or has, a school; we do have classes at our centre, but our goal is to get the kids into local schools or training programs. There are at least a dozen different schools around Hanoi which our kids attend, each according to need.

Back in March, I wrote about a girl named Bi who had suffered a brain injury and was struggling to regain her speech and senses. Although not fully recovered - my staff say "about 80%" - Bi is now often at the Blue Dragon centre, playing games or studying private lessons with our teacher. She's able to communicate quite well, and although she often looks to be in a world of her own the visible recovery she has made is quite remarkable.

If you're a follower of Blue Dragon on Facebook, you may have seen the notice about Cath DeVrye's latest book, Paper Clips Don't Grown On Trees. Cath once volunteered with us, and has been a terrific supporter ever since. Check out her book here - each purchase helps Blue Dragon Children's Foundation!

Three of our older kids (18-21) are heading off to Auckland next week for 6-12 months of study at the National Technology Institute. Together with our student at Chatsworth International School in Singapore, that makes 4 of our kids on international scholarships. These scholarships, although free, do come at a cost - Blue Dragon still needs to support living allowances, and even the process of applying for a visa for former street kids is rather complex and time-consuming - but these are amazing opportunities that are just too good to turn down.

Our drop-in centre has a steady flow of new faces these days; our staff have become great at finding runaway children, bringing them to the centre to care for them, and help them reunite with their families. As I write this, one of our staff is in the countryside with a 14 year old named Long who has been living on the streets for less than a month. Long has been really worried about going home, but the text message from my staff about 20 minutes ago said: We are back at Long's house now... Everything is fine and Long is very happy."

And speaking of the drop-in centre, here's what the kids were up to this afternoon...

Waiting...

Jumping...

... and over!

I don't think this ended well.

On the road

Over the past week, I have been on the road quite a bit - hence the blogging silence. Today I am blogging from a cafe in Saigon.

First stop on my trip was Hue, where Blue Dragon runs a program to help trafficked children. We've pretty much ended child trafficking in 3 villages, and are on the way to ending it in a fourth, so we now have to decide which village to move on to next. Plans are underway for a rescue trip in a few months time, so the staff have started gathering information from the community about which children have been taken, and where they might be now.

Even though the trafficking rings have been disrupted, we still have a commitment to working in the villages for a few years yet. We need to keep on supporting the families of children who were trafficked, and making sure the traffickers don't have any chance to come back.

To this end, we need to raise some funds to build a house for one family - more info about that in the Blue Dragon newsletter, which should be emailed out within a week. We're also helping one mother who is very sick and in hospital at the moment.

One village has asked us to build them a road to connect their homes to the highway, which will give them better access to local markets. We hope to be able to do that soon, too!

After Hue, I traveled south to Hoi An, where we have been working at the Hoi An Children's Home since 2007. Before we started at the Home, conditions were quite difficult for the kids: there was a Director and a cook, but no other staff to look after the children from day to day, and no formal structure to ensure the health and safety of the 30 girls and boys living there.

Now the Home has social workers and carers, ensuring supervision and support around the clock, along with a really well organised program of social work.

For the long term, the Home eventually needs to go back to being under local management, so Blue Dragon has started the first step in this direction. We've now partnered with another organisation based in Hoi An, called CHIA, which is now getting involved at the Home. By working closely with CHIA, we hope to improve services for the kids even more. A big part of my work in Hoi An on this trip was meeting with CHIA to discuss the practical aspects of such a partnership.... Doesn't sound very exciting, but it was really important and I'm confident that we've made some good decisions!

And now I am in Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh City. Blue Dragon doesn't have any formal program here, but I need to visit some kids and other organisations, so I've managed to fit that in with a long weekend (it's Vietnamese national day today).

This morning I went to visit the Green Bamboo Shelter, a home for over 20 street kids. I met with Mrs Phat, the Director, who took the time to chat with me about how her Home works. Blue Dragon runs a similar Home in Hanoi, so it was quite cathartic to compare our struggles and challenges and see how similar they are!

Later today I will meet with one of the Blue Dragon kids from Hanoi who has been working in the south for some months. He's been learning motorbike repair, and is excited at the chance to catch up. And of course, I have already met up with Vu, who now carries his school bag with him absolutely everywhere (even on a public holiday!) and beams with joy pretty much continuously. What a kid.

Hopefully tomorrow I will go to visit the staff of Saigon Children's Charity, who helped enormously with Vu's case. And then - if the rain stops, I might behave like a tourist for a couple of days!

