A big day in Hoi An

Monday June 1st was Children's Day in Vietnam, and the kids at the Hoi An Children's Home were treated to a terrific morning - not only for Children's Day, but to mark the end of the school year.

Here are some images of their celebrations...

Eating 'che' (a liquid dessert) blindfolded - followed by
an hour of washing clothes, I presume!

The Home has a huge yard - perfect for Tug o' War...

Here's a video clip of some general insanity.

In the formal part of the day, awards were presented.
Thao's award is for "Best All-Round Resident"


Dan's award is for being the most helpful around the Home.
Both of these awards were decided by a vote among the kids.

And there were gifts!

Here, the boys are showing off the football shirts
they received - donated by Tanglin Trust school in Singapore.

So, a great day for the kids and a nice way to end the school year. This was an espcially important day for the 5 students who are finishing Grade 12, and will soon be leaving the Home for university and work.


.

Exam time!

Year 12 exams have started throughout Vietnam this morning - first exam is literature, commencing 7.30 am! (Who sets an exam for 7.30 am??)

There are lots of Blue Dragon kids in Year 12 this year - about 35 I think! - so we've had a few stressed teenagers around the place recently.

From our Hanoi centre, some of the kids sitting for their exams today are:

Hanh - our 'resident artist' whose paintings feature on the gift cards we sell at Christmas

Chinh - a former shoeshine boy who has lived in our residence for several years

Ngoc - the singer and dancer who was stabbed in late 2007 but made an extraordinary comeback

Hieu - a very bright girl with cerebral palsy, who has defied the odds to stay at school and do extremely well

There are 2 exams per day for 3 days, so come Thursday night it will be all over. Then the study for uni entrance exams will begin...


.

The drama continues

Skye Maconachie, who is organising the theatre workshops for trafficked children in Hue, has created her own blog: The Right to Shine.

This should be interesting - check it out...


.

Drama in Hue

Blue Dragon's work with trafficked children in Hue has taken a dramatic new turn, but this time it's a turn for good.

We now work closely with about 50 families whose children were taken to Ho Chi Minh City but have returned to their villages by the beach. With the summer holidays starting - the very time the kids are most vulnerable to traffickers - we have created a drama and theatre program with a grant by the ArtAction foundation in Singapore.

First and foremost, the kids are learning to express themselves. Our hope is that through drama the children will be able to safely 'tell their story' to let their families and communities better understand their experiences. But so far the drama groups have been about fun, games, and even some dancing to get the children into the swing of things.

These villages have never seen anything like this before, so attracting an audience won't be a problem. Everyone is so excited and the kids are having a great time after just a few days.

Traffickers, you don't stand a chance any more!








.

Football!

Another big day of football on Sunday - 79 kids this week, plus some staff from Dutch Lady (who have started donating milk for the kids). Here's a snapshot of the youngest kids playing...

.

A blog about a blog

A whole week without blogging! Apologies to the masses.

Just a quick one today about a really cool project that we've got running at the moment. This is a 'kill two birds with one stone' project (but don't worry, no birds have even been injured - we swear!)

Some of the Blue Dragon kids at our centre wanted to learn about blogging... and they're all older teens who have also signed up to get involved in Career Planning and Development activities. So we've combined the two ideas by creating a class to teach about blogging, and the content is to be based on site visits to various employers and companies.

So far the kids have been to a web design company, a film studio and a kitchen in the Intercontinental Hotel (West Lake). Next week they're off to meet a tourist guide and learn about the travel industry. At each visit they can tour a workplace, meet employees, and find out what it's like to work there.

Really cool stuff!

A couple of pics below from the Intercontinental Hotel. When our kids actually start writing their blog I'll be sure to post the link.





.

Dragons and bears

On Thursday, some of the Blue Dragon children attended a special event: the opening of a bear rescue centre about an hour's drive out of Hanoi.

Vietnamese people commonly believe that bear bile contains powerful medicinal qualities, so the bile and other 'bear products' are extremely valuable. As a result, bears are considered precious commodities, and kept in tiny cages so that their bile can be extracted daily. Their conditions are invariably atrocious.

