Blue Dragon Children's Foundation TAUPO. New Zealand.

16/08/2024

💙 🐉 our Taupo 🥝 representative for Blue. Go Tia!

Walking together to end human trafficking

09/10/2022

Well done Chinh. 🏃 Done and dusted 43 km and raised $2300.00 for Blue today. Great effort !

02/08/2022

It was an unusual morning in this remote village near the Vietnam-China border.

Two men were facing trial on charges of trafficking a woman. A circuit court was held and the whole community was in attendance.

Blue Dragon represented a 24 year-old H'mong woman, Chiu, in the court. Last December, she was deceived by two men who were planning to take her across the border and sell her into sexual slavery in China. Fortunately, Chiu was rescued by local authorities and brought home safely.

Following Blue Dragon's recommendation, a circuit court was held so that the trial took place in the village rather than far away in the city. The local people were invited to attend so they, who are at high risk of trafficking, could gain knowledge to protect themselves.

With the two traffickers sentenced to 6 and 6.5 years in prison, the court sent a deterrent to those who might consider exploiting others for personal gain.

Circuit courts like these have an impact on the entire community as a valuable combination of justice, education, and prevention.

28/07/2022

Thanks Blue so great to be with the team In Hanoi . We had a great night and raised funds along with lots laughter, 💙 and catch ups .

Do you want to make new friends and build connections? Would you like to help communities across Vietnam?

If you answered yes, you’ll want to join us at SpamCham this Wednesday!

This fun networking event has great drinks, delicious snacks, amazing raffle prizes… and it supports a very meaningful cause!

Held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City the last Wednesday of every month, everything raised from the sale of raffle tickets goes directly to keeping vulnerable children in school.

Every year when school resumes after the summer holidays, thousands of children, especially in remote rural communities, have to forgo their right to receive an education due to poverty.

Blue Dragon visits the homes of these children to find out what they need, and provides them with all the help they require to stay in school.

Join us this Wednesday from 6.30 pm at SpamCham to make new friends and help children build bright futures!

All the details here: www.bluedragon.org/get-involved/events

15/02/2022

Sending ♥️ to the dream team from Blue in Taupo. Congratulations Vi you are a legend and great role model .

01/02/2022

Happy new year to our Blue Dragon family in Vietnam.

24/01/2022

🥲

The Blue Dragon blog returns this week with a shocking case of child abuse. When Blue Dragon was first called for help, we knew the situation was urgent but the identity of the abuser was a mystery. (Trigger warning: This story refers to child sexual abuse).

LOOKING FOR A GHOST

An urgent message reached Blue Dragon one day in late 2021. There was a rumour that some boys in the central Vietnam province of Quang Nam had been sexually abused and were now infected with HIV.

The person contacting us had few details. They knew some boys aged around 15 had been diagnosed with the virus after meeting a man using Blued, a gay dating app. But that was all they could tell us.

Armed with that scant information, Blue Dragon started looking into what had happened, and how.

What we found grew more shocking by the day. We spoke with several boys, aged 14 to 16, who had met a man they knew only by his first name, Cuong. There were older teens, too, but Vietnamese law recognises children as aged under 16; teens aged 17 and 18 are not considered as victims of child abuse.
The boys had used the dating app to meet men as a way of making money through the hardships of COVID. One boy just wanted to afford a mobile phone. None of them knew what they were getting themselves into. None suspected that Cuong was HIV positive.

At the outset, Blue Dragon reported to police and the government. But the children were unwilling at first to make statements and we had no idea who had abused them.

Some kids told us that Cuong worked for an electrical repair company. Others said he owned a restaurant. There was just no concrete information about him at all; it was like looking for a ghost.

However, our years of rescuing people from slavery have taught us a lot about looking for ghosts. Even though Cuong had gone to great lengths to hide his identity, we put together the clues over several months.

Finally, we knew who he was and could report to the police.

Now that the boys knew they were safe, they agreed to make statements. Blue Dragon’s lawyers sat beside them as they reported in detail the terrible abuse they had suffered.

After 4 months of collecting evidence, Cuong is now in custody. The police are piecing together the case that will be presented in court later this year. If convicted, Cuong faces many years in prison.

Some important questions remain unanswered. How is it that the boys were all using Blued, despite being underage? How many other men were involved, and how many victims in total are yet to be found? Blue Dragon is continuing to look for answers.

With the accused in custody, he can no longer harm more children. But this case is far from over. The police investigation is continuing and Blue Dragon stands ready to support all of the children and young people who have been affected.

** You can subscribe the blog at LifeIsALongStory.com and have stories of hope delivered to your inbox every Monday.