Human Trafficking in [Vietnam] [other countries]Street Children in [Vietnam Child Prostitution in [Vietnam] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children The Socialist Republic of Vietnam occupies
the eastern coastline of the Southeast Asian peninsula [map], and is bounded
by China (N), by Laos and Cambodia (W), and by the Gulf of Tonkin and the
South China Sea (E & S). Its
capital is |
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FEATURED ARTICLE *** HRW: “Children of the Dust” - Abuse of Hanoi Street
Children in Detention SUMMARY - Between 2003 and 2006, Human
Rights Watch received credible reports of serious abuses of street children
in Hanoi. Primarily poor children from the countryside who go to Hanoi to
find work, street children are routinely and arbitrarily rounded up by police
in periodic sweeps. They are sent to two compulsory state “rehabilitation”
centers on the outskirts of town, Dong Dau and Ba Vi social protection centers, where they may be detained
for periods ranging from two weeks to as much as six months. ***
ARCHIVES *** Hanoi helps
underprivileged children - free hotline 1 800
1567 With the assistance of the UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Hanoi Youth Union and the Hanoi Women’s Union
have set up healthy life clubs in two districts, drawing the participation of
many underprivileged children. In
particular, the free hotline 18001567
has provided needed consultancy to more than 2,100 street children. UNICEF - The Big Picture Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - According to the Ministry of
Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA), there were 21,869 street children in the country as of
February 2003. Street children
were vulnerable to abuse and sometimes were abused or harassed by police.
International NGOs documented numerous cases of Cambodian children trafficked
to Ho Chi Minh City for short‑term work in begging rings. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [35] The Committee notes with deep
concern that, as recognized in the State party's report, family
disintegration, including divorce, is on the rise and contributes to the
increasing numbers of children in conflict with the law, and of those living
on the street and abusing drugs. The Committee is further concerned at the
growing gap between rich and poor families, and that poverty puts children at
greater risk of exploitation and abuse. [51] The Committee welcomes the
State party's ratification of ILO Convention No. 182, concerning the
Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of
Child Labor. However, it remains concerned that the incidence of the economic
exploitation of children remains widespread in the agricultural sector as
well as in gold mines, timber operations, the service sector and other
private sector enterprises. The Committee is also concerned at the high
number of children living and working on the street. At a rented house in a suburb of HCMC, 53-year-old Truong Hong Tam serves as a surrogate
mother for these abandoned youths, carrying out a mission to provide to
others a foundation of support she never had. When Tam was young, her father
left with another lover and her mom remarried, leaving four orphaned children
to fend for themselves. Seven-year-old
Tam often stole rice to feed her three younger sisters and many times she was
beaten as a result. The children slept
on sidewalk pavements and the oldest sister was prone to molestation by men
who scoured the streets at late hours preying on vulnerable youth. But the challenges of homelessness
ravaged the young girl as she became a drug addict at the age of 14 and a
petty street criminal who had to commit illegal acts to survive. From early in the morning until
late at night, Viet would go out on the streets and research the lives of the
street merchants. He would approach
men, women and children selling goods on the city sidewalks and interview
them, aspiring to bring about better circumstances for the workers and their
families. If a child selling goods on
the streets expressed an interest in education, Viet would take him or her to
join a charity class. If another had
run away from their family, Viet would collect money to help the child return
home or would write to the child’s family to come and pick them up. All the while, Viet was compiling a wealth
of information on local charity classes, housing options, and organizations
that could offer help to the underprivileged children living on Hanoi’s
streets. Greater
commitment to Vietnamese street children needed In Vietnam, according to data by
the Street Educators’ Club, the number of street children has dropped from
21,000 in 2003 to 8,000 in 2007. In particular, the number went from 1,507 to
113 in Hanoi and from 8,507 to 794 in Ho Chi Minh
City. By contrast, the number of migrant children is up. And street children
are by and large migrants as well. Thua Thien-Hue launches project
to support street children Under the project titled “Eliminating
beggars to enable a healthy town for tourism,” street children will be
recruited to live and study at five orphanages in the town. Nearly 300 local children live on the
street, according to statistics reported by the town’s Committee of Population,
Family and Children. Every morning, when restaurants
and cafes around the Thanh Cong apartments in Hanoi
open their doors, Tham is there. Carrying a bag as big as her body, which
contains shoe polish, a brush, some pieces of cloth, and several old sandals,
Tham goes through all restaurants and cafes to ask
customers if they want their shoes shined.
