The life of Phi Quang Huy

Today's news from Blue Dragon is very sad: Last night, Phi Quang Huy passed away at home, aged 25. 

Huy and his family have been a part of Blue Dragon since 2009. Both Huy and his brother Kien were born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic condition that left them both permanently wheelchair bound after its onset around the age of 10. 

Huy's mother and older sister have devoted their lives to caring for Huy and his brother every moment of every day: but sadly, Huy's passing has been only a matter of time. The typical life expectancy of anyone with DMD is just 25 years. 

Despite his severe disability, Huy made the most of life, in ways that inspired many. He studied English and wrote poetry as a hobby; in 2011 his reading of his poem, "Wonderful Mother," at the Blue Dragon Tet Awards left the packed room in tears. 

Knowing that he had received much help throughout his life, Huy decided that he wanted to help others. In recent years he established libraries for people with disabilities; sitting in his wheelchair, with a friend helping him access email and the internet, Huy organised the library to give opportunities to other house-bound teens. His efforts attracted the local media, and Huy became something of a celebrity in disability circles: 

http://dantri.com.vn/nhip-song-tre/vong-uoc-cua-chang-trai-go-may-tinh-bang-dua-532286.htm

http://www.tienphong.vn/Gioi-Tre/Nhip-Song/547835/Tu-sach-Vong-Uoc-chap-canh-uoc-mo-tpov.html

Huy's passing means our world has lost a great young man who cared for others and inspired many. But it is his life that should be remembered, and the great lesson he has taught us: That no matter what obstacles we face in life, we can still care for those around us. 

I'll finish with Huy's poem - both in Vietnamese and in English. The words of this wonderful young guy deserve to live on forever. 

Người mẹ vĩ đại  Có tôi trên đời nhờ công ơn của mẹ, Tuổi thơ tôi trải muôn vàn giông tố, Vẫn lênh đênh giữa biển đời xuôi ngược. Cha mất đi khi tuổi còn thơ dại. Đã kịp đâu hưởng thụ và cảm nhận, Thế nào là tình cha khi chỉ còn lại mẹ. Hỏi thế gian tìm đâu, công bằng hạnh phúc? Cướp đi người cha, cướp luôn cả gia tài. Nhọc nhằn công sức cha và mẹ, Xây lên từ những giọt mồ hôi, và nước mắt, Suốt tháng năm tuổi trẻ của hai người, Phút chốc biến tan lại trở về bàn tay trắng. Cha sinh thành, mẹ nuôi dưỡng đến bây giờ, Nếm trải cuộc đời bằng tuổi đời ngắn ngủi. Hai mươi năm đã bao lần mắc cạn, Tôi sống trưởng thành một tay mẹ chèo lái, Đã thành nhân cũng là bàn tay mẹ, Dẫu tôi trên chuyến tàu còn chưa cập bến. Luôn khắc ghi công ơn người lái tàu vĩ đại, Người mẹ thân yêu mà con hằng kính phục. Con xin dành tặng mẹ ngàn lời cảm tạ, Đã dành cho con những gì đẹp nhất. Tiếc nuối làm chi một cuộc đời như thế, Mẹ kính yêu con yêu người hơn tất cả. Wonderful mother I was brought into the world by the will of my mother My childhood experienced lots of ups and downs And still ebbs and flows in the sea of life. My father passed away when I was still small I did not have any chance to experience and feel, What is a father’s love, as only my mother remained. I wonder where in the world is justice and happiness, When my father, and all we owned were taken away All the  effort my parents had built up From their tears and sweat During the many years of their life, All of it has gone  in a minute and leave nothing as in the beginning My parents gave me birth but only my mother raised me until now I have been experiencing life only for a short time, For 20 years I have faced many challenges Becoming mature thanks to my mother Everything I have become is because of my mother Though I am still in the boat that hasn't reached the shore I always appreciate the effort of my great captain My dear mother who I admire My appreciation thousands of times I show for my mother Who has given me all the best What an admirable life My dear respected mother, I love you more than anything.

Crisis / Resolution

Today Blue Dragon has some good news.

In May, we launched an appeal to grow our crisis work with street kids and victims of human trafficking here in Vietnam; and we're happy to say that we have raised a touch over $190,000.

There are still some pledges to come in, but it looks like we've made it. The goal was $192,000, but we can definitely work with what we've got!

This means that over the coming 12 months we'll have lots to report:

- more kids rescued

- more runaways reunited with their families

- more kids fed and sheltered

- more houses built for families

We aren't just aiming to do "more": we have some really specific targets and goals, all of which are "minimums" that we plan to achieve. Hopefully we'll do even more!  The complete list is on the Blue Dragon website, and during the year we will update the page to let you know how we're going.

Blue Dragon Website: Appeal Report

To all who have donated: Thank you. Every dollar will be used to resolve major crises in children's lives. We can't wait to show you how much we will do!

147 and a mea culpa

A comment came through the blog today on my recent Betrayal post:

"Sadly young girls are kidnapped for sexual slavery every single day, even more sad is this rescue is as rare as finding cheese on the moon."

The first time Blue Dragon arranged the rescue of a trafficked child, back in 2005, I assumed that this was how "anti-trafficking" worked. Organisations rescued people who had been trafficked. But as the commenter above points out, it's actually extremely rare.

 A Vietnamese trafficker detained: June 2013

However, I have come to be a big believer that rescue work is critical to the anti-trafficking movement. I would even go so far as to say that rescue is the best prevention.

How can that be!?