In Hanoi alone, there are about 600 moon bears kept in cages in people's houses. As unbelievable as that sounds, it's true. So one NGO, called AnimalsAsia, has set up a rescue centre and is working on getting bears out of cages and into safer environments.

Blue Dragon kids were interested to find out more, so they went along with and spent the day learning all about moon bears. A very worthwhile outing for them all!

Maggie Q flew in to Vietnam especially for the opening.
(Maggie, you were in town and you forgot to call me!?)

The bears are living in large open spaces
for the first time in their lives.

One of our volunteers, Skye, and two of the Blue Dragon kids.

.

Sneak preview

I wrote last week about an upcoming novel, Dragon House, set in Vietnam; the author (John Shors) has posted this clip on YouTube.

Around the 6 minute mark, there are scenes from here in Hanoi, including some shots taken inside the Blue Dragon centre. Have a look!

http://www.youtube.com/dragonhousebook


.

Show me the papers

No matter which country you're in, 'bureacracy' is a dirty word. Long lines to wait in... being sent from one office to another... getting the right signature or stamp... losing your file and starting all over again... This is a part of life we've all experienced.

Here in Vietnam is no different, except that things can be a little more complicated. Vietnamese bureacracy is not yet computerised, which comes as a great shock to westerners who are used to having all their records kept on databases that can be accessed in a flash.

At Blue Dragon, we regularly meet families who need help with what appear to be simple bureacratic matters: teenagers without birth certificates is a common one. Parents, often poor and illiterate, might not bother with the fuss of obtaining a birth certificate, and 15 years later suddenly find that now their child cannot obtain an ID card, which is essentil for going to high school, getting a driver's licence, applying for a job, qualifying for government benefits, and so on.

But once a child is in their teens, the process of getting a birth certificate is no simple matter. In every case we've encountered, the family has moved away from where the child was born, or the parents have died, or other official family documents have been misplaced - all of which mean that a birth certificate cannot be issued.

This is why we hire two lawyers!

In the last few years, our two lawyers, both fresh out of uni, have helped 132 families get their paperwork and legal documents. Considering that it can take weeks of investigative work and gathering evidence, 132 is quite an incredible feat.

And last week, the number reached 133. This was perhaps the most difficult case we've so far encountered, because the family in question had absolutely no evidence at all of who they were or where they were from. Their oldest daughter Quyen is now 18, and her school has been very flexible in allowing her to enrol and study - but to get her final mark and then apply for university, Quyen must have her papers in order.

Final Grade 12 exams are just weeks away, and university entrance exams will follow in July. Our lawyer Hong has been working feverishly to get the papers in time - and with a huge sigh of relief, last week Hong could declare 'case closed.' Quyen, along with her mother, brother and sister, now has all the official paperwork she needs. Her birth has been registered, she has an ID card, and her mother even has registration back in the village where she was born.

Getting some papers just seems so unimportant, but Quyen's mother was crying with joy when she returned to our centre after traveling with Hong to the village. I really felt embarrassed receiving her profuse thanks, but I could see how important this was to her. They weren't just papers, they were the family's legal existence and their right to take part in society.

And with that done, here's hoping Quyen's final exams give her the result she's hoping for!


.

Dragon House

One day last year, completely out of the blue, I received an email from an author named John Shors.

Having lived under a rock for the past 7 years, I hadn't read John Shors' novels, even though he's had a couple of best sellers. But John was working on a new project: a story about street kids in Vietnam. Would I mind having a look at the manuscript and perhaps giving some feedback, John asked?

As someone who plans to publish a best seller one day, but has yet to write it, I was excited to take this on... and I was curious to see how this writer would portray the world of Vietnamese street children. What I was most interested to see was if John would fall into the trap of cliches and stereotypes that plague most literature on the subject - both fiction and non fiction. Even many big NGOs produce material that merely perpetuates the myths of either the 'poor helpless victim' or the 'prince-in-paupers-clothing'. The truth, as always, is far more complex than any stereotype.

But in John Shors' novel, soon to be published, these cliches are nowhere to be seen. I was sometimes stunned to see the depth of the characters, and the understanding of reality that is portrayed across the pages. An example: early in the novel, there's a scene in which the 2 main street children are hussling tourists in a restaurant area of a hotel. As they leave, the staff demand a 'cut' of their takings. This is the sort of thing you never read about, yet it's typical of how street kids here are treated.