At the age of 14, Tham does not have a
chance to go to school. She has to work to seek three meals a day. Her day
begins at 5 in the morning and goes till 9 or 10 in the evening. Tham is the youngest of three
siblings. Her family is very poor. Her father was a drunk who died three
years ago. One year later, Tham’s eldest brother
died of drugs. Her mother married again, leaving Tham
and her brother to a relative. Tham had to go to
Hanoi to work. When Tham was at home, she was a shy
little girl but life has stolen her innocence. Man
builds hope for street children Before 1975, Ran was recognised as a beggar blowing his harmonica for money.
Wherever he went he was surrounded by a group of ragged children who came to
the city to make a living. Ran was an
uninvited guest to almost all the big parties in town, hoping to take left
over food for the hungry kids waiting outside. After the city was liberated in 1975, together
with a group of kind-hearted people, Ran gathered the street children in one
place to provide food, shelter and teach them how to read, write and do
simple math. He also taught them to be good citizens. Ran’s dream was
to open a home for street children. FRENCH FIRST LADY HELPS - One day he wrote a letter to
the French First Lady, Danielle Mitterrand asking for her support. Any street
children in future? The EC has committed
more than 6.8 million euros to help Vietnam achieve the goal of having no
street children roaming on the roads.
Since its launch three years ago, the project has been implemented in
10 precincts of the three major cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh
City and Nha Trang and 40
communes from seven cities and provinces of Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Ngai and Phu Yen. The
project’s overall objective is to ensure the children, particularly street
children or vulnerable children, have the right to attend school, be taken
care of and stay in a safe home. In
addition to attending school, many of them are sent to vocational training centres to learn a career to help their parents
supplement their meager incomes. One
Man and His Dream - Giving hope to disadvantaged youths in Vietnam The legacy of the war in Vietnam
is that the country's population is young and poor. Sixty per cent are under
the age of 25. Many who travel from the countryside to the cities with dreams
of finding jobs and making enough money to support themselves fail to find
the life they were searching for. They end up living on the streets, selling
postcards, shining shoes and are horribly vulnerable to a world of drugs,
exploitation and prostitution. Former
street kid becomes chef at five-star hotel Former street kid Mai Manh Cong never hoped to earn a decent living but with
every hand turned against him, another has helped him up and now he’s a top
chef in a five star hotel. One day due to hunger he collapsed
by Go Vap war memorial. A passer-by took pity on
him and took him to Sai Gon
Railway Station’s Club for street children.
This act of kindness marked the turning point for the youngster. Cong caught a whiff that a cooking
class was to start and he started saving all his money to pay for the
fees. Far from being put off by being
the only boy in a class full of women, Cong quickly discovered he had a
special talent. After two years of studying, he was awarded a certificate of
merit and when HCM City’s Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs opened a professional
restaurant course in 2003, he was selected to join up. Eventually, with a fistful of passion and
determination, Cong got an internship to cook at Omni five star hotel. From then on, Cong’s
lucky star hasn’t stopped shining. As soon as he completed his internship, he
was invited to become a chef at the hotel. Hanoi
restaurant aids the poor [with Video] Street children and other
disadvantaged kids learn to cook delicious Vietnamese and Western dishes,
tend bar, wait tables and speak ''hospitality English'' at Koto before they
go on to work at some of the finest hotels and restaurants in Vietnam. Measures to
help street children DISADVANTAGED STREET CHILDREN - At noon on a hot day, near the
wall of the Hang Day stadium, on Phan Phu Tien street, Nguyen Van Vy, 12, and his elder brother Nguyen Van Duc, 15, are seen working hard, shining shoes and
sandals. "In summer, fewer people wear shoes, so we earn a few
tens of thousands of dong. In winter, we earn double." Vy went on to
say: "We work here on Saturdays and Sundays. On other days, we work in
the morning and in the afternoon we go to school." A
“support network” for 22 thousand street children 65 Drop in centres
and hospices in Ho Chi Minh City not only offer new
hope to the small abandoned children, they also give fresh opportunities for
work experience to students who want to work in the field of social welfare. Street
Children at Risk Before APEC Summit Government roundup campaigns to