Here's what a rescue does.

First, it locates a person who is being held against their will and has called for help - and gets them home. There is no underestimating the human value of doing that.

Second, it leads directly to the arrest of the traffickers. Less traffickers translates to less trafficking.

Third, it raises the stakes for other traffickers. If traffickers can conduct their business risk free, then why not keep doing it? But if you see traffickers getting arrested and prosecuted, you'll think twice about getting into the business yourself. So the arrest of 5 traffickers, for example, does not only mean that the world now has 5 fewer traffickers. It may well mean that there are 50 fewer traffickers.

And fourth, when a trafficked victim is returned home, an entire community is educated. In central Vietnam, Blue Dragon has observed that once we conduct two rescues of children from a particular village, that village will almost certainly have no more trafficking.

This is all a long way of saying: rescues are really, really important.

An Australian charity, The Big Umbrella, has just launched a campaign for Blue Dragon to conduct even more rescues. They are looking for 147 people to donate $1 per day for a year. 100% of the money will fund the rescue of children, teens and young women trafficked into sweatshops and brothels.

This is a practical way to help out, if ever you've wanted to be involved in rescuing trafficked kids.

And now for a mea culpa! Recently on Facebook I posted that Blue Dragon has rescued 313 children and young adults from trafficking. The correct number is 297. We mistakenly counted some of the people we assisted post-rescue, but didn't rescue ourselves. Apologies for the error!

Tertiary needs

When Blue Dragon was just starting, back in 2002, we were a group of volunteers helping street kids in Hanoi. Our immediate goal was to get kids out of danger, off the streets, and back to school.

 At the time we were not thinking that, in years to come, some of those kids would be finishing school and dreaming of going to university. We were focused entirely on the immediate, pressing needs: food, safety, shelter.

But those kids have grown up and, as they have found themselves in safe places, they have allowed themselves to dream of the future. For some, that means studying in university or college and going on to have a career.

We sometimes find it difficult to balance the need for crisis services with the need to give kids long term stability. Our philosophy is that it's not enough to only deal with the immediate crisis that a find a child in: we aim to be there until they can achieve their dreams without us. And so, if the kids want to further themselves through tertiary study, we need to be there for them.

At present we have about 50 tertiary students. They study all around Vietnam, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, and they study in courses as varied as art, economics, civil engineering, and foreign languages.

Blue Dragon's approach, which we only started in the past year, is to give each of the students a combined grant and loan. The loan component is interest free, payable over several years after graduation, and those funds will go towards supporting more students in the future. It's a built in way of allowing our students to help other kids go to university.

Over the past 3 days, the Blue Dragon Tertiary students gathered in Hanoi for workshops, meetings and social activities. They stayed overnight in Dragon House, and during the day the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel donated the use of some meeting rooms - so the kids could really study in style!

The classes were great for many reasons. The kids learned a lot, they forged new friendships, and they had a chance to stand back and see how far they have come.

Some of the kids have long histories with Blue Dragon. One boy, Ngoc, was the focus of this blog back in 2007: Cut. Now he studies IT. Another, Than, appeared on the blog in 2009: I made this.  Than studies at Art College now - no surprises there!

Seeing all the Tertiary Students together for the first time was a real treat. They are such mature young adults now, and yet I can't help but see them as kids.

We're grateful to Barclays Capital for funding the entire event; we wouldn't have been able to do this otherwise! A few photos below show the kids out enjoying some social activities in Hanoi.

Betrayal

Every morning, millions of people in our world wake up far from home in slavery. Children in factories and on farms. Infants forced to beg and steal, or sell on the streets. Girls and women in brothels.

We know that their lives are terrible - but there is something about trafficking that makes this crime different to most others. Human trafficking involves a very particular betrayal of trust and humanity.

Last week Blue Dragon set out on a rescue trip to China. We were looking for a 17 year old girl named "Hanh" (not her real name) who was tricked and kidnapped from northern Vietnam in January this year.

Sold into a brothel, Hanh was forcibly raped day after day for 6 months. The brothel was located underground: from the street, customers walked down a flight of stairs into a windowless basement that housed a dozen or so rooms for Chinese and Vietnamese sex workers.

Hanh made friends with a Chinese sex worker who was free to come and go, and earned her trust to borrow a mobile telephone. The sex worker, in her 20s, knew that she could be in terrible trouble for allowing Hanh to use her phone, but caved in to Hanh's pleas and gave her the phone for just 2 days.

Those 2 days were all we had to find and rescue Hanh.

We flew in to the nearest big city and then drove overland to the town where we believed Hanh was being held. Our only information was that the street frontage was red, and the brothel was below street level. That wasn't much to go on, but a rapid search through the main streets lead us to the right location in just one day.

Finding the brothel turned out to be the easy part. We've never engineered an escape from an underground site before, and security here was the highest that we've ever seen. Hanh revealed over the phone that there was another Vietnamese girl there, "Thi," who also had been kidnapped; she was just 16. Neither of the girls was ever allowed outside without a security guard.

"Hanh" and "Thi" in China

In a case such as this, calling the local police seems like a good option. However, we had to rule it out entirely. Hanh had been rescued by police once already. They raided the brothel and took her back to the Vietnamese border and released her - but her traffickers knew she was coming. Freedom was only an illusion. She was grabbed immediately, taken straight back to the brothel and forced right back to work.

We were going to have to do it ourselves.

Next door to the brothel was a hair salon. Hanh and her friend asked permission to get their hair done - which was a fairly normal thing to do. The security guard stood inside the doorway of the brothel while they stepped next door, as they had done many times before.