Runaway reunion

Working with runaway children is a significant part of daily life at Blue Dragon. We have staff whose job is to meet kids on the street and help them sort out their problems, so there are always at least 2 or 3 children around our centre who have run away from home and have been living in Hanoi.

We can't always help the kids to go home - sometimes they have run away for their own safety - but we do try to get them to at least visit their families to open up a line of communication.

Yesterday, two of our staff - Huong and Vi - traveled 6 hours out of Hanoi with a 16 year old boy to reunite him with his family. Here are some photos that give an idea of what's involved...

1. The journey
Many runaways in Hanoi come from very isolated parts of Vietnam. Getting the kids home is often a challenge! The Blue Dragon car does its best, but sometimes needs a little help...


2. The reunion

There are usually tears. Nothing wrong with that at all.


3. The issues

When children run away from home, there are always several related and complex reasons. Poverty is usually (although not always) a big factor. This is the home of the family our staff went to yesterday.


4. Family.

There's almost always a family. Forget the stereotype that 'street kids don't have families.' In all of our work over the past 8 years, we've only encountered one child who has absolutely no family at all - and even in his case, it's probably just that nobody (including the child) knows who the family is. Runaway kids do generally have families, and many (like this one) have family members who truly care about their welfare.

And a happy new year

In late December 2009, after spending Christmas in Hanoi with the Blue Dragon kids, I headed to Ho Chi Minh City for a short holiday.

I love Saigon. When I moved to Vietnam in 2002, my plan was to live there. Although I'm happy now living in Hanoi, I still miss the south and love to spend my holidays there.

So this year I wanted to spend New Years there. I figured it would be fun and relaxing, and I went with no real plans other than to catch up on some sleep.

Late on the 31st I walked the streets of the city, watching some outdoor concerts and enjoying the festivities. But, not being much of a party animal, I decided to head back to my hotel at about 1130.

It was a long walk, and by midnight I was getting close. I knew it was midnight because I could hear the firecrackers start far off in the distance.

At that exact moment, a small boy appeared out of nowhere with a huge smile and a friendly "hello!" He was oblivious to the fact that it was new years eve and midnight, and that he was missing a great display of fireworks not too far away. He was just genuinely excited to be talking to a foreigner.

I quickly learned his name was Vu, and he was selling helmets by the side of the road at a major intersection. I'd walked past this same spot half a dozen times, but never noticed him before. On this night, he was there with his 2 cousins, whose mother owned the stall but had already gone home for the night.

Vu was 14, and his cousins were about 17 - but all looked far younger. They were a bit dirty and were clearly very tired, but the sudden distraction of a foreigner who could speak Vietnamese cheered them up immediately. We chatted for about fifteen minutes before I wandered off, smiling to myself at what a happy and unexpected encounter I'd had.

Over the next few days, I met Vu and his cousins repeatedly. The older cousin, just turning 18, was pregnant. The younger one, a boy, worked until 2am each day in a side-of-the-road restaurant, earning about $70 per month. So the long day of selling helmets was mostly left to Vu and his aunty, who I spent many hours with at the intersection, talking about her life in between customers and learning about how she had come to sell helmets with her children and Vu.

Having worked with street kids for over 7 years now, I'm fairly good at getting a sense of the character of young people. Vu impressed me. At times he was like a child in kindergarten, wide-eyed at a new toy or jumping on the spot with joy at seeing a friend. But every time a motorbike crashed near his stall - which was at least two or three times a day - he would run out into the traffic to help someone get up, brush them down, and see them on their way. Over and over I watched him go out of his way to help complete strangers, never for any reward, and many times he was treated with disdain by passersby on expensive motorbikes, but it never deterred him. He wore the same infectious smile no matter what happened.

Until, that is, the day I was leaving. When it was time for me to return to Hanoi, Vu was inconsolable. Trying to hide his tears, he told me that he had an eye infection, but he was clearly distraught and for the following week I had constant text messages from Vu, using his aunt's mobile phone, to ask what I was doing and when I would return to see him.

Since that eventful new year, I've been back to visit Vu and his family several times. His cousin has given birth to a baby boy, and Blue Dragon helped out with some medical costs as well as a small allowance until the baby's father got a stable job. Vu's enthusiasm for text messages has eased off a bit - I imagine his aunty had to sell quite a few helmets to pay the phone bill - but we've still been in contact regularly and Blue Dragon has helped the aunty with some cash each month to support her nephew. They live in a tiny room, 4 people and a baby all together, and work unbelievably long hours to scratch together a living. What could I do to make things better?

