If you’ve seen the latest newsletter, then you’ll have heard the news that we’ve just passed another milestone. Blue Dragon has successfully reunited 500 street children with their families. Meeting homeless children and offering care and protection is where Blue Dragon started, even though we are now better known for our rescues of people from slavery. Every city in the world has children who live or work on the streets. Hanoi is no exception. What’s noticeable here is the lack of services for them; every now and then there are…

Here’s something I’d love to share – a film made by some high school students as part of their final year studies. The students from the United Nations International School created this as an assignment, deciding to create a story looking into the life of street children in Vietnam. It’s a fictional take on the life of one child, and captures the essence of what it’s like to be homeless in Hanoi. Treat yourself to 7 minutes of a very touching film made by some wonderfully talented young people.  …

When Tan was 13, he ran away from his home on a small farm in northern Vietnam. I met him in Hanoi a few weeks later. He had been surviving on the streets with help from some older boys who stole and pimped for a living. Fortunately, Tan hadn’t become entangled in anything too bad by the time Blue Dragon’s outreach workers met him and offered him a place to stay.  Tan was a shy and nervous little boy. I never understood how he had found the courage to leave…