As the new year begins, the team at AMS are getting out and into the field to visit some of our supported development projects throughout Asia and the Pacific.
I have been enjoying a few days rest in Vietnam after spending time with Brothers Geoff and Antonio. Not one for big cities I boarded an overnight train bound for the far northwest of the country up in the mountains between Vietnam and China. The small town I find myself in, Sa Pa, is stunningly located within the Hoang Lien mountains, surrounded by majestic peaks and terraced rice paddy fields and, owing to its high altitude, is the coldest place in Vietnam, even experiencing snowfall every second year. I have come here to recharge, hike and experience the life of the Hmong people.
The Hmong are an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The Hmong have been used as pawns by the US and French in the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War which led to hundreds of thousands Hmong fleeing to Thailand to seek asylum. To this day they suffer religious persecution in Vietnam and China, while controversy still surrounds the UNHCR and United States repatriation program of the Hmong back to Laos, the country that the fled from, and of Thailand’s efforts to forcibly return thousands more. The latest, more sinister challenge facing these people is keeping their women and children safe from the clutches of sophisticated child and sex trafficking rings that are increasingly targeting these uneducated and troubled minorities.
Through our partnership with Lenity Australia, Australian Marist Solidarity supports the Vietnamese NGO Blue Dragon that rescue and repatriate victims of the trafficking trade. Hmong women and children are being particularly targeted for forced-marriages, prostitution and child labour due to their poverty and their closeness to the Chinese border. Blue Dragon work with border officials to conduct rescues of women and children who have been trafficked and consequently provide long-term rehabilitation and support. It is hard for me to fathom that in such a picturesque place lurks evil of almost unimaginable proportions. Yet I am able to take solace in the knowledge that there are organisations out there like Blue Dragon that are fighting to protect these vulnerable people.
Written by: Ashley Bulgarelli, AMS Projects Coordinator
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