Beyond infection: The COVID-19 epidemic poses a threat for Vietnam’s most vulnerable

From Blue Dragon’s founder, Michael Brosowski: “I want you to know that your support of Blue Dragon’s work is important, and is making a difference to the lives of kids in Vietnam.

What’s really hurting is the slowing of the economy, which has led to countless people losing their jobs. At Blue Dragon, we are seeing many young people who have just started out in their careers thrust back into poverty, and whole families losing their sole source of income. In turn, this is leading to increased desperation. The number of children we are meeting on Hanoi’s streets has increased, as young people take the risk of going to the city with hope of finding a job or some source of money.

All of Vietnam is in a heightened state of social distancing, close to a lockdown, and there simply are no jobs to be found. These young people are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, so we’ve stepped up our street outreach work to find any child who is sleeping rough.

The Blue Dragon shelters are running through this time, and we will take in any young person in need of help – we will not be turning anyone away.

For families we are in touch with throughout the country, we are making sure they have enough basic food supplies to get them through the coming weeks.

Our greatest challenge continues to be the rescue of girls and women who have been trafficked to China. Since the outbreak began, we have rescued 4 women and girls, and assisted 6 more who were rescued by Chinese police and handed across the border. All have had to start their return to Vietnam with a period of quarantine before we can take them home.

Sadly, there are still close to 30 people awaiting rescue right now. We are in regular contact with them via phone messaging and are frustrated that we can’t get to them immediately. We will find them and bring them home as soon as travel in China is possible again, and until then we will continue to be their lifeline of hope.”

Blue Dragon is a charity organisation founded in 2003 to support disadvantaged children across Vietnam. With a core belief that all children deserve the best of care and support, Blue Dragon is committed to helping street kids, disabled children and young victims of human trafficking. Blue Dragon rescues and protects children from danger and exploitation, returns them to their families and gives them room for recovery and growth.

Since 2017, Savills Vietnam has stopped its participation in local and international industry awards and redirected annual award fees to charity and environmental activities to better benefit local people and community. Since 2018, with the mutual focus on education, Savills Vietnam and Blue Dragon have aligned the Savills Cares campaign and Blue Dragon’s Tertiary Student Support Programme. This alignment aims to support education for children in need, covering soft skills training, career workshops and real estate courses from Savills experts. These programmes aim to put office jobs, particularly jobs in real estate industry in a friendlier and more realistic perspective for students in Blue Dragon, thus helping them shape and build their career paths before graduation.

DONATE BLUE DRAGON CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION HERE.

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