This time, though, there was one major difference. We had a car parked across the street with the motor running. As the guard stood dumbly in the doorway, the girls dashed across the street and jumped into the escape car. We were racing down the street before the doors were even closed.

It was all over in about 5 seconds.

The car headed straight back towards Vietnam, which was over 450km away. To be doubly sure of safety, we switched cars twice along the way. The girls hid in the backseat, half thrilled and half terrified.

Even a change of car wasn't enough. Long before we got near the border, a Chinese patrol pulled our car over - apparently at random, but the coincidence seemed too great. For a little while, the whole rescue was in jeopardy. Thankfully we have some friends in the Chinese police, and a few phone calls were enough to have us on our way again after 40 minutes.

Back at the China-Vietnam border, the police on both sides were helpful and supportive. They expedited the border crossing so that the girls could cross over the next morning. A lot of paperwork is involved in getting a victim of trafficking back across the border, so the Blue Dragon staff worked through the night to complete the procedures.

Waiting for the paperwork to be finished... 

That night was the girls' first night of real freedom in months; but still they couldn't sleep. They longed to see their families, and until they were safely home they feared that something could yet go wrong.

The next morning was not uneventful, but it was certainly a success. As planned, the "Handover" ceremony took place between the Chinese and Vietnamese police. Hanh and Thi were officially returned to Vietnam.

The Handover Ceremony on the Chinese - Vietnamese border 

But something else happened as well. Two of her traffickers were caught right there at the border.

This case had originally come to our attention because the Vietnamese police had caught the traffickers, but without a statement from Hanh they couldn't make the charges stick. And even though we were swift in finding her and getting her back to the border, the police had no choice but to release the suspects - according to the law, they can only keep them for 3 days without a formal charge. However, the police were sure that they would soon have Hanh's statements and so followed the 2 suspects right up to the border. They were trying to disappear into China before Hanh could get home and identify them.

Two traffickers, caught  at the border

 
So - a happy ending? In a way, everything has turned out well. Five of the 7 known traffickers are now in custody. Arrest warrants are out for the others, but they've probably made it to China by now and are unlikely to ever return. Hanh and Thi are both home with their families. Earlier this week, Hanh and her parents travelled to Hanoi to thank Blue Dragon for bringing their daughter home; they've had 6 months of terror and they almost can't believe their family is back together again. Hanh wants to go back to school and continue her studies. She was in Grade 11 when she was trafficked.

However, there's more to the story and some more nightmares for Hanh to deal with. Her earlier "rescue" by Chinese police had ended badly; but the story of how she originally was trafficked is even worse.

Often we think of traffickers as evil men in dark suits, violently grabbing girls and stuffing them in to cars. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Hanh's trafficking started with another girl. One of her classmates. On Hanh's birthday back in January, this "friend" invited Hanh to go visit her boyfriend, and as a group they then headed towards the nearest big town for some fun and shopping. It all seemed completely innocent, but the friend and her boyfriend had already lined up someone to buy Hanh from them. All they had to do was hand her over; and Hanh went completely willingly, not even suspecting that a girl from her class at school could be involved in an international plot to kidnap and sell her.

And it gets even weirder.

While Hanh was enslaved in China, her family received a phone call. The traffickers offered to bring Hanh home - for $5000. Of course, it's almost certain that they would have taken the money but never returned Hanh, as she would have been able to identify the traffickers immediately. But we also know that within an hour of Blue Dragon rescuing  Hanh from the brothel, someone was on the phone to her parents claiming to have her and offering to return her for $1500. These guys are networked and well organised.

While the danger of anything happening to Hanh now is extremely low, she has to go on living with the knowledge that all of these terrible events were started at the hands of a classmate. People who know her have abused and exploited her in the worst possible way.

The horrors of enslavement and rape are over, after 6 terrifying months. But how can a 17 year old girl cope with such betrayal at the hands of people she knew and trusted?

Hate me

It's Friday... and the Blue Dragon staff are collectively holding their breath. Can we make it through this weekend without any dramas?

The past week has been packed with crisis.

Our rescue of 2 girls in China, which I will write more about next week, was particularly dangerous; the girls were being kept in an underground brothel, with escape seemingly impossible.

Here in Hanoi, several staff spent much of the week in and out of police stations dealing with kids who had been arrested. The team at Dragon House were focused on counseling teenagers who were turning up with self inflicted cuts and burns, or diagnosed with serious illnesses, or afraid that they (or their girlfriend) were pregnant.

So why all the problems?

The common thread with many of the kids we're working with is a deep self loathing. They've been raised to believe they are bad people. They've heard it from family, from school, and from the community. And then they have come across adults who see their vulnerability, and take full advantage of it.

Teens and children who have no self worth are easy pickings for abusers who want kids for sex, or to sell drugs, or to kidnap and sell to brothels. These experiences, in turn, reinforce the kids' belief that they are useless and valueless. That's when they turn to punishing themselves and engaging in risky behaviour.

During the week, one police station released into our care a teen boy they had arrested. When we picked him up, he had no shirt and no shoes - he was in a real mess. So we grabbed some spare clothes, then took him for a meal on the way back to the Shelter.

As he finished the meal, he excused himself to have a cigarette outside... and promptly vanished. We didn't see him until lunch the next day.

Why would this boy, who we have been caring for over the past 6 months, behave like that? Was he ungrateful? Was he just taking advantage of us?

