Founder's Blog

“Where do you get your happiness from? Is there someone in your family like this? How is it that you’re always so positive?”
Do looked surprised at the question. A little confused.
And then he said: “It comes from here – it’s because of Blue Dragon.”

Minh and Chau have been through so much more than any child should know. They have endured and overcome such torment. And yet they still have so much love to share.

The human spirit is an amazing thing.

This weekend I have been visiting my family in rural Australia. It’s been some years since I was last here, and I have forgotten how quietly paced life is in the countryside.

The way Binh shared with Hien was not only about his life experience, but he also cherished his brother. Especially that Binh, from a trafficked boy to a young man, shows responsibility and care for his family.

She was a good student at school, and loved her family deeply. Growing up in a small city in northern Vietnam, with parents who cared for her, Thanh never imagined that anything like this could happen to her.

This is not a story without hope; I just don’t know the ending yet. The one thing for sure is that Sanh doesn’t have to live in an abandoned concrete box any more, and nor does he have to live on the streets of the city.

Hope for Sanh begins today.

These days the concept of ‘paying it forward’ is well known, but it can more simply be the idea of someone being obliged to volunteer or donate after they have received help to get back on their feet.

While entire political systems behave like untamed goats, the kids of Blue Dragon chose to organise, focus, and learn something new. It would be easy at this time to feel despair about our future. There’s plenty going wrong. But there’s plenty going right, too; and if we take a moment to reflect, much of the hope for our world rests in our young.

The children should never have been trafficked in the first place. Their families should never have had to make the decision to send away their children; they should never have had to face such hardship that this could even seem like a reasonable thing to do.

When I first met ‘Tan’, he was living wild on the streets of Hanoi. I don’t know if anybody had ever cared for him before; every instinct of his body was about survival.

Just as parents feel the mix of joy and sorrow when their own children start becoming independent and move away from home, my team and I are in a perpetual flux with new kids coming in and – albeit much more slowly – the older kids heading out.

If you’ve been following what’s happening at Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, you’ll have seen the launch of our annual funding appeal. This is the time of year that we plan for the coming 12 months, and ask the world to help us. It’s a nerve-wracking time because so much depends on the outcome.