Strengthening schools and communities
Blue Dragon trains and mentors local leaders to protect their community members from exploitation.
Anti-Trafficking Boards
At the heart of Blue Dragon’s work to strengthen communities is the Anti-Trafficking Board.
Over 140 Boards are now operating in rural Vietnam, reaching a total of 50,000 people in communities who would otherwise be vulnerable to human trafficking.
Our aim is for this model to be adopted nationwide in vulnerable areas.
Boards are led by community members, representing a cross-section of citizens and government officials. They take responsibility for teaching community members how to be safe; monitor for signs of trafficking; and deliver assistance to people in poverty or hardship.
Community-based psychosocial care
Blue Dragon prioritises the delivery of services and care to people in their own community rather than in institutional settings. Shelters play an important role, but they are the option of last resort and usually only for short-term crisis.
We train members of Anti-Trafficking Boards as well as frontline workers from a range of agencies with the skills they need to provide counselling and social services in their own communities.
While demonstrating the effectiveness of this system, we are advocating for the central government to adopt it as the national model.
Developing local leadership
For communities to be safe, they need strong, caring local leadership.
We train local leaders and officials in trauma-informed social work, trafficking prevention, career counselling for teachers, and child-friendly investigations for police.
Training and mentoring are ongoing, not one-off workshops. We work with communities to build on their existing strengths, helping leaders develop the skills and confidence to make their communities safer.
Community infrastructure development
In remote places, villages are not connected to the national electrical grid; boarding students sleep in metal sheds with no toilets; and communities lack facilities such as street lights and sanitation systems. Unsafe, inaccessible, under-developed community facilities push people to leave home for new opportunities.
Blue Dragon engages with communities at a local level, inviting them to develop their own plans for infrastructure development and offer co-funding to realise their vision.
By improving facilities, we make it possible for people to have a higher quality of life without leaving home.
Blue Dragon’s work to strengthen communities is scalable, highly effective, and delivers benefits to all children and families.
I try to convey the messages through games and playing. I want people to understand that humans are not objects that can be bought and sold.
In the next five years, I hope my community will be free from trafficking and the stigma that comes with it. No more exploitation, no more residents leaving to work at distant factories in distant countries. Instead, a community where people can build their lives right here, at home.