It was confusing and hurtful for one of the kids treat us like that - but that's exactly what he needed us to feel. Confused and hurt. Because that's how he feels. His life is a mess. He doesn't know who he is or what will happen next. So he wants to know if we really care about him or not. By walking away like that, he was asking us: How will you react? Will you hate me?

I personally find it frightening to see the risky behaviours among the kids, along with the self hate and the self harm. We're seeing it more and more. Vietnam's street kids are facing more problems, and more complex problems, than ever before.

So here's to hoping for a weekend with no arrests, no injuries, no kidnappings. But in case they do occur - and it's pretty likely that they will - we'll be ready as always.

Sometimes...

Blue Dragon works in some dark places. Day to day, we deal with kids being exploited and abused... teens being deceived and abducted... and the often-awful people who make a 'living' out of hurting others.

But sometimes, we stumble across beautiful people and situations, taking us by surprise.

This morning I was riding through Hanoi with Vi, who leads Blue Dragon's Outreach work to street kids. We were on our way to solve a problem (as is the nature of our work!) when we both spotted something happening by the side of the road.

Two boys, who we guessed were runaway boys from the countryside by their appearance and their back packs, were talking to three professional-looking women across from a bank. It looked just a little odd.

So we pulled over to see what was going on. 

The women worked in the bank, and one of them, named Ha, had somehow spotted these two boys and realised that they were hungry and homeless. At the time we saw them, the women were about to take the boys for a meal and see how they could help.

Naturally, the women were very cautious about letting Vi and I in to the conversation: they were being protective of the boys and were worried that we might have bad intentions. But when we introduced ourselves as being from Blue Dragon, the women immediately knew us. Ha had volunteered with us a few years ago, so was thrilled that we had turned up and was glad for the boys to return to Dragon House for a meal.

Hanoi is not a friendly city for street kids. There are many dangers and traps that innocent kids from the countryside know nothing about. But today I was touched to see three young women looking out for the kids, and prepared to go out of their way to ensure some kids were safe.

For all the bad in our world, there are also some great people out there.

... and an update on this story: On investigation, the boys did NOT run away from home; they were invited to the city by someone offering a job in a cafe, but once they arrived it was clear that they were much too young to be working. The boys were very happy to go home, so we contacted their families and put them on the bus back to their village with food in their bellies and some new clothes. 

Let's make this happen

Thanh is 14 years old. He lives in Dien Bien province, up near the border of Laos, where child traffickers are a plague, preying on impoverished rural families with promises of training, jobs, and a better life in the city.

When Thanh was trafficked, he thought he was going to learn to be a tailor. Instead he became a slave in a sweatshop, working up to 18 hours a day for no pay. Blue Dragon found him and his friends in March this year and got him safely home.

But home is not ideal for Thanh. Storms have damaged his already-fragile house, and his mother has no money to repair or rebuild.

Thanh needs a new house before winter arrives. He doesn't need much; just something safe and solid to keep the rain and cold out.

Blue Dragon's Whatever It Takes appeal is raising money for kids in crisis. If you can help with Thanh's house, please donate to the appeal and let us know it's for Thanh - just email claire@bdcf.org. We need $3000 for a full rebuild (yes, an entire house for $3000) and welcome contributions towards this.

A few dollars will give Thanh and his family a powerful new start in life. Let's make this happen.

To the sea!

It's time again for Blue Dragon's annual trip to Halong Bay!

Every summer we get together all of the kids with disabilities who are part of the Blue Dragon family. They are quite a diverse group: some are deaf, some are blind, others are confined to wheelchairs, and many have intellectual impairments.

One thing they have in common is that they lead very difficult lives. This is their only 'fun time' for the year; for most of these kids, their whole life consists of being at home or at a special school. There are no days out, no trips to the park, no visits to the shops.

Once again Halong Pearl Hotel welcomed us in, totally for free, and Exotissimo Travel  provided the transport, making this trip possible. Thank you both for this exceptional generosity.

And exactly what did the kids and their carers do on this trip? I'll let the pictures tell the story...

1 operation, 2 days, 3 traffickers, 4 girls

We're all smiles at Blue Dragon today - our latest operation to find 2 trafficked girls has gone particularly well.

Blue Dragon's lawyer, Van, received a call for help late last week and headed north west to Dien Bien province. Dien Bien is an exceptionally beautiful place, still very undeveloped, and is home mostly to people from ethnic minority communities. But it is also a target for human traffickers. Its sheer remoteness, the great distances between towns, and the endemic poverty make it a fertile province for exploitation of the worst kind.

Van worked with the provincial police to investigate a case of 2 girls who had just gone missing from one village. They discovered that the trafficker was taking them overland to the Chinese border, and so raced north to head them off. Storms and downpours slowed them down, but they made it and Van spent the night in a Chinese border post watching in case the trafficker tried to cross.

This morning, the team spotted the trafficker with 2 girls, and the police swooped in to make the arrest.The girls were hugely relieved to be set free. Their most terrifying nightmare had been narrowly diverted.

On interrogation, the man admitted that one of his partners in crime was in the midst of transporting 2 more girls from another town. Again, they were headed to the border, but in a totally different area. Van and the police spent most of today racing through the mountains, and once again they got there in time. Two more girls released, and this time 2 traffickers arrested.

We've been very fortunate in our work to get some great results over time, but today has been exceptional. Four girls are giving statements to police, and 3 traffickers are now out of action permanently.

We may never know how many girls they have already trafficked, but we do know how many will fall victim to them in the future: None.

