Massive Interventions

Because it’s Blue Dragon’s 20th birthday, we’ve been looking back at kids we helped long ago and writing stories about where they are now.

This week, we shared Hien’s story.

We didn’t know it at the time, but Hien played an important role in shaping Blue Dragon in our early days.

Hien’s story

I met her 20 years ago, when she was living with her mother in a truly decrepit house.

The roof had holes large enough to see the sky above. There was no toilet or bathroom, and on the first day I went there I saw a snake.

And yet, Hien was going to school every day, dressed in her uniform looking cheerful and studious.

It wasn’t that she was unaffected by her difficult home life. It was that she had learned to hide her fear, to hold it down, and just get on with things.

Blue Dragon was tiny at that time – we had no resources or staff, just a drive to help kids.

Seeing Hien’s appalling living conditions, we knew we had to do something.

Something big.

Taking action

You can read the whole story here, including an update of where Hien is today.

But in short, what we did was: everything.

Everything that Hien needed.

We found someone to donate land to her family, that is now hers forever.

Then we built a house. It is no mansion, but it was big enough for mother and daughter, well constructed, and included a private bathroom – the first time in her life Hien had had one.

While we did this, we started assisting Hien with her studies. Her mother was unwell and had no stable income, so we relieved her of the burden of paying Hien’s school fees.

Once Hien completed Grade 12, we gave her a scholarship to university. Even after that, we helped her secure an opportunity to study abroad.

Hien now has a great job and family of her own. Her son has had a very different childhood to his mother’s; he could not imagine the hardship that she once endured. And that’s exactly as it should be.

The intergenerational poverty cycle has been broken.

A big idea

At Blue Dragon, we call this a “massive intervention.”

When we meet a child living in hardship or crisis, we don’t look for the quick-fix solution. We don’t just deal with the most obvious problem.

Instead, we look at what it will take to make a lasting change. To really make a powerful difference.

This means we don’t always choose the cheapest or simplest option. And it also means making a long-term commitment to each child.

It takes a significant effort and it’s worth it.

Our experience of helping Hien taught us that interventions to keep kids safe had to be “massive.”

And we still do that today.

Every rescue of a trafficked person is a massive step of an even larger intervention to change someone’s life. It’s how we have had so much success over the years of working with kids in the toughest of circumstances and transforming their future.

That Hien now leads a happy, independent life free from the fear and shame of poverty is a testament to Blue Dragon’s “massive intervention.”

May there be many more to come.

Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation is on a mission to end human trafficking.