Global Reach: Past Grantees

Context:

Vietnam is primarily a source country for the trafficking of women and girls. The main destination countries are China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. UN ACT estimates three primary cross-border trafficking routes; Vietnam-China (accounting for roughly 65% of all identified cases), Vietnam-Cambodia (11%) and Vietnam-Laos (6.5%). The nature and scale of trafficking, especially of woman and children is large, serious, and well-organized. The primary destination for women trafficked to China is the sex industry where they are confined and abused, or to forced ‘marriages’ which involve domestic servitude, rape and forced pregnancies.

Organisation:

Blue Dragon was founded in 2002 by Michael Brosowski, an Australian living in Vietnam to address the needs of street children in Hanoi. Today, the organisation has grown to be one of the largest local NGOs working with at-risk youth and children in Vietnam. It has four main programmes: 1) Safe and Sound, which focuses on domestic trafficking rescue and prevention; 2) Step Ahead, which provides crisis intervention for street children and children with disabilities in Hanoi; 3) Stay In School, which helps rural children and youth stay in school and with their families by providing school fee subsidies, etc. in Dien Bien, Bac Ninh (near Hanoi) and Hue; and 4) Project X, the rescue and rehabilitation of Vietnamese women from situations of trafficking in China. Blue Dragon’s Chief Lawyer, Mr. Ta Ngoc Van, who heads Blue Dragon’s anti-trafficking work received the Trafficking in Persons Hero Award, presented by US Secretary of State John Kerry in June 2014, as well as the Trust Women Hero award in 2015. BD has also received the UNICEF “ZEROaward” for Exceptional Commitment to children (2013). Founder, Michael Brosowski, was awarded CNN Hero status in 2011 and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012.