Two girls, set free from traffickers, enter the local police station

to give statements 

A suspected trafficker is being taken to the district police

to prepare to face court

Two days of work have made a big difference... Not only in the lives of these 4 girls, but also to the villages which were being targeted by these traffickers. We expect, too, that other traffickers will be scared off, at least for a little while. They can see that the risk of getting caught is increasing. They cannot do this work without fear of consequences. 

A special thanks, too, to our partner organisation Giving It Back To Kids. Van was talking to Robert, the founder of GIBTK, at the moment he received the call for help, and Robert immediately offered to underwrite the costs of the rescue trip. We are really fortunate to have friends like that, who are willing to make this work possible. With this kind of help, we really can do Whatever It Takes to end human trafficking.

The graduate

Blue Dragon's first rescue trip to find trafficked children was in 2006. A small team of us traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to meet kids who had been trafficked onto the streets from central Vietnam.

I was on that team, along with our lawyer Van, a volunteer named Eric, and a former street kid who is now a staff member at Blue Dragon - Vi.

We knew that dozens of kids from Hue province had been deceived into thinking they were going south for an education, and instead were being forced to sell flowers outside night clubs from 7pm to 3am every single night. Our objective was to get the kids home, and break up the trafficking ring.

We succeeded, and took a group of children home to their families in Hue. The trafficking ring gave up soon after.

One of the boys we met on that trip was named Can. He was from a very poor family in Hue province. Although they loved him very much, they had barely enough money to eat, let alone send their kids to school, and so they were very vulnerable to the trafficker's promises of a better life.When they learned what their Son was doing in the south, they just wanted him home.

Although we took Can back to his family at first, we later brought him north to Hanoi so that he could attend a good school. It was clear that Can was particularly bright and had a future in education. If he stayed at home, his prospects were limited, and his family just wanted what was best for him.

And so Can moved to Hanoi and lived in the Blue Dragon shelter. He worked hard - very hard - and soon was top of all his classes.

A few years later, Blue Dragon was presented with an amazing opportunity.

Chatsworth International School in Singapore offered us a 4 year scholarship for one of the kids. All expenses paid. Four years of an American High School diploma, in an international environment. Can was the immediate choice.

And so, in September 2009, Vi and I took Can to Singapore to begin his international education. Although his friends back in Vietnam always thought how lucky Can was, the truth is that 4 years of living away from home in a foreign country is difficult. It has never been easy for Can, but finally he has made it.

On Thursday, Can graduated from high school.

Can (on the left) and Vi: Can's first day at Chatsworth, 2009

Can's last day at Chatsworth - again with Vi! 

As he sat on the stage with his entire class, Can beamed through the graduation ceremony like nobody else. Vi and I attended, passing through Singapore on the way home from our fundraising trip to Australia, to watch as Can received his certificates.

Can is now not only a Blue Dragon boy; he's also a Chatsworth boy. He has achieved what was unimaginable back in 2006, and has so very much to be proud of.

This weekend, Can will return to Vietnam with us, and spend some time with family and friends. But the next big adventure is yet to come: university.

This is one young man who is really going places.

A big win for Dong

Today there was an exciting announcement on Australian radio. Kathryn Freeman, a former volunteer at Blue Dragon in Vietnam, and now a Board Member of Blue Dragon in Australia, has won a notable award.

Kathryn entered a writing competition held by an organisation called The Footpath Library. She wrote about her relationship to one of the Blue Dragon boys, Dong, who was once a street kid but now works with us as a security guard.

Dong has had a massively difficult childhood, but at every step has made good decisions and, despite everything being against him, has made something of his life. In very large part he has succeeded because of people like Kathryn who have cared for him and made him believe in himself. He's an exceptional young man, and now is immortalised in Kathryn's short story, We held hands.

Dong and Kathryn at the Blue Dragon centre

I can't publish the story here (copyright!) but I have read it - and it deserved to win. In place it had me laughing; then I was crying; and finally I was doing both at the same time. It's a beautiful story. And it will be published in the August edition of Meanjin.

Congratulations, Kathryn, and accolades to you, Dong, for being such a star!

Blue in the news

Blue Dragon has popped up in the news around the world over the last week.

Gulf News has featured an in-depth article on human trafficking:

Blue Dragon Founder sees red over human trafficking

And here's a short interview on Australia's ABC Radio from Thursday:

Passport 

We have some more exciting media news coming up on Thursday next week - can't wait to announce it!

Starts today

Today marks the launch of Blue Dragon's 2013 major appeal, which we're calling: Whatever it takes.

Anyone who has read the stories here or looked over the Blue Dragon Facebook page knows the sort of work we do. We find kids in danger, get them out, and then look after them for the long term. And our strategy is simple: Whatever it takes.

If we know of a child enslaved in a factory, we find the factory and demand the release of the child. If we know of a girl in a brothel across the border, we travel to where ever she is and help her escape. If we meet a boy living on the streets, we help him sort out his family problems and give him a place to live and grow. That's just what we do.

To make that all happen, we need to put fuel in the motor. It's the topic we all hate to raise: money. But giving kids a home, helping a child escape slavery, sending a student to school: it all takes money.

Blue Dragon is getting ready now to face the challenges of the 2013-2014 cycle. We already know that there'll be plenty of challenges to deal with.

If you like what we do, if you want these kids to get the help they need, please help any way you can. Even a few dollars will help. The goal is to raise $192,000, and we can do that if everyone contributes their bit.

