Poverty

17 million people in Vietnam are living below/at the poverty line, and the gap between rich and poor is growing rapidly [World Bank, 2013]. 

A thin S-shaped country with the two largest cities in each polar end (Hanoi in the north and Saigon in the South), Vietnam's rural population is leaving behind agricultural trades for the promise of higher incomes in the urban service industry and export processing zones.

Domestic migrants are mostly young people who leave their families behind and become upon arrival vulnerable to organised crime, economic exploitation and the growing trafficking trade.

We work to empower shelters and organisations with training and capacity building.

Marginalisation of Children

2.5 million or close to ten percent of Vietnamese children and adolescents are vulnerable, including orphans, street children, drug addicts and HIV/AIDS-infected children. The number of street children, a group particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, has rapidly increased and estimates suggest that in HCMC alone around 25,000 children are living on the streets. 

We work to give children and young people the opportunity to access relevant education, vocational training and stabile employment. 
2012 video by Radio Free Asia "The Invisible Children of HCMC"

Sexual Abuse

While statistical evidence varies, it is widely acknowledged that sexual violation of children is widespread in Vietnam.

Poverty combined with related problems such as lack of education, alcohol or drug addiction and domestic violence contributes to child vulnerability and the occurrence of sexual abuse in and/or outside of the family.

As for children living outside of the family, such as street children in Hanoi and HCMC, many have left poor and dysfunctional families from neighbouring provinces to escape home and seek for work. Having to fend for themselves in a new environment leaves these children vulnerable to sexual abuse by adults, for instance those who provide accommodation or work for them.
2013 video by St. John's University about our partner Little Rose Warm Shelter.