clear Hanoi's streets of "wanderers" and "vagrants" are
landing street children in detention centers, where some are beaten and
subject to other forms of abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report released
today. Human Rights Watch is concerned that street children are particularly
vulnerable to arrest now, as the Vietnamese government attempts to present
its best face for this week's meetings in Hanoi of world leaders, including
US President George Bush, for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Vietnam
rejects human rights report on street children Vietnam has rejected a recent
report of an international human rights group about the country's gathering
and bad treatment to homeless kids, Vietnam News Agency (VNA)
reported Tuesday. The report of the
U.S.-based Human Right Watch which says street children in Hanoi have been
brought to social sponsorship centers and brutally treated, when the city
prepares for this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, is "a
complete fabrication", the VNA quoted
Spokesman of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Le Dung as saying. HRW: “Children of the Dust” - Abuse of Hanoi Street
Children in Detention SUMMARY - Between 2003 and 2006, Human
Rights Watch received credible reports of serious abuses of street children
in Hanoi. Primarily poor children from the countryside who go to Hanoi to
find work, street children are routinely and arbitrarily rounded up by police
in periodic sweeps. They are sent to two compulsory state “rehabilitation”
centers on the outskirts of town, Dong Dau and Ba Vi social protection centers, where they may be
detained for periods ranging from two weeks to as much as six months. Citibank-funded
vocational training course for street children opens A vocational training course for
50 street children in Hanoi, which is being funded by the Citibank Fund,
opened on September 25. During the three-month course, the
children will receive training in hotel services, refrigeration equipment
repairs and welding. Self-sacrificing
xe om drivers ride to the rescue HELPING UNDERPRIVILEGED KIDS - "Some of the children
don’t seem to trust us or believe that we only want to help them, so we have
to ask them again and again to go to class," Luc said. "But the
biggest hurdle is keeping the children practicing reading and writing because
they say it is too difficult for them, since they’ve been living freely on
the street for long." City tackles issue
of homeless children According to estimates by the
Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the number of street children in Vietnam is
estimated to be around 23,000, including 1,500 in Hanoi and nearly 9,000 in HCM City. Helpline
assists children and parents As a joint effort by PLAN
International and the National Committee for Population, Family and Children,
the pilot project Helpline provides advice and assistance for social issues
concerning children, and after two years of service, has many success stories
about assisting children in need. The Helpline, 18001567 has become familiar to both children and their
caregivers with 93,860 calls, which exceeded the expectation of project organisers. Among child callers were students,
street-children, child labourers and children with
disabilities. Children aged 11 to 18
accounted for 63 per cent of total callers. Centres care for disadvantaged kids "Who wants to buy peanuts,
sweets or cake?" one street child cries out cheerfully as she advertises
her wares to eager customers. Like her, street children in the central
province of Thanh Hoa now
lead meaningful lives earning their own living every day and attending
charity centres set up by good samaritans
for disadvantaged children to learn and relax. HCM City gives shelter to more homeless, disabled
children Children who leave their homes in
rural areas to move to the city tend to gather in groups, staying together in
cramped boarding-houses. Street children from Thanh
Hoa Province live en masse in Nga
ba Bui doi (street-urchin
three-way cross-roads) in Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal. These children
mainly work as shoe-shiners and lottery sellers. Street children who come from Quang Ngai central province
live in a large group in the area of the two bridges of Nguyen Tri Phuong and
Y. They mainly sell noodles on the street. As a shoe-shiner, Cuong said "I earn from VND10,000
to VND15,000 each day, but some days I have no food. Remembering
society’s forgotten kids We have been successful in
bringing many street children back to their homes. In 2001, there were
approximately 28,000 street children in the whole country. In August 2003,
the number was 21,000. The number in 2004 was 16,000 and this past year the
number was only 7,699, as of December 31, 2005. Project
gives aid to street children Truong Tu
Son, a 12-year-old homeless boy working as a shoe-shiner in Ha Noi, lost his left leg in a traffic accident last year.
