Vietnam: Virus forcing children onto streets
ALEADING charity in Hanoi, Vietnam, says there has been a threefold increase in the number of children living on the streets, forced from their homes in search of work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation has helped thousands of disadvantaged youngsters get their lives back on track.
But in March alone they have identified 30 new juveniles sleeping rough in the capital.
Co-CEO Skye Maconachie told Viet Nam News: “Normally we would meet about 10 new street kids every month in Hanoi. In March we met about 30.
“Kids are not in school, their families are not earning any income and they might come from a home where there is already abuse or some difficulties or complexities.
“So they are coming to the streets of Hanoi to try and earn money or get away from something.”
Although less than five per cent of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam are under 18, Maconachie said the global pandemic is putting more children at risk.
The dedicated staff at the charity were given special dispensation to allow them to continue to patrol the streets during social distancing, handing out food, face masks, advice and support to youngsters.
Maconachie added: “Through the strict social distancing period, our teams still needed to respond to calls for help, so we did that in the safest way possible.
“We had an outreach team out on the streets every night in Hanoi because more children were out on the streets and they needed support with food, face masks, and they needed to understand the situation and we would try to help and get them back to the countryside where possible.”
Official statistics show that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected nearly five million workers as of mid-April in Vietnam and that means an even more severe blow to the most vulnerable groups in society.
Maconachie said: “During the pandemic, the people we normally support have gone deeper into crisis.
“We are seeing families who are becoming homeless again, ending up back on the streets or working on the streets because they don’t have enough money to pay rent or food.
“We have seen a lot of our young people who we helped get employed now being laid off because of the situation. And many of their families work day to day to survive.”
Adding to this, the social distancing and international travel restrictions, which have helped contain the spread of the virus, made it even harder for groups like Blue Dragon to carry out their support activities.
Maconachie said: “We have victims of human trafficking calling for help and we have been unable to rescue them which is very, very challenging. Those women are in slavery and are at harm.
“In March we had 30 calls for help. We were able to support women only over the phone. And we have now been able to start rescuing them slowly. But currently, we have 25 victims waiting for rescue. So those numbers really have spiked.”
Although Vietnam is doing a great job in containing the deadly pandemic, the charity head was still very cautious of what the future holds in case the pandemic worsens.
She said: “A second wave of infection will be debilitating for a lot of the families that we work with.
“It takes time for them to recover from what has just happened and the risk is still going to be there. And the uncertainty for many months still.”
Despite the challenges, the Hanoi-based NGO, which has had 17 years experience in working to help street children and human trafficking victims, knows they have a vital role to play.
Maconachie said: “Crisis is what we do. And we definitely will not give up.
“Our focus is to get to the victims of trafficking as soon as possible and get them home to Vietnam. Our other focus is to get to the kids that have left home to work because of the school closures and because of the difficulties their families are facing.”