And the title? Dragon House. Too amazing.

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away. But I can say that there is no scene at the end where one person turns to another and says, "Luke, I'm your father." For anything more than that, though, you'll have to get your hands onto the book. It's really worth it.

John Shors already has a website up - www.dragonhousebook.com. Go check it out, and pass the word along.

In a few weeks, I'll add a page to the Blue Dragon website. John has offered that anybody who donates $100 to our Dragon House page can receive a signed copy of the novel. All the money raised will go towards running our centre for street kids.

I'm really excited by this! I feel that it's a huge honour to have a novelist lend his support to our work; and I know that readers will gain a much greater understanding of life on the streets of Vietnam.

More updates on this to come...


.

She's in!

One of our teen girls, Linh, has just received the GREAT news that she's been accepted into the KOTO training program here in Hanoi. She's thrilled, but also aware of the 2 years of hard work that lies ahead.

KOTO is a hospitality training organisation that prepares disadvantaged youth for jobs in restaurants, hotels, and tourism. Getting in to the program isn't easy - they are regularly flooded with applicants but can only accept about 30 kids per intake. So Linh has had to work really hard to get this placement.

Linh deserves this chance, and she really needs it. This could be her 'lucky break'... KOTO graduates really do go on to great jobs with bright futures.

We all wish you well, Linh; we know you can do this!

Farewell for now

Blue Dragon has been caring for the 30 kids at the Hoi An Children's Home since 2007, but our history with the Home goes back a few years earlier than that.

As early as 2003, when I was living in Hanoi and spending my free time in Hoi An, I would drop in to the Home to see the Director, Mrs Diep, and catch up with the children. There are 30 girls and boys there, all from extremely poor families in remote rural areas, who otherwise would not have the chance to go to school. The Home itself is a very humble place, in need of demolition and a complete rebuild, but there's always been a tremendous spirit of hope and happiness there.

On one of my occasional visits in 2004, I met a new volunteer who had turned up to teach English and run activities for a few weeks. Nicole Woods, from Australia, was a young lawyer taking some time off and wanting to get involved in a worthwhile project.

Just for a few weeks.

Five years later, Nicole is finally getting ready to leave Hoi An and return to Australia.

Quite a few things have happened in the past 5 years! When I first met Nicole, Blue Dragon had no formal involvement with the Home at all; but as the weeks turned into months and then years, it was clear that Nicole was passionate about these kids and determined to improve their conditions. The Home needed some help, and Nicole was ready to do it (and capable): so at that time we made the decision that Blue Dragon would get involved.

With Nicole supported through the VIDA organisation, Blue Dragon assumed management of the Home and within months the Home had staff, social workers, and administrative systems in place.

Nicole has been an extraordinary manager. It's unusual to find someone so thorough and competent with administration, while also so completely in tune with the children.

Yesterday was Nicole's last day at the Home. As it was a public holiday, she gave the staff team the day off and stood in as the supervisor to spend some time with the kids.

She's not just leaving, though - Nicole is going back to Australia to have a baby. After years of caring for the children of others, she's decided it's time to start her own family.

Nicole will fly off soon, but will be back before the end of the year and is likely to return to the Home. We'll miss her while she's away, and she'll be missing the kids terribly; but we're already thinking of her return.

Take care, Nicole, and may your own child bring as much joy to you as you have to so many.

Where's Wally? Nicole is hidden away among
the crowd of past and present residents of
the Hoi An Children's Home

.

Lots of news

Lots of great things happening at the moment... Hard to know where to begin!

Starting in central Vietnam, Blue Dragon has just 'officially' opened a new house for a family whose 14 year old son was trafficked to a garment factory but returned home with our help late last year.

I first wrote about this family last year (see this entry here - the family in question is in the 2nd photo). They've gone from a tent to living in the house pictured below... and both of the kids are now studying again. A great result. And I must say a BIG thanks to the Australia / New Zealand Community Group in Hanoi who funded this.



Back in Hanoi, the United Nations International School (UNIS) has allowed us to use their swimming pool for therapy with our disabled kids. Our staff, Phuong, is pictured below with one of the children who has cerebral palsy. (Thank you, UNIS).



And while I'm saying thanks, I should also mention our volunteer Issy who has been doing the most amazing therapy work with several of the Blue Dragon children. That's her below. If only we could keep her with us forever...



In northern Bac Ninh province, where Blue Dragon already supports about 350 school students, we've now made a commitment to extend our work to at least 70 more children in another very poor area of the countryside. I went to meet the principal of one of the schools on Friday, and we went about meeting some families who are really in need of help, fast. In some cases, young teens were living in the care of very elderly grandparents who were struggling to put enough food on the table. Some terribly sad cases.

Given the state of the world's economy, expanding our work to a new area might not be the obvious thing to do - but how could we say no to these kids?

Finally, over the weekend we had a visit from a wonderful group of students at the Hanoi Music Conservatorium. As some of our staff and kids alike are really into music, we decided to throw together a 'music gala' for the children - including a stringed quartet, a drummer, a couple of guitarists and a flautist. What a brilliant Sunday morning it turned out to be! About 15 of our children joined in, with plenty of chances to participate throughout the event.



It's kinda nice having so much good news to report...

.

Full circle

One of our 'oldest' kids, a 22 year old boy named Toan, has just started his first part time job outside Blue Dragon.

Toan is the 'oldest' not only because of his age - although he is the oldest of all our beneficiaries. But he's also 'oldest' because he's been in our care longer than any other kid has.

When I first met Toan about 6 years ago, he was living a really tough life. He'd been arrested twice for shining shoes on the streets of Hanoi, but each time had made his way out of the detention centre and back to the city where he was working so that he could go to school.

It was an unusual circumstance: at age 16, Toan had never been to school, and his parents wouldn't let him go - so he ran away to the city, enrolled in a school, and worked on the streets shining shoes to pay for his studies and accommodation.

Now aged 22, Toan is in Grade 7 (he's been studying a compacted curriculum) and determined to get right through High School. Although it's more common for organisations like ours to end support when beneficairies turn 18, we've continued to support Toan because he genuinely wants to go through school, and without support he can't do it. However, he is taking steps to independence and although he's been doing some administrative jobs for us at Blue Dragon, it's time for him to take the next step of working for somebody else.

So this week he has started a part time job, and it's not just any job. Toan is working for another charity: the Australian Charity for Children of Vietnam, or ACCV for short.

ACCV is a fairly small organisation, still getting started in fact, but its founder Alison Vidotto is an absolute dynamo. She's the 'real deal': there's no pretence, no fluff, just a hard working woman with a dream to make life better for blind kids in Vietnam. Simple as that. Check out their website. (They're almost as good as Blue Dragon! Truly!!)

Alison and her daughter Rose have been coming to and from Vietnam a couple of times a year for about 4 years now, and they always drop in at Blue Dragon to see how we are. On their very first visit, they met Toan and were deeply impressed by his passion to be educated. So now that they're growing, and need some on-the-ground support, they have decided to employ Toan as their support staff.

He's still going to school, but has a couple of free mornings each week which he'll now use to arrange deliveries, visit families, and run errands around town.

There's no doubt that Toan is passionate about education. But he has another passion, too: he wants to help other disadvantaged kids so that they can have the chance to go to school, which he missed out on when he was younger. This job gives him exactly that opportunity. He's not only earning some money; he's also helping out people who are more disadvantaged than he is.

I meet a lot of young people who have endured difficult circumstances, but I am not exaggerating to say that Toan's story is one of the most inspiring I have come across. I'm grateful to Alison for giving Toan this chance, and I know that this is just the start of a great new chapter in his life.

Go get 'em, Toan.



.

Sustain this

Sustainability is one of the buzz words in the world of development organisations - which used to call themselves charities until that word became unfashionable.

The great thing about the word sustainability is that it can mean so many things that in the end, it often means nothing. Blue Dragon recently received a flogging with a very damp kleenex on a public website because, the critic said, our results are unsustainable. And what does that mean? Well, there lies the mystery.