One of more than 2,000 children to receive help from a State project on assisting
street kids, Son was treated at a city hospital and then went to Ha Nam
Province’s Social Sponsoring Centre. HCM City now has 1,225 street
children, compared to 8,500 in 2003, while Ha Noi
has basically wiped out homelessness among children. Street Kids Wear Scars Of Abuse Many children, girls particularly,
abandoned by their parents, or tricked into taking jobs under false pretenses,
end up abused, begging, and often forced into prostitution. Doan’s world changed when his
parents divorced not long after his fifth birthday. “Nobody took care of
me, my father married a new wife, who did not want to care for me and my
mother went to The
Growing Problem Of Street Children In Vietnam Most street children in ADOLESCENCE - HIV/AIDS is just one of the
many risks, which Viet Nam’s estimated 20,000 street children face. Although most
move from rural areas to the cities in the hope of providing much-needed
income for their families, as many as a quarter have run away from broken or
abusive home environments. Hieu, a 17 year old boy, is typical. During the day, he
spends his time either selling newspapers or lottery tickets or shining shoes
on the streets of Hanoi. Information
about Street Children - Vietnam [DOC] A 2001 survey on 10,351 children
working on the streets of HCMC gave the following figures of street
children’s origins: approximately 9% are from the Street
Children in Vietnam: Interactions of
Old and New Causes in a Growing Economy The problem of street children is
one of the most pressing social problems in Street
Children In Vietnam - An Inquiry Into The Roots Of Poverty And Survival ...
[PDF] The report is divided in two main
parts. The first provides an extensive review of the literature on
disadvantaged children in Vietnam
Street Kids Take Poignant Snapshot Tran Dinh Phuoc was desperate to
change his life. No more stealing, no more telling lies and no more fighting.
But in his line of work it was pretty much against the odds. At 15, Phuoc was shining shoes for little
more than 35 cents a pair on the unforgiving streets of VN To Buckle Down
On Childcare And Protection The Government has approved a
six-year program to reduce the number of street children, victims of child
sexual abuse and children working under harmful and dangerous conditions. The Real Situation Of Street Children In Vietnam According to the statistics of The
Ministry of Labor, Invalid and Social Affairs, The current number of street
children in the whole country is about 20,000 children, with the largest
concentration in Law Center Opens For Poor Kids Disadvantaged children will be
able to get free legal help from a new social services center in After 10 years of homelessness, Toan,
21, works as a cook’s assistant for SIT
Alum Works With Street Children During His Independent Study In Viet Nam My name is Dat. I have dropped out of school; I would have
been in the fourth grade. I had to
quit school because my dad died, so my mom had no one to take care of her. Therefore, I had to try because I am the
only son. At that time, I had to sell
every single one of my lottery tickets.
The more I sold, the more I could help my mother. Education and
housing for blind street-children Approximately 200 of these blind
children are living in the streets in Tay Ninh. Economic hardship,
mistreatment and family problems forced the kids to live on the street. Educating
the Street Children of Vietnam They are picked up off the streets
and brought to the shelter, where they're fed, clothed, and sent to school or
given vocational training. I was startled by their transformations, and
touched by how warm, bright, and optimistic they all were. Foster Parents Plan - Education the key to a better future for Vietnamese street children Foster Parents Plan is working
with the Hanoi Committee for Protection and Care of Children to give the
street children a better start in life. The project provides counseling,
education and vocational training and also supports children who want to
leave the city and return home. The committee has set up wards in four
districts of Approximately 9,000 Vietnamese
children spend their days roaming the city streets. Many of them shine shoes.
Many sell lottery tickets or chewing gum. Others simply beg. They might sleep
under bridges or on park benches. They must constantly hide from aggressors
and police. Though they've learned how to survive, they still face
terrible risks that no child should ever have to face. Sister's
Love Reaches Out To Street Children Of Vietnam In Vietnam: Alert Over Street Children Up to 16,000 children are
estimated by officials to live on the streets, mostly in the two cities,
although foreign social workers say the number is much higher. Most come from poor rural areas and are
exploited into accepting low pay or are forced to resort to prostitution,
begging or picking through garbage to support themselves in the cities. Street
Children in Ho Chi Minh City After Luong’s mother abandoned him
in the center of All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Vietnam] [other countries]Street Children in [Vietnam Child Prostitution in [Vietnam] [other countries]