In the coming days, Blue Dragon supporters will be receiving an email asking for help. Keep an eye on your inbox.
It’s one of these things about working in a non-profit. The work that we do saves lives and transforms communities; but it’s totally dependent on the goodness of people who choose to donate.
For Blue Dragon, this is a particularly important point. We deal with people in crisis all the time. All the time.
Not a day goes by without a call for help from someone who has been trafficked, enslaved, and abused.
Not a day goes by without us meeting homeless kids on the city streets, separated from family and in considerable danger.
We’re working around the clock to keep people safe. We walk the streets and the parks at night, searching under bridges and in abandoned building sites looking for children. We arrange and execute rescue operations to get people out of brothels and forced labour camps in neighbouring countries.
There’s never a day without someone in urgent need of help.
Since we began, Blue Dragon has been rescuing people who had nobody else to turn to. If someone is in danger and there’s nobody else to help, we always say yes, no matter how difficult the situation is.
And so the idea that one day we might not be able to respond to every call is our greatest fear. That’s why we ask for support from the global community; donations mean that kids get rescued.
What would have happened?
Right now, Blue Dragon is facing a crisis.
As the world moves on from the days of Covid restrictions, human trafficking has evolved and worsened.
Before Covid, Blue Dragon was mostly rescuing people who had been trafficked to one country, China. Now we’re rescuing from five countries, and the number of calls for help are at a sustained all-time high.
Same with kids on the streets of Hanoi. We’re meeting more homeless children and often these kids are not yet even teens. Most have been driven to the city by poverty and desperation. Once here, they are targets for all sorts of exploitation.
Just this weekend, we came across two boys aged 16 sleeping out in the open. They had come to the city believing they would find work so they could support their families financially. Within a few days they had exhausted the little money they brought with them and had no way to call home for help. They were dirty, hungry and afraid.
If we hadn’t met them when we did, what would have happened to them?
But with the level of need so high, this is a real risk that we are facing. For the first time in our history, we’re struggling to keep up with the huge need that we are seeing.
A crisitunity
In a long-past episode of TV classic The Simpsons, Lisa said to Homer:
Did you know that the Chinese use the same word for “crisis” as they do for “opportunity”?
To which her father replied:
Yes. “Crisitunity”! You’re right.
I’m not sure that I agree that every crisis is an opportunity, but some certainly are.
And this current situation is definitely a crisitunity.
The need in the community is close to overwhelming us. But if we can make it through, there’s a world of good that we can achieve.
The kids who are out on the city streets can be safe.
The children, women and men who have been trafficked into slavery can be set free.
It’s all possible. Even with heightened need here in Vietnam and around the world, nobody needs to be left behind.
That’s why we’re asking for help. We’ve launched an Emergency Appeal, which you can find here on our website. We’re asking our supporters to give a donation of any amount so that we can respond to this elevated level of need that we are seeing.
A lot is at stake. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
If you’re able to help, please do. It may just save somebody’s life.
Your donation to the Blue Dragon emergency appeal will pay for rescue operations and emergency care for young people who have been trafficked or are homeless.