Stupidity

I am in Australia at the moment, meeting friends and supporters of Blue Dragon, attending some events, and speaking a little on radio.

Being here is really like being in another world. I feel so far from the streets of Vietnam, from the kids I worry about every day, from the challenges of rescuing kids in crisis. 

This morning in an interview I was asked what got me started in all this work, and I couldn't help but say: Stupidity! 

After all, who in their right mind would start an organisation in another country to rescue girls out of brothels, and to provide homes for abandoned kids who've grown up on the streets?

For sure I didn't know what I was getting into when I started Blue Dragon Children's Foundation. And I'm glad I didn't. If I had my time all over again, I'd do it exactly the same.

I am very happy to be a fool, and plan to remain one for a long time to come.

The leap

I've taken it. I'm on Twitter.

Crisis

Thursday night: I accompany the Blue Dragon Outreach team on the streets of Hanoi from 9pm looking for some particularly young runaway children we have heard about. We're aware that children new to the streets are being targeted for sexual exploitation so we are in a race to find the boys and get them to safety. We find them but they have already been approached by strangers and don't know who to trust. All we can do is advise them on how to find safe accommodation, and how to avoid danger.

Friday night: The team is back on the streets from 8pm, talking to young teenagers who have been coming to the Blue Dragon centre by day, but hanging out on the streets by night. One boy rings with an emergency - he's seen some boys being approached by men he's seen before, and is afraid for them. We don't finish until 2am but are able to get the kids to safety. One of the Blue Dragon boys is particularly brave in looking out for his mates.

Saturday morning: The Outreach leader, Blue Dragon's lawyer and I meet to discuss some of the issues we've been seeing in relation to the street boys courting such risk and facing the dangers that they do.

Saturday afternoon: A call comes through that the police have arrested a member of a child trafficking ring which has been kidnapping girls and selling them to China. The trafficker has confessed to selling a girl who may be either 13 or 14 years old; the police want to know if Blue Dragon might be able to assist with the repatriation of the girl.

We don't have a clear picture yet of where the girl is or what is needed, but there's a 12 hour drive to get to the border so Blue Dragon's lawyer is on the next available bus. I shoot off an email to my great friend Robert at Giving It Back To Kids to say "Hey we've already committed ourselves - can you help pay for this!?" and Robert replies that yes, he'll help out. GIBTK and Blue Dragon have only recently formed an (as yet) informal partnership to share resources on trafficking cases, and this will be our second such case together. 

Saturday night: So far, peace and quiet!

Over the years, Blue Dragon has evolved and adapted to Vietnam's rapidly changing economy and society. From time to time we have to take stock of where we are and make sure it's where we need to be. We're usually just-about-right but sometimes have to adjust to make sure we're doing what's needed most.

This year the emerging theme is: Crisis. We're receiving more calls from trafficked children and their families. We're seeing kids on the street in far more danger than ever before. The problems we face are growing more complex, and they seem to be changing/developing more quickly than before.

One of Blue Dragon's strengths is that we can adapt quickly to these changes, and we can respond even more quickly to calls for help. Our challenge is to not only be responsive, but to make an impact on the broader issues to reduce the incidence of crisis.

To the "rescue"

Since the very first time I met a trafficked child on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City in 2005, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation has rescued 292 children from trafficking.

But that word "rescue" is problematic. I've had people tell me it's too emotive; others have said it disempowers the people Blue Dragon claims to be helping simply by portraying them as victims who need us to rescue them.

Meantime, I've been perplexed by the plethora of organisations in Vietnam which claim to "rescue" trafficked people and yet, as far as I could tell, do nothing of the sort. I'm aware of one other organisation in the south of Vietnam which I believe does rescue girls who have been trafficked, but I am constantly hearing of all the amazing "rescues" that different charities here do.

I think I've figured it out. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

The problem, it seems, is in the definition of "rescue." Being a powerful word, and even moreso in the context of human trafficking (which is a highly emotive issue), different groups have adopted the word but also adapted its meaning.

Some use "rescue" to mean "give shelter;" others mean "provide practical assistance." Others use it to mean "offer help during the legal process." In redefining the word like this, "rescue" has become something safe and sanitised. It's something that can be done from a distance, or in an office, or on a timetable.

This concerns me, because there's a real danger in giving an impression that lots of "rescue work" is being done for people who have been trafficked, and therefore implying that no more help is needed: someone is already taking action, so the situation is under control.

For the sake of clarity, I want to explain what I mean, and what Blue Dragon means, when we talk about "rescue."

For us the word means that we find someone who is asking for help to escape a situation which they are otherwise powerless to leave; and we assist them to escape.

In the case of garment factories in Vietnam, this normally means that our staff work alongside government officials or police to find children being exploited as laborers. We search for the children (the location is almost never known), we take the children out against the will of the factory owner but with the consent of the family, and we take the child home. We are physically there, getting the child out of the factory, not sitting in an office far away.

In the case of girls and young women in brothels, so far in every "rescue case" we have responded to a specific call for help. The girl or a family member has made a plea for assistance, and we have traveled to the place where the girl is being kept against her will, and engineered an escape or demanded that the brothel owner releases her. We then bring the girl back across the border into Vietnam, assist her to make a statement to the police, and then offer a full range of services: medical, shelter, education and training, and so on.

In addition the the 292 kids we have rescued, we have given assistance to about 20 more young people who were trafficked and either escaped or were rescued by police; but we don't count them among the people we have rescued. That's not rescue; that's post-rescue assistance.

