A group of teens gathers every Sunday at Dragon House to spend the day in intense learning. We call them our Junior Social Workers. The girls and boys have signed up to a 10 week basic course in what it means to be a Social Worker. Some may well become Social Workers one day; most will not. Their driving desire is a passion to learn how to care for others. This Sunday I was invited to go along and share my own experiences with the group. I’m not a Social…

The social workers at Blue Dragon have some very polite expressions to deal with the daily horrors they encounter. Chief among them: “Complicated.” When I hear a social worker saying that a family is “complicated,” I understand the meaning to be: “You’ve never seen a horror movie like you’re about to see.” Thoan is from a “complicated” family. This doesn’t mean his parents don’t love him, but it does mean he has endured neglect and abuse at home, and he carries the burden of guilt for whatever terrible things have…

It’s the time of the year when Blue Dragon is asking for money. The annual Rescue Appeal. That doesn’t make a very compelling opening line to my blog, does it? Shouldn’t I open with a powerful story – maybe something to make you all emotional and feel  inspired to donate? There are plenty of stories to tell. Scroll back through the blog, visit the Blue Dragon website, or even go look at my earlier blog. But now is the time that I need to ask. I created Blue Dragon in 2003 because there…

I’m a terrible dinner guest. Invite me to your house, sit with me around a table, and ask me how my day was. I will tell stories that turn you off your meal. I will talk about the young mother who was tricked into following a trafficker into China, then tortured and raped until she complied with their demand that she “marry” a stranger. I will tell the story of the 2 boys who were living with Blue Dragon but then enticed away to join a criminal gang, which lends…

When I first met Son, he struck me as an intelligent, empathetic boy who had an unusually well developed combination of empathy and leadership skills. Later, when I learned that he had a long history as a gang leader, I was initially surprised, although I probably shouldn’t have been. All of the qualities that served him so well in the Blue Dragon shelter – his ability to get along with others, his can-do attitude, his integrity – ensured his success out on the streets. Son was 15 then, and is…

Sot’s every word is labored. His breathing is shallow and he coughs each time he pauses. He’s barely 22 years old, and he’s facing the prospect of dying very soon. We sit in a café, and we talk about life. There is still hope for Sot; medication might yet clear up his lungs, which are wracked with tuberculosis, but the future is deeply uncertain. The medicine is subsidized but visits to the hospital are not free. His doctor at the hospital has tried in the past to hold back some…

Trang had a good, steady job. She earned enough in the local fish processing plant to look after herself and her 2 sons; while she wasn’t rich by any measure, she was able to get by and she was proud of her small family. When an environmental catastrophe hit...

I’ve posted an article on LinkedIn, discussing the pitfalls to current approaches that governments are taking to fight human trafficking. www.linkedin.com/pulse/all-together-michael-brosowski To end trafficking, we have to use our resources as best we can. There’s some evidence that countries may be taking a ‘siloed’ approach, trying to deal only with forms of trafficking which directly affect them, and I fear that there’s no way to succeed if we work like that. This issue is too important for us to mess up.   Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation rescues kids in crisis.

This first shot at getting back to the blog finds me quite far from home. I am in Zurich today, and heading to Ireland tomorrow where I will be speaking about human trafficking and what my organization in Vietnam has learned about it over the years. The story of Blue Dragon is one of unlikely success. We started back in 2002 as a group of friends in Hanoi wanting to help street kids; I was an English teacher in a university and most of those working alongside me were economists.…

Blogging is a wonderful routine. Over the years I have blogged on and off – first here and now here – and have found it a reflective, thoughtful exercise to follow. In recent months I’ve become a lapsed blogger, and not for want of something to write about. Plenty has been happening here at Blue Dragon and there has been much to share… but somehow I fell out of the discipline of routine. It’s time now to reverse that! I’m going to start writing again, with a new post each…

Mr Tuan and Uncle Toan both passed away last week. Mr Tuan died in hospital, his lungs wracked with tuberculosis. He spent his last weeks drifting in and out of lucidity, rarely recognising anyone or anything around him. His funeral was held in his hometown on Thursday. We met Mr Tuan 2 years ago. He was sleeping in an ATM booth here in Hanoi with his 2 children, who were then aged 6 and 8. A son and a daughter, homeless with their father yet safe in his strong arms. Blue…

Every rescue operation is different to every other, but Trang’s was somehow even more different. In her late teens, Trang was trafficked from Vietnam and sold into a brothel in China. As is very common in these cases, she was deceived by someone posing as a close friend. A young man built a relationship with her, gained her trust, and then betrayed her. After many months in the brothel, where each moment was a brutal fight for survival, she found herself in possession of a mobile telephone, and in the early hours…

During the week I visited British International School in Hanoi, and was talking to their Grade 8 class about charity, charities, and the idea that we all have a role to play in caring for our world. It’s always the Question Time that I most enjoy, because there’s nothing so insightful as the question of a child. And this class didn’t let me down. One of the girls asked me something quite profound: What if I hadn’t started Blue Dragon? Where would I be? And what about all the kids we’ve…

Early on Saturday morning, my phone buzzed to life with a message from Ly. Having been on the road for the past month (hence my severe lack of blog posts!) I spent much of the past week catching up with the team at Blue Dragon as well as the kids at our centre. Ly, however, was not someone I had expected to see. For the past 2 years Ly has been working in Ho Chi Minh City as a barista. He’s 26 years old now, but I have known him…

Bac’s Facebook page has gone into overdrive. Since late last week, he has been uploading photo after photo of himself and all his Blue Dragon friends at the annual Blue’s Got Talent gala in our Hanoi centre. It’s a brilliant affair. The lunch room is converted into a theatre for an afternoon, and the girls and boys get up to perform all kind of acts that they have been practicing for weeks (or longer!) to impress their friends – and a panel of judges. Some dance, some sing. This year, some…