Development Ratings

8/6/2019 Development Ratings

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Development Ratings is a service that recommends charities to potential donors. This report has been prepared in co-operation with FineIntel Vietnam, a researchhouse. The information in this report is believed to be accurate at the date of issue, but neither Development Ratings nor FineIntel make representation as to the

accuracy and completeness of such information. Development Ratings encourages unrestricted funding, long-term support and partnerships. DevelopmentRatings does not receive compensation from the charities it recommends. More information can be found on www.developmentratings.com. This report was lastupdated in December 2009.

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Charity report

Reasons for recommendation

• Blue Dragon is a young entrepreneurial charity working closely with the mostmarginalized children in Vietnam.

• Blue Dragon is the only charity that works with street children in Hanoi.

• Blue Dragon employs child rights lawyers and offers a safe haven drop-in centrefor gang members and other victims.

•

Intelligently using the unique and cross-cultural power of sports, Blue Dragonorganises regular football games to uphold the bond with the children it helps andto recruit new children away from the streets.

• In addition, Blue Dragon fights domestic trafficking – a problem overlooked bytrafficking NGOs which typically have a remit to focus only on internationaltrafficking.

• Blue Dragon has sent almost 1,000 children from the streets back to school andin 2009 helped 1,109 children at an average cost of $112 per indirect beneficiary.

Background

There is an estimated 26,027 children working in hazardous conditions in Vietnam, ofwhich 17,927 are so-called street children. These numbers probably underestimate theextent of the problem in a country which has seen a large rural to urban migration as aresult of economic development. The street children do not have full knowledge of theirrights and are often unaware of the dangers they face. Some are professional beggarsand others commit crimes individually or in gangs. There is little government statistics orinterest in a problem which exists and which is overlooked by the mainstreamdevelopment work in the country. There are 1.2 million children with disabilities inVietnam and it is estimated that 1.4 million children live below the poverty line. There areover 400 formally identified victims of domestic trafficking in Vietnam annually – anumber that merely reflects reported cases.

Blue Dragon tackles a problem which no other international NGOs in Vietnam dare totackle.

ActivitiesBlue Dragon started when Michael Brosowski, an Australian teacher, and Pham SyChung, a Vietnamese local, began meeting, playing football and helping Vietnamesestreet kids in early 2002. In early 2004, Blue Dragon was registered in Australia. Laterthat year, Blue Dragon was registered as an NGO in Vietnam.





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Blue Dragon now works with Vietnamese children who are categorized into groups asfollows: children with disabilities, street children, victims of trafficking, and the rural poor.Many of them have no immediate family to care for them. Many live in boats, tents, andslums; others have no home at all. Some have family members in prison, and most havea family member with a serious illness, drug addiction, or disability.

Blue Dragon has four main projects:

1. Step Ahead: This flagship programme in Hanoi focuses on street kids andchildren with disabilities. The programme enables street kids and children withdisabilities to return to school by providing a full range of support services,

including legal advocacy, psychological and counseling services, school feerelief, and accommodation. All the services are offered in a fully dedicated ‘safehaven’ centre in Hanoi located near the Red River banks, an area where anumber of street children seek refuge. The centre provides the children with arange of educational, sports and job training activities helping them prepare to

join ‘normal’ life.

2. Safe and Sound: this programme focuses on rescuing and preventing victims ofdomestic child trafficking in Hue and Ho Chi Minh City. The programme helpchildren escape from traffickers and return to their families, and preventtrafficking from taking place in the first place by spreading awareness in villagesand communities.

3. Hoi An Children’s Home: This programme is focused on children living inpoverty in the Quang Nam province finish their schooling, and go on to university,by providing a residential home with a full range of support services.

4. Stay in School: This programme in the Bac Ninh province provides support tochildren from the poorest rural families so that they can stay in school, byproviding for all school-related costs including uniforms, tuition fees, stationery,and text books.

Blue Dragon is unique in that each child has an individual plan created through aprocess of negotiation between social workers, the child, and the child’s family (if any).

Another defining feature of Blue Dragon is the diverse range of services they provide fordisadvantaged children including: legal advocacy, emergency medical help, nutritionalsupport, psychology groups and counseling, accommodation, tuition and homeworkassistance, and special classes in art, drama, music, English and swimming.

Blue Dragon is well-known on the streets of Hanoi, and it is quite common for childrenwho already know the organization to bring new children met on the streets. In addition,Blue Dragon operates outreach programs and takes referrals from government bodies,including schools, who know children in need of help. Basically, the organization helpschildren as young as 5 and as old as 18. Besides, they also help kids who have been in





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Charity report

their programme and are in the transitional phase of growing into young adults, from 18to 23.

Blue Dragon has also set up a motorcycle rental and repair shop which is operated as asocial enterprise. A number of the street kids have been trained at the shop.

Input

Blue Dragon employs a team of passionate social workers, psychologists, child rightsadvocates, educators and support staff. Particularly, they have a small team (6) of full-time foreign volunteers who support their communication, social work, education andmaintenance departments. In addition, they have a number of local and foreignvolunteers who work on a part-time basis in their education department. Thesevolunteers teach elective classes and provide tuition before and after school.

The current structure of Blue Dragon is quite flat – coordinators report to MichaelBrosowski, the Director. Accordingly, staff have substantial input into decision-making.There is currently no formal Board of Trustees, although one is being established at themoment.