In light of all this, I don't use "rescue" as an emotive word. I use it as a factual description of getting someone out of an extremely dangerous situation, who otherwise could not escape.

Blue Dragon's "rescue work" is not about bravery and heroism. It's not about combat training and para-military operations. We find the safest way possible to help a child escape. The "safest way possible" isn't particularly safe, but it's about the least confrontation, the least chance of violence, while still guaranteeing a successful rescue.

And I can see that there's a need, a huge need, for lots more rescue work to be done in this part of the world. Post-rescue assistance is of great importance, but there's no real use in expanding it unless there are more enslaved people being rescued from their brothels and factories.

If we want to stop human trafficking, we need to embrace rescues - real rescues - as an essential step of the process.

100 missed calls

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, Blue Dragon staff worked with the Vietnamese police to raid 4 garment factories, all of which are now closed; release 14 children aged 10-16 who were enslaved there; and arrest the 3 factory owners, whose businesses are now closed for good.

Nine of those children are already home with their families. The other 5 begin their journey today and will arrive on Saturday morning. 

People often ask me about the families of the trafficked children. Did they sell their kids to make a quick dollar? Do they care what happens to their children?

So far Blue Dragon has rescued 292 children. In only one case has there been a parent who 'sold' a child knowing the dangers her son would face. In the other 290 cases, the parents honestly thought that their children were being taken for training or schooling; or, in some situations, the parents had no idea where the kids had gone and were desperate to find them.

Yesterday one small detail emerged of a 16 year old girl from northern Dien Bien province who had been trafficked to Ho Chi Minh City. Before leaving home, the girl's family made sure she had a mobile phone so they could stay in contact; but as soon as the girl was away from her family, the trafficker took it away. She was in the factory for some months, and not allowed to ring or speak to her family at all.

When Blue Dragon found her, the first thing the girl wanted to do was talk to her mother. The police ordered the factory owner to return her telephone, and turning it on a message came up on the screen:

100 missed calls

That's how worried her family was. They called 100 times; and I suspect that they called even more, but the phone's memory only allowed for it to recall the last 100.

100 missed calls. This is one family that will be very happy to get back together.


... Just a note to say that I originally published this stating that we had found and released 13 children; the actual number was 14. The last child was a girl who had been hidden by the trafficker when he knew we were coming, but the police forced him to 'hand her over'. 

Reunion

Last week I wrote about the experience of reuniting runaway children with their families.

Our latest reunion is of a 13 year old boy from Lang Son province in the north of Vietnam. "Hieu" had been working for some kind of traveling circus which was exploiting him, and his family was uninterested in helping, so the little guy hopped on a bus and headed to Hanoi. We met Hieu on his first night in the city and within a few days accompanied home to see his father and uncle.

It was a long trip to a fairly remote area... 

Home isn't a happy place for this boy. Hieu only recently met his father, who had been in prison since the birth of his son, and the uncle who raised him has no interest in his welfare. Their home is very poor, with no comforts whatsoever.

Hieu agreed to stay with his father, but just for a few days. He sees no future at home, and his father doesn't seem to care at all. So Hieu is already back in Hanoi, but this time not on the streets; he's staying at a Blue Dragon shelter while we help him work out what he wants to do.

Kids need a family who love and care for them; it always breaks my heart to meet children who know they don't have that. The look in Hieu's eyes tells me he's already feeling let down by the world. I only hope that Blue Dragon can fill that void he feels, and give him reason to trust the world once more.

Back to the search

The Blue Dragon team is back on the road this morning in search of kids who have been trafficked into Vietnamese garment factories.

Since lunar new year, much of our attention has been on bringing home girls trafficked into Chinese brothels. Simmering away in our minds has been the issue of the many missing children from central and northern Vietnam, both girls and boys, who are enslaved in factories in Ho Chi Minh City.

A few weeks ago we helped one 15 year old boy out; he'd followed a friend to the south from Hue province, and when he got the the factory he quickly realised he'd made a mistake. He hadn't known he was expected to work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week... and that he wouldn't be paid because this was "training"! One of our team was passing through Ho Chi Minh City on his way to reunite a trafficked girl with her family, so he took a detour and got the boy out. The factory owner was refusing to release him unless his family "reimbursed" them for his transport and living expenses - but by now the Blue Dragon lawyers have more than enough experience in dealing with traffickers and factory owners. The young boy is back home now, and won't be making that mistake again!

It's time for us to focus again on the big question of how to end, once and for all, this trafficking of kids into the clothing and textile industry. We don't yet know how many children we will find in coming days, as the information we have about their locations is still very unclear. But we'll be working with the police to find the factories and get the kids home. I hope to have some updates, and some good news, by Wednesday or Thursday.

Two weeks

Every email that I send includes a list of Blue Dragon's key achievements: 310,649 meals served... 278 trafficked children rescued... 120 teens placed in jobs... and so on.

One of those statistics today goes up from 147 to 148. That's the number of runaway kids we've reunited with their families.

A runaway teen on the streets of Hanoi at night. 

Working with runaway children is a key part of our assistance to street children. All but two of those 148 have been rural children who have come to Hanoi, either on their own or with friends, running away for a whole variety of reasons. The other two have been kids with families in Hanoi.

Why do Vietnamese kids run away from home? Some are escaping domestic abuse. Some have had a small problem at home or at school and don't know how to resolve it, so think they have to leave home. We even met a little boy once who ran away from home accidentally... but that's another story...

