It’s all in the moments

Ngoc celebrated her first birthday this week.

She turned 15.

Growing up on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, there’s not much joy in Ngoc’s life.

Her days are about survival. That means hanging with a group of friends who can protect her and moving about the city to places she feels safe.

Ngoc has a grandmother and younger siblings. She cares for them very much. But things never seem to work out when she’s with them, so she escapes to the streets where she feels that she belongs.

Blue Dragon has been getting to know Ngoc and her friends but it takes time to build trust.

We wish we could get her back to her family right away. We wish we could heal the years of damaged relationships around her and restore the childhood that she’s lost.

And while we’d like to move fast, we know that we have to move at Ngoc’s pace.

All this will happen when she’s ready.

So day by day, we do what we can to make her life whole.

Celebration

Friday was the first time she’s ever celebrated her own birthday.

When we learned that she had a birthday coming, we saw an opportunity to create a moment of joy.

We bought a cake and set up in a cafe where Ngoc could invite her friends to celebrate with her.

Everyone sang happy birthday and enjoyed the sweet cake, completely forgetting the hardships of their lives.

Later, Ngoc messaged the Blue Dragon social worker to say with pride that she was so happy and had taken the remaining cake home for her siblings and her grandmother to enjoy.

I’m sure she’ll never forget that first birthday celebration.

A crack in the armour

In Hanoi, meantime, we’ve been caring for a teen boy named Hoan.

He’s from a town 4 hours south of the city and has been on the streets for a couple of years now.

Like Ngoc, he has a family that he cares for but just can’t live with. He works at night in the tourist district of Hanoi, making enough money to get from day to day.

He enjoys meeting with Blue Dragon staff and loves going for a milk tea or a bowl of phở. But he’s wary of receiving help, guarding his independence above everything.

Two weeks ago, Hoan perforated his eardrum. It’s caused him terrible pain.

In fact, it’s been so bad that he finally accepted some help. We’ve been taking him to the hospital to treat his ear and making sure he has enough to eat while he can’t work.

His eardrum is starting to heal now. Another trip to the hospital on Saturday confirmed that he’s on the mend.

And after the checkup: a bowl of phở and shopping for new clothes.

Hoan beamed with joy as he chose a couple of simple t-shirts.

This tough young guy who has learned to survive on the city streets transformed into a cheerful little boy. He looked like a child on Christmas morning.

Transformative moments

Blue Dragon’s work is about so much more than buying birthday cakes and t-shirts.

But somehow, these moments are exactly what we’re about.

We all dream of changing the world. Making it a better place for those who are poor and suffering.

And much of what Blue Dragon does is focused on systemic change to end human trafficking and keep kids safe.

From day to day, though, change is incremental. Step by step.

There’s no wave of the wand, no granting of a wish to make everything better.

Instead, it starts with buying a birthday cake for a girl who’s never had one before. And taking a boy for an ear check and some shopping.

Creating those moments of joy is where change begins.

Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation is on a mission to end human trafficking.