In 2009, Blue Dragon reported total income of $474 million, a 28% increase year-on-year. Restricted income was $320 million, accounting for 67% of total income, andrecording a 31% increase year-on-year. 84% went directly to support the children with71% deployed on the Step Ahead project in Hanoi, 6% on Stay in School – Bac Ninh,15% on Hoi An Children’s Home, and 9% on Safe and Sound – Hue.

A lean 8% was spent on the management and organization. Staff costs are low atapproximately $4,000 annually and Blue Dragon benefits from a large pool of expat andlocal volunteers.





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Charity report

Output

Since its establishment in 2004, Blue Dragon has achieved the following results:

• Sent 928 kids back to school and training• Provided accommodation to 74 girls and boys• Built or repaired 16 homes for families• Reunited 47 runaway children with their families• Put 5 teens through drug rehab• Obtained legal registration papers for 119 children• Rescued 42 trafficked children• Placed 37 teens in jobs• Played 557 games of soccer

PROJECT 2009Expenses

Directbeneficiaries

Indirect Cost per directbeneficiary

Step Ahead (Hanoi) 264 234 702 $1,128 Stay in School (Bac Ninh) 21 511 2044 $41 Hoi An Children's Home(Hoi An - Quanh Nam)

55 300 900 $183

Safe and Sound (Hue) 33 64 256 $516 Total 373 1,109 3,902 $336

Anecdotal evidence of results includes the story of a former gang leader who BlueDragon managed to convince to join its programme after a long period of gaining his





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trust. He recently graduated from Blue Dragon and obtained a job at one of Hanoi’sfanciest restaurants.

Impact

- Providing opportunities for street children to learn, earn and have achildhood: Each child given care and a new opportunity has the potential toincrease future earnings. This financially impacts the individual and the localeconomy. On top of this, each child has the chance of a proper childhood andcan learn and develop through play and more positive relationships. This issomething otherwise completely lost in having to address the urgent needs andproblems of daily life on the street.

- Improving educational enrolment ratios: Blue Dragon helps children enroll inschool and provide the support for them to stay there.

- Domestic policy change with respect to treatment of children: In Hue, whereBlue Dragon operates the Safe and Sound program, and in Bac Ninh, with theStay in School programme, Blue Dragon’s involvement has lead to a muchgreater level of concern and interest in the beneficiary group by the localgovernment.

- Creating behavioural change in law enforcement: Blue Dragon’s close workwith the local police is helping improve the treatment of street children by policeofficers.

- Creating ambition and role models inspiring behavioural change inchildren: By raising the expectations of the disadvantaged children and creatingsuccess stories of ‘Blue Dragon graduates’, the organization is inspiring thedisadvantaged to excel and reach higher goals than merely living normal lives.Creation of role models from the cohort of the children Blue Dragon helps willhave an exponentially positive effect on Vietnamese society.

- Reducing unemployment and economic loss from crime: Through the jobtraining provided by Blue Dragon, children are able to engage in incomegenerating opportunities. The economic value add of this should be seen in thecontext of the economic loss due to the destructive activities that some of thechildren were involved in prior to their recruitment by Blue Dragon.

- Providing a secure home: The street kids helped by Blue Dragon do not have ahome or are often unable to return home due to violence and other issues. BlueDragon provides the missing family role. As a result of Blue Dragon’s shelter,children are more likely to grow up with healthier minds and bodies, reducingfuture support costs from the state and the community.





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Charity report

- Spreading awareness of the rights of children: Communication about therights of children increases understanding about child development and theresponsibilities and duties of adults towards them.

Risks

• Intervention from Vietnamese authorities – The nature of a ‘pioneering’ workmeans that the organization has to stay in close contact with the authorities toensure they understand and approve of what the organization is doing.

• Loss of property – A core part of Blue Dragon’s work is the security of its ‘safehaven’ building in Hanoi. This is currently a rented property and the willingness of

the landlord to extent the lease at current price levels is an uncertainty. Currentlythis risk is mitigated through a 12 months rent prepayment.• Corporate governance – Corporate governance is in its infancy with no Board

of Trustees. A Board is currently being established.• Access – A key advantage of Blue Dragon has been its ability to work closely

with gangs of street kids. However, as Blue Dragon has helped former gangmembers out of their criminal lives it has become a victim of it own successlosing touch with the gangs. This risks alienating Blue Dragon from the milieuthat it seeks to help and infiltrate.

• Management capacity – A disproportionate amount of time is spent by MichaelBrosowski on fundraising which is hampering his ability to manage. A newmanager is currently being recruited to mitigate this risk.

OutlookMichael Brosowski, the Director is actively engaged in fundraising and travels semi-annually to Singapore and Australia to raise funds. The organization has limitedfundraising capacity and most donors are from outside the country requiring theextensive international travel by the Director.

More than two thirds of funding comes from institutions with the largest donor currentlybeing World Vision Singapore. Individual donations make up almost 30% of the funding.

The changing trend in fundraising approach towards individual donations might lead to

higher fundraising costs in the short-term than the current 8%.

A key wish list for the organization is to be able to secure the infrastructure of its safe‘haven centre’ which is currently leased for $12,000 on an annual basis withconsiderable long term uncertainty.

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