Blue Dragon has been working in Vietnam for about 10 years now. When we started out, it took us a long time to help runaway children. As a rule of thumb, we would aim to have runaway kids home within 2 weeks. It took that long for us to build trust, find out the truth about why the child had run away, and get them to agree to a reunion. As a non-government agency, we are not meant to help a child without the parent's permission, so we need to make contact with families as quickly as possible.

But that 'rule of thumb' 2 weeks is now a thing of the past. Having met so many runaway children and helped them work through their problems, the Outreach team now find that they can resolve most cases in just a few days.

The latest runaway boy, "Thuong," came to us on Monday night; he's a tiny boy, and says he's 15 but more likely he's only 13. One of the Blue Dragon boys who lives in our shelter met him on the street and brought him to us straight away. On Tuesday our Outreach Team Leader, himself a former street kid, spent time with Thuong and by the end of the day Thuong had opened up and said he wanted to go home.

Today, Thuong's family have come in to Hanoi to take him home. Often we accompany the child to their family home, but in this case the parents wanted to make the trip in to the city. They're relieved and grateful - and probably want to make sure of who we are. Our psychologist will talk with the family to help them better understand their son, and make sure Thuong won't be in too much trouble for running away.

And if Thuong's family needs some ongoing help, we'll do our best to provide that, too.

Gone Fishin'

When the Blue Dragon blog goes quiet for a month, you can be sure that a lot has been happening!

In recent months I've been out of the habit of keeping the blog updated, and it's now at the point of great embarrassment. During March I was in the USA with one of my team, fundraising and talking to people about the work of Blue Dragon. It was a great time, and we were met with huge enthusiasm in Colorado, Texas and Florida, but it's also great to be home in Vietnam.

To everyone who we encountered along the way in the States: Thank you. The hospitality, friendship and generosity we were shown was most touching. We now have a whole lot of new friends across the country... which means we'll just have to head back that way soon!

Here in Vietnam, Blue Dragon's work with street kids and victims of human trafficking has continued to grow - both in numbers and complexity. On the trafficking front, we've had a few recent successes with rescuing young women who have been trafficked into China, bringing them back across the border, and then working with the police to arrest their abductors. Although the world of human trafficking seems sometimes to be a 'bottomless pit' that will never end, there is real satisfaction in putting whole rings out of operation and knowing that countless more victims-to-be are now safe. Surely that's the most effective 'prevention' program possible.

At Dragon House, where Blue Dragon cares for Hanoi's street children, we have some new faces every day, with new boys and girls meeting our Outreach team and coming to the centre for food, care, and a place to stay. Since Blue Dragon started back in 2003, we've reunited almost 150 runaway children with their families, and that number is now increasing at an increasing rate. As Hanoi develops, the social problems are multiplying rather than diminishing, and so our work has become more important than ever.

So despite my quietness on the blog, much has been happening and it's time for me to get back to blogging more regularly. Keep those comments coming or email me at michael@bdcf.org - I try to respond to every message I get.

Have a great week,

Michael Brosowski

Slippery

In Vietnamese culture, the Year of the Dragon is thought to be particularly fortuitous. For me, it certainly was not fortuitous, but it was momentous.

Now we have entered the Year of the Snake, and so far the word that comes to mind is: Slippery. I only hope the rest of the year isn't quite so challenging.

Even before the Lunar New Year holiday was over, we were called out on our first trafficking case. A tiny boy with no comprehensible communication skills had been picked up by the police at the Chinese border. With no idea of where his family was, we were absolutely perplexed and at first all we could really offer was safety and protection. Fortunately, the boy's parents contacted the police, and we were able to get him home within a couple of days.

Since then, a great deal of our work has been centered on issues with Hanoi's street kids. These are generally a forgotten group; many organisations find them too difficult to deal with, too wild, and frankly their plight isn't seen as being 'compelling' as that of trafficking victims.

Compounding all this, as I wrote some time ago, is the fact that street kids in Hanoi are largely invisible. Many people simply think they don't exist. Or that if they do, they're just naughty children who have better options but choose to be little rascals.

A few nights ago I was walking through the Old Quarter when a group of street kids I know walked by. They were little kids, from about 8 to 13 years old, boys and girls together. The first words out of the mouth of one of the boys was this: "My mother died." Just that. Just a factual, this-is-what-happened-and-I-don't-know-what-to-do statement from a 10 year old boy who now relies solely on the care of an older sister, who works on the streets herself.

This was not a little boy with lots of better options in life.

A recurring theme among kids on the streets is that the kids don't believe they are 'good people'. For whatever reason, they believe that they are awful, undeserving of anything good, and that therefore whatever happens to them is just their fate.

Challenging this perception is one of the goals I have set for Blue Dragon in this Year of the Snake. As the number of kids on the streets grows, and as their problems both multiply and intensify, we need to offer not only shelter and basic care, but also hope and belief. We need to encourage the kids to believe that they are deserving of something better; that they don't have to accept the exploitation and abuse that has become a normal part of their lives.

This won't be easy. But then, it's the Year of the Snake. I suspect that all of our victories this year will be hard won.

The excitement builds

We're now in the last week of the Year of the Dragon... Sunday will be Day One of the Year of the Snake!

Blue Dragons kids have had some more celebrations over the weekend. All of the soccer kids (more than 90!) were given gift bags donated by the students of the United Nations International School at the end of our weekly game; the players were thrilled!

 

 

And in Bac Ninh province, where Blue Dragon supports over 800 children to go to school, we held some ceremonies for the kids, complete with plenty of singing and dancing.

  

In all, a great weekend!