A few months ago, I contacted a man named Paul, who runs the Saigon Children's Charity. Vu had told me that he wanted to study, and I was happy to pay for a tutor, but I was wondering if Paul could help me find a suitable teacher.

Instead, Paul asked his social workers to look into the case, and eventually they came up with a way to help Vu get back to a proper school. This was something that I simply couldn't do from Hanoi! And on top of this, they found a reputable local shelter that was prepared to accept Vu so that he could have better living conditions. In short, this was to make sure he wouldn't be compelled to work until the early hours of the morning, which would certainly mean that he couldn't keep up at school. Vu has been out of the schooling system for a couple of years, so he needs all the support he can get.

And finally, the Saigon Children's Charity staff found a vocational training course for Vu's cousin who has been working in the restaurant. He now studies motorbike repair in the morning, and helps his mother sell helmets in the afternoon.

This morning, Vu went to school for the first time in 3 years. He's in Grade 5, and one of the staff from the shelter sent me a message to say that he's doing really well.

Vu's outlook is great. He's back at school, living in a secure environment not too far from his aunt, and his cousin is studying a trade with a guaranteed job upon graduation.

If only every story could have such a happy ending!

First day

The new school year is starting, and there are lots of exciting developments among the Blue Dragon kids.

Here's just one:

This afternoon, a 15 year old boy named Hung went to school for the very first time in his life.

Hung has grown up on the streets of Hanoi with his mother and siblings. To earn money, they shine shoes in the outer districts, but Hung has long wanted the chance to study.

Our outreach worker Vi met Hung late last year, and gradually built up a relationship with him and his mother. Hung has been coming to our drop-in centre every day for over 6 months, and apart from playing Connect 4 with the other kids (he's a champion! Nobody can beat him!) he's been studying with our teacher, Ninh, to learn some basic literacy.

And today, he went to school.

I can't post a photo, but I can say that we're immensely happy to have made this happen.

From street kid to IT guy

In July 2004, I met a teenage boy shining shoes on the streets of Hanoi.

Linh was a bright kid, and very shy. It took some time to learn how he had come to be on the streets, but eventually he revealed that he had run away because of a dispute with his mother.

Linh lived in the countryside with his mother and a younger sister. They were extremely poor, and often didn't have enough money to eat breakfast. So one day, frustrated and not able to face the difficulties of his life, Linh left home and headed to Hanoi.

At the time, Blue Dragon was a very small organisation - we were not even registered with the Vietnamese government - but we had really good outreach into the community and had already started a (tiny!) drop-in centre. So we were able to help Linh with some basic needs, and could give him a place to stay when he needed it.

Linh (in the yellow shirt) at the Blue Dragon centre.
This picture was taken in July 2004. The other kids pictured were
also street kids at the time.

After some weeks with us, Linh was ready to accept our help to return home. Van, who is now Blue Dragon's lawyer (but on leave to study in the US), was a uni student at the time, and volunteered to accompany Linh home. This was Van's first experience of reuniting a runaway with their family, and it was a terrific success. Linh's mother and the entire neighborhood came out to celebrate the return of the boy who they feared was dead!

Once Linh was home, Blue Dragon continued supporting him to study, and to ensure that his family didn't have to worry so much about money. His school results were always good, and from time to time he'd even travel to Hanoi to visit us.

Today, Linh is a student at a private college in Hanoi learning IT. He's in one of the best colleges around, called Aptech, with the course almost entirely in English. We normally couldn't afford to send him to Aptech, but a private donor gave us the money to pay for the course in full, and so Linh has had the opportunity of a lifetime.

Linh with a certificate of excellence from his college (July 2010).

Linh is now entering the last 6 months of the course, and his results have been great so far. He's starting to dream of landing his first job, or maybe studying further overseas.

Such a long way from his days shining shoes to survive in Hanoi!

A great idea

There's a new venture in Hanoi that is being set up as a way of supporting local orphanages. It's called Little Tigers, and the website is here: little-tigers.org.

Little Tigers runs a second-hand store in Hanoi, with all the items donated, and all profits going to fund specific needs in orphanages in and around town. As they're still in the early stages, the shop is currently only open once per month... and the next opening day is this coming Saturday, August 7.

Check out their website... Shop there this weekend... And support this great cause!

Hien, now

Hien is an 18 year old girl who was in the original 'intake' of students who joined our Stay In School program back in 2004.

Stay In School supports kids in Grades 5-12 in a rural province just outside Hanoi. We identify those students who are at high risk of dropping out of school due to extreme poverty, and ensure they have the means to complete their education.

