Blue Dragon Children's Foundation
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
More than 40 million people live in slavery right now, and around the world there are an estimated 100 million children living or working on the streets. Blue Dragon is working in Vietnam to end trafficking and assist street children. We provide a means to a better life through education, shelter, psychological therapy and job preparation. Vietnam is developing rapidly but unevenly, creating vulnerabilities for millions of people desperate to escape poverty. As the country leaves behind its status as an impoverished, post-war society, families from highly disadvantaged backgrounds and remote rural areas frequently find themselves left behind. Seeking hope and opportunity, children and young people travel to the major cities, or accept job offers far from home... only to find themselves trapped, enslaved, or homeless. These problems are complex, and need comprehensive, long-term strategies to effectively address them.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Step Ahead
Step Ahead works in Hanoi, Vietnam, with street children and families in severe economic difficulty.
We meet homeless children through nightly street outreach; reunite them with their families if possible; and support them in the short or long term based on their circumstances and needs. The program provides comprehensive, holistic support to children and youth in crisis, street children and families at risk of homelessness through counselling, emergency shelter, long-term accommodation, nutrition, material support, and education.
Safe and Sound
Safe and Sound is an anti-trafficking program that operates in multiple provinces of Vietnam, where human trafficking and slavery are major problems.
The program supports children and adults who have been trafficked or are at high risk of being trafficked, helping them to access essential services and repatriate after trafficking, and building resilient communities that are sustainably resistant to human trafficking and exploitation. We build the capacity of government authorities and officials to prevent and combat human trafficking and child exploitation.
Project X
Project X provides intensive support to newly returned survivors of human trafficking, including psychological counselling, meals, safe accommodation, personal supplies, health checks, and life skills education.
The program helps survivors reunite with their families, or stay in safe homes to access education and training. Project X delivers long-term psychological care and trauma treatment including individual and group therapy, as well as financial assistance to return to education, vocational training, or move on to independence.
Legal Advocacy
Blue Dragon's program of Legal Advocacy provides free-of-charge legal advice, services, and representation to children and young adults in crisis.
The Advocacy team:
- rescues children and adults who have been trafficked and are trapped in slavery and facilitates their repatriation to Vietnam;
- supports people in vulnerable communities to obtain legal registration papers;
- trains Vietnamese police, border guards and officials to improve their skills in combating human trafficking; and
- advocates for improvements in policy and law for better protection of children.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of people using homeless shelters per week
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Step Ahead
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
Numbers were high during the Covid pandemic, as other housing options were not available. Improved success at reuniting homeless children with their families also accounts for the decline in numbers.
Number of clients assisted with legal needs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Legal Advocacy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Blue Dragon's in-house legal team offers pro bono advocacy, advice and representation.
Number of housing units built
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In 2022-2023, Blue Dragon had specific funding for a house building campaign.
Number of people rescued from modern slavery
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants
Related Program
Legal Advocacy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Blue Dragon collaborates with Vietnamese police and other authorities to rescue people from their places of exploitation and safely return them to their homes in Vietnam.
Number of children who received school supplies
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, At-risk youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This includes both school scholarships as well as essential school supplies for street children, ethnic minority and impoverished children to ensure they can stay in school.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Blue Dragon has two major goals.
First, we seek to make sure that every homeless child in Hanoi has access to care, shelter, and opportunity to turn their lives around.
Second, we aim for the end of human trafficking.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Blue Dragon takes a long-term, holistic approach to reaching our two major goals.
We start with rescue, to free children and young people from places of slavery and danger and get them into safe, caring accommodation where all their needs can be provided for. Social workers and psychologists provide comprehensive care focused on helping children overcome the trauma they have experienced, and developing the skills and knowledge to build successful independent lives.
Once a child is safe, we advocate for their legal rights and represent them as their abusers are prosecuted. Long term we aim to end trafficking, so we invest substantially in prevention work. We build the abilities of community leaders and government to build resilience to human trafficking and child exploitation in particularly vulnerable communities such as impoverished ethnic minority communities.
We take all we learn and find ways to feed it into long-term systemic change. We advocate for better policies; we lead law reform initiatives; and we train those agencies and institutions which carry responsibility for the protection of the vulnerable.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
In Vietnam, Blue Dragon has been working for more than 15 years, and now has over 130 staff.
Our team includes former program beneficiaries as well as a diverse range of talent: lawyers, social workers, psychologists and teachers form a multidisciplinary team to assist children, families and communities. Most of the staff working with ethnic minority people are members of those ethnic communities who can speak multiple ethnic languages.
Blue Dragon's track record includes leading revisions to laws; rescuing over 1,000 people directly from the places where they were slaves; and helping thousands of children return to school.
We are the leading non-profit organization combating human trafficking in Vietnam, and have pioneered interventions for children in crisis that are demonstrated successