Blue Dragon works with over 1, 000 girls and boys throughout Vietnam. Every child has their own needs to be met and dreams to fulfill. Here are just a few stories about the children who were the inspiration for Blue Dragon.
Tu: From shoeshine to chef…
Tu was barely 15 years old when he left his village to work on the streets of Hanoi. He shined shoes around the Daewoo Hotel and sent all his profits home to his mother at the end of every month.
With this income, plus her work on a rice farm, Tu’s mother had just enough to send her other two sons to school.
Blue Dragon met Tu in 2003. He immediately became our most passionate soccer player! Once he got to know us, Tu gladly accepted our offer of a place to live, an operation on his throat and help to find a training course where he could learn to cook.
Today, Tu works in one of Hanoi’s best restaurants as second in charge of the kitchen. He lives independently of Blue Dragon and still supports his family – but we still see him at soccer from time to time!
Huong: A safe place to live
Huong was just a tiny little girl when Blue Dragon first met her. Looking ragged and dirty, she lived under a staircase outside one of Hanoi’s open air markets.
By day she would help her frail grandmother sell tea to passersby; by night she would roam the streets by herself or with older friends.
Huong’s living conditions left her extremely vulnerable, but her grandmother was deeply suspicious of all outsiders and refused to let us help for over three years. Finally, her grandmother heard from others about Blue Dragon’s work and agreed to let us help her grand-daughter.
With our support, Huong and her grandmother were able to leave their ‘staircase dwelling’ and move into a proper house. Huong has even started studying at the Blue Dragon centre and looks so happy playing with all the other kids. Her life now is unrecognisable to what it was just a few years ago.
Thien: A real hope for the future
Child trafficking is a serious problem throughout Vietnam. Girls and boys alike are targeted by traffickers to be put to work in all sorts of difficult and dangerous jobs.
Thien was trafficked when he was 13 years old to sell flowers on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. He was taken over 600kms from his poverty-stricken family who lived in a tin shack by the beach in central Vietnam and forced to work through the night.
Every cent he earned was handed over to the traffickers.
Blue Dragon helped Thien get home and back to school. We built a new house for his family on a block of land they could legally call their own. When Thien was ready to leave school and seek vocational training, we supported him to study motorbike repair under the supervision of an Australian volunteer.
Thien is still undertaking his repair course and loves every minute of it.
Thi: Escape and rescue
Thi was just 14 years old when a gang of traffickers kidnapped her and took her across the border to China, along with 2 other girls.
The plan was to sell the three teenagers to brothels, but the girls showed remarkable bravery and escaped – only to find themselves hundreds of kilometres from Vietnam, with no money or resources.
Having found a safe place to hide, the girls rang their families, who called for help. Blue Dragon staff answered the call and went immediately to China to find the girls and bring them home.
Terrified but unharmed, Thi and her friends were relieved to return home, but were still in need of support. Thi now lives in a safe house where she can study and is no longer in danger of being hurt. She is looking forward to completing high school and dreams of going to university one day.
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