Bluedragon(Low Res)

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1/338 february 2012

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Twelve-year-old Giang held

back her tears as bravely as she

could, but her demeanour betrayed

her devastation.

For over six months she had been

orced to work in a household

garment actory in Ho Chi Minh

City, over 600km rom her amily

STOPPINGTHETRAFFIC

home in central Vietnam. Seven

days a week, 18 hours a day, she

sat on a dirty concrete loor sorting

cloth into piles, or cutting the

rough edges o dyed materials,

getting them ready to be shipped

o to a larger actory where they

would be sewn into shirts.

Failure to work hard enough wouldresult in lectures by the boss and

threats o physical punishment. At

times, Giang saw the boys as young

as 11 being beaten, and she eared

that one day the boss would take

the stick to her back, too.

And then one day, a stranger came

into the actory asking or her by

name; a young man introducinghimsel as Van rom an NGO in

Hanoi. Van had met Giangs parents

and they had asked him to bring

by michael brosowski

All smiles now - once Blue Dragon has rescued children rom actories and brothels, they are returned home with ongoing support orseveral years.


2/339february 2012

her home.

Giang was elated, but her joy was

to be short-lived. The boss was

angry and deiant. Despite a letterrom Giangs mother requesting

her immediate return, Giang was

denied permission to leave. Van

tried to cajole and argue, but the

boss stood irm.

Finally Van took Giang aside to

explain that he had to respect the

wishes o her boss, and he would

come back to see her one day in the

uture. But then he leaned close and

whispered: I have a taxi outside. I

will drive 50m down the street and

wait. I you want to go home, give

me a ew minutes, and then run to

the taxi.

Van let, saying arewell to the

actory owner, and drove a ew

doors down the street. Within

minutes Giang was running withall her strength down the dirt road.

She jumped in through the open

door and the taxi sped away.

Giang was going home.

ANTI-TRAFFICKING WORK

Ta Ngoc Van (Van) has had to

make many quick decisions over

the years. As chie lawyer at Blue

Dragon Childrens Foundation

(Blue Dragon) in Vietnam, he has

overseen the rescue o almost 160

traicked young people, aged

rom 10 to 23, and every rescue

operation has been loaded with

danger and dilemmas.

Blue Dragons anti-traicking work

began in 2005 with the rescue oa 13-year-old boy, Nam (names

have been changed to protect the

identities), who had been taken

rom central Vietnam to Ho Chi

Minh City in the south and orced

to sell lowers through the night.

His traickers, two middle-aged

women, sat and watched while heand other children rom his village

worked. Every dollar they earned,

or were given by well-meaning

adults, went into the pockets o the

traickers.

When Michael Brosowski, the

ounder o Blue Dragon Childrens

Foundation, met Nam on the

street, he was determined to

help. Brosowski and Van took the

traickers on with threats o legal

action and orced them to release

Nam, sending him home to his

parents.

Until this time, Blue Dragon had

worked primarily with Hanois street

children. The organization had

no experience in traicking, but

saw that dozens o children romNams commune had been taken

by several traickers and put to

work on the streets. Brosowski and

Van set about conducting a series

o rescue trips to Ho Chi Minh City,

and within 18 months the traickers

were out o business.

From those simple beginnings, Blue

Dragon has grown into a orce to be

reckoned with. Van now regularly

arranges rescue trips, but these

days he includes Red Cross and

local Government members rom

central Vietnam in the missions so

that they witness the conditions o

traicked children irst-hand. The

support o local oicials has meant

that whole communes have learned

to resist the traickers.

Although Blue Dragons approach to

anti-traicking took the Vietnamese

Government some time to accept,

they now ind themselves regularly

called upon to help in traicking

cases around the country. In

September 2011, Blue Dragon

worked with the Vietnamese police

to ind and rescue 23 children rom

ethnic minority communities in

northwest Vietnam who had been

enslaved in southern actories. Van

has also traveled three times to

China to ind young women who

were kidnapped rom Vietnam and

sold to brothels.

Over time, Blue Dragon hasdeveloped a simple model or

anti-traicking work, which can

be tailored to suit the context and

meet the needs o the individual

victims.

REHABILITATING THE CHILDREN

Beore the rescue trip, much work

needs to be done with amilies andthe community. For the amilies

o children traicked to actories,

there is a need or explanation

o what lie is like in the garment

industry the long days, the harsh

conditions to enable parents to

make the best decision or their

child and agree to look ater them

once they are home. Inormation

must be gathered to help sta

determine where the children are

being kept; traickers rarely give

addresses to the amilies.

With the groundwork complete, the

rescue trip can take place. Time is

critical, because once the traickers

know Blue Dragon sta is in town,

they start hiding the children away.

Every rescue trip is dierent; Blue

Dragon sta have been attacked bytraickers, arrested by the Chinese

military, robbed, as well as abused.

Risks have to be assessed switly,


3/340 february 2012

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and ast decisions made.

Once the children are set ree

and reunited with their amilies,

years o work remains to be done.

The young people oten suer

rom trauma and psychological

assistance and special protection

are sometimes needed. Blue

Dragons psychologist, Dinh Thi

Minh Chau, is assigned to work

with young women who have been

abused. She is oten called on at

night or on the weekends by girls

who simply need to talk and share

their eelings.

Most returnees have very practical

needs. Many have never been toschool, or have been out o school

so long that they cannot return,

and so need individual education

plans. Some need a new house,

or support to receive medical

treatment. Since 2009, Blue Dragon

has worked with another agency

to provide training or 21 parents

in ish arming, to help the amilies

o traicked children improve theirincomes.

This comprehensive approach to

anti-traicking means that the

program can be tailored to meet

the needs o the people, rather

than orcing returnees into a one

size its all rehabilitation program.

Every rescued person is treated

as an individual, with their own

dreams and needs.

Today, little Giang is back in school,

and Nam works as a che in Hanoi.

Their amilies and communities are

no longer tempted by the lure o

the child traickers.

To date, Blue Dragon has sent 2,359

kids back to school and training,

provided accommodation to

114 girls and boys, and reunited99 runaway children with their

amilies among many other

accomplishments.

According to UNICEF, 1.2 million

children are traicked every year. A

global alliance against orced labor,

International Labour Organisation

estimated that at least 12.3 million

people are victims o orced laborworldwide and 2.4 million o these

people are orced as a result o

human traicking.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Blue Dragon ChildrensFoundation www.

streetkidsinvietnam.com

Michael Brosowski is the ounder

o Blue Dragon Childrens

Foundation. He believes that:All children have the right to be

children: To be sae, to attend

school, to play, to be treated

with respect, to be heard, to be

understood and to be loved.

Housing crisis - Child trafckers look or amilies living in extremely poor conditions such

as this, and lure children with the promise o a better lie.

At work - this 10 year old boy wastrafcked to work in a company makingshoes. His job was to cut out the soles oshoes day ater day.

Labouring - 3 children rom centralVietnam trafcked to sew shirts in Ho ChiMinh City.

Working on it - Throughout Ho Chi MinhCity, thousands o trafcked children areput to work in actories such as this.

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