The most recent edition of Dragon Tales, our quarterly newsletter, featured the story below about Hien now finishing Grade 12 and preparing to enter university.

Now that her university entrance exams are over, Hien has been helping out at the Blue Dragon centre in Hanoi. That's Hien below, with 3 of the kids hanging out this afternoon.



Many days, Hien helps out with the drop-in centre, which has been very busy during the summer break. But she has also been assisting our staff with administration, and last week she was out in the countryside interviewing new families who have asked for Blue Dragon's support.

It's great to see her now so confident and capable. Sometimes it's hard to believe that she hasn't even started uni yet - she's such a reliable worker around the office!

In coming weeks, Hien will get her uni entrance results, which will determine which course she can take, and at which university. We're looking forward to supporting her through her tertiary studies... and , who knows? Maybe she'll be working for us full time in years to come...

Getting the families on side

I've just returned to Hanoi after spending a couple of days in Hue, visiting families of trafficked children.

I've written many times about Blue Dragon's work of rescuing kids who have been trafficked from central to southern Vietnam. It's a difficult and dangerous part of our work, but arguably the most valuable.

Once we get the kids home, though, we still have much to do. Helping the children return to school is never easy: most have been away from school for 2 years or more. Some of the kids, now in their early teens, have never been to school. We can't just take the to the school gates and drop them off, hoping that everything will be alright.

Across the three communes where we are currently helping families, some of the children have dropped out of the schools or training courses we helped to enrol them in. While this hasn't been a huge problem, it has been growing, so I decided to go to Hue and talk with the families about this directly.

In Hue, we have just 2 staff running our anti-trafficking program. They're out in the villages every day helping families to solve problems, and often overseeing the building of houses or the running of a youth centre we opened in one village. To deal with this issue of children giving up their studies, we decided to call 3 meetings - one in each commune - in which the staff and I would stand together with local government and Red Cross officials to talk about the importance of education. In short, we called for the parents to work with us to keep their kids in school.

We've never done anything like this before, but this is a new problem so we needed to think of a creative solution.

Each meeting was a little different. The very first meeting was attended almost exclusively by fathers and grandfathers; the second was attended only be mothers. Each village clearly has its own way of doing things!


In one village, the Red Cross leader told the families that education must be important - after all, Michael has come all the way from Australia to help your kids go to school, so surely you can make more of an effort to send them! I couldn't help but chuckle at that line. But, hey, whatever works!

Families were invited to give us their feedback and let us know if they had any problems we could help with. This was the part of the meetings where all the really interesting stuff happened.

One very elderly man spoke about his two grand daughters, both of whom we brought home from factories. Although the whole family wanted them home, he explained, the younger of the two just didn't want to go to school, so they took her to a fortune teller. The advice was that the girl was never going to be a doctor or a teacher, so there was no real need to force her to go to school. Instead, the mother took her back to Ho Chi Minh City to find another factory to work in.


While a story like this might just seem bizarre to anyone in the west, it's not unusual at all here in Vietnam for families to make a decision like this based on the words of a fortune teller. Even with the local officials urging the grandfather to bring the girl back and send her to school, it's unlikely that he will.

At another meeting, a group of parents had joined together to write a proposal to us. They needed help to improve their incomes, they said, so would we consider giving them a loan to buy fishing nets? I must have looked stunned for a moment, because I was just so impressed that the villagers had thought up a solution to their problem and had the foresight to put it in writing. Mistaking my expression for confusion, one mother spoke up: "If you can give us this loan, we'll be able to earn more money for our families and invest more in our children's education."

These are the words that charity workers dream of hearing. Yes, they'll be getting that loan for sure!

There's no doubt that these community meetings have made an impact on the parents. They all agreed that they should do their best to encourage their kids to go to school, and to let us know if there are any problems we can help with. School starts again in mid August: we'll soon know just how our strategy has worked!

Visit

This morning Blue Dragon had a very special visitor - the spouse of Thailand's Foreign Minister, who is in Vietnam for an ASEAN meeting.

Mrs. Chintana Piromya, along with some colleagues from Thailand and the Royal Thai Embassy, spent this morning meeting our kids, touring our centre, and learning about street kids in Vietnam.

Towards the end of the visit, there was a lovely moment when the Blue Dragon kids brought the craft items they had been making as gifts to our visitors. This wasn't something we had planned, but the children wanted to say thanks for the donations that the Thai visitors had brought to us.

Mrs. Piromya is in the centre, wearing a black top

We don't often have foreign dignitaries turn up at our centre, so this morning was really special for all of us!