Search, rescue, celebrate

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

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

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

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

Children and volunteers dancing at a Tet party in Hue

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

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

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

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

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

A happy return

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dat and his sister in their family home

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

Blue Dragon staff having lunch with Dat's family

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