To be a sustainable organisation is often taken to mean that you somehow can pay for your work without having to ask anyone for help. So, for example, a training restaurant is sustainable because (in theory, at least) the income from the restaurant should support all the costs and training expenses needed to run the organisation.

This is a great concept, but how can you apply it to organisations that rescue teenage girls from brothels... or provide heart surgeries for impoverished children... or give a home to abandoned infants? How can they be expected to develop an income stream to pay for themselves?

So being financially sustainable is great, but it by no means should be the measure of how good an organisation is.

And then there's the other common meaning of sustainability: that when your organisation packs up and disappears, the results of your work live on.

Training restaurants again provide a good example of this. Once trainees, who are usually from disadvantaged backgrounds, have completed their training, they can be fully independent and no longer need any support.

Of course, that's a great goal to aim for. But again, not for everyone. What about organisations that care for the elderly? Or people with severe disabilities? Should these groups of people be expected to somehow show a sustainable result?

Last Friday one of our teen boys, Truong, was sprawled out on a sofa in our centre. He's recently dropped out of school and has been doing work experience in the Blue Dragon kitchen. He's 17 years old, and has no idea what he wants to do with his life. So I had a chat with him, and it went something like this (except in Vietnamese, of course):

Me: Do you want to get a proper job in a restaurant?

Truong: No.

Me: What sort of job would you like to have?

Truong: Dunno.

Me: What about a job selling clothes, or working in a shop?

Truong: Yeah, maybe. But I don't really like talking to people.

Me: What about joining a vocational training course?

Truong: I don't know.

... and so on.

We're hardly heading for a sustainable result with this kid, are we?

But then it hit me: millions of parents around the world must have had conversations exactly like this one with their own teens.

Maybe, just maybe, I was once Truong, with no strong passions, no career plans - just an interest in hanging out with friends and listening to music.

So who says that Truong has to somehow fit into the currently-fashionable mold of sustainability? Is it just because he's an abandoned, neglected, impoverished Vietnamese teen that he is expected to be different to any other teenager around the world? Seems to me that he's a perfectly normal teenage boy. And I, for one, have no problem with that.

Could it be that the development consultants, experts and critics around the world would really have such double standards - allowing their own kids to behave like normal people, while demanding that poor kids in developing countries deliver a sustainable result?


.

Day One - Cut!

Some great news today about one of our teen boys, Ly, who is 16 and has been living in a Blue Dragon home for over 2 years. Up until recently, Ly was studying in school, but he didn't start Grade 1 until he was 14, so he's quite a bit behind his peers and not so interested in pursuing an academic career.

So today, after a lot of thought and preparation, Ly started in a training course to become a hairdresser.

Day One has been a great success. He's just come back in, all smiles and thrilled to be in a class with just 2 other students. Seems perfect!

This is a 6 month course, so there's a long road to travel, but we're off to the best start we could hope for.



.

Quieter

Hanoi doesn't have many grassroots charities, so Blue Dragon is quite often in a position where we have to deal with every problem that comes our way - whether or not it's strictly part of our mission, or we have staff to deal with it.

An issue we have faced over the past few years has been how to help very young children whose families are in messy situations. Children aged as young as 5 or 6 have been turning up at our drop-in centre because their parents have died, or are sick, or are in prison, and they've been left in the care of a widowed elderly grandparent who has to work on the streets in order to survive.

Having preschoolers at the centre takes us away from providing a safe place for street kids; the little guys need a very different type of care and supervision. And our usual goals of leading the kids to greater independence, and encouraging self-motivation, just don't apply!

However, providing care to these children is still a terrific thing to do. Turning them away just isn't an option.

During 2008, we had a husband and wife team volunteering with us through VSO (the English volunteer program). Elaine was a school teacher, with a long history of caring for kids with special needs. She personally put in a huge effort with one little boy named Hai who was coming to our centre every day. Hai was so tiny that he looked much more like a 4 year old than a 6 year old; and he so badly lacked social skills that for the first 6 months of him coming to us, he had virtually no communication at all, with anyone. He wouldn't say a word, and he wouldn't look any of us in the eye.

Thanks in very large part to Elaine's efforts, Hai is a completely different child now. He runs about the centre, chattering and playing with stuffed animals like any normal child. And, also thanks to Elaine, our staff are well trained in working with Hai and know how to get through to other children with similar difficulties.

More recently, a little girl has also been coming to the centre every day: Hong, also just 6 years old. She had a wild gleam in her eyes when she first turned up. Her hair was tangled and her clothes were filthy, and her two main emotions were "disengaged" and "angry". The way she lectured and spanked the stuffed toys gave us a fairly good idea of what her home life was like.

But she, too, has undergone something of a transformation. She now smiles widely when she sees the staff; she wants to be picked up and hugged, and she treats the toys now with child-like concern for their welfare. Just like any little girl of the same age.

Having Hong and Hai at the centre made the place much noisier, and the staff have definitely been kept on their toes. But during this last week, our centre suddenly became much quieter.

Hong and Hai have both improved so much in their social skills that they are ready now for preschool. Until recently, no preschool would accept them. They couldn't interact with other children, and needed too much care and attention to fit in.

Remarkably, though, their first week at preschool has been fine, even though the school year is nearing the end. It's still early days, of course, but some early intervention seems to have had a pretty good result.

This might not be what Blue Dragon was set up for, but helping out these two preschoolers has undoubtedly been the right thing to do.


.

Fame and fortune

Well, OK, maybe not really. But here's an article that's just come out in East&West Magazine:

http://east-westmag.com/issue13/84-87-13.pdf


.

New heights

Blue Dragon's soccer team started in early 2003, long before "Blue Dragon" was even a legal entity. At the time, some of my friends and I were teaching English, maths and art to street kids and the rooms we were using just wouldn't hold any more students. So someone came up with the idea of taking it to the soccer field.

Our very first game was not spectacular: just 3 kids turned up. We played on a dirt field, in bare feet, and had a great time.

Since then, we've played 600 games. Yes, 600! - at least 2 games each week, and in the last 6 years there have only ever been a few weeks that we didn't play at all.

The original idea of the soccer was to offer some recreation to street kids, who don't have many safe or legal avenues to have fun. That's still one of our goals, but today the soccer serves as an outreach to street kids and young people around Hanoi's Phuc Tan area - one of the most socially disadvantaged areas of the city. Some weeks we have to sweep aside the discarded syringes before the kids can play; the area around the field is something of a hot spot for heroin users, some of whom come and join in the games.

From our first Sunday game with 3 kids, we've grown quite a bit. For a long time our record number of players was 64, but last week 75 kids turned up and today the number was around 65. We still play on a dirt field, but these days the kids wear shoes thanks to sponsorship we've had from a couple of organisations, including Catholic Relief Services and Asia Pacific Sports Management in Singapore.

Asking the Blue Dragon staff to turn up at a football field at 7.30am every Sunday hasn't been as much of a problem as you might expect. There's a trio who organise and run the games - Tho, Tung, and Diep - and usually a couple of volunteers turn up to help too. Tho and Diep have even received some training by the British Council's Premier League coaching program, so now the games start with a fun warm up and basic training.

As simple as it all is, the soccer games are fantastic: they let street kids come and meet us on familiar turf, and give working kids an hour of no-strings-attached fun. And if only it was held at a more reasonable hour, I might even get down there more often myself!


.

A birthday first

On Monday, we had a real cause for celebration: the very first birthday of Dong, one of the teenage boys living in our Hanoi shelter.

Dong has never had a birthday before. Until late last year, he never had a birth certificate, so our staff member Van travelled around the countryside to work with the police and government officials in order to do the impossible: obtain a birth certificate for a 14 year old boy who has no close relatives in existence.

To settle on the actual date, Dong just had to take a guess. He did have a fairly good idea of the year, though.

And so, what should have been his 15th birthday was actually his first. At last, Dong has an annual milestone to look forward to (or, as those of us on the wrong side of our 20s would say: dread).

It might not seem like such a big thing, but imagine a childhood with no birthdays. Imagine not really being sure of your age, and of having nobody notice that you're another year older.

Dong's party was like all the rest: some terrible singing, some corny speeches, loads of food, and some presents. What a terrific event in the life of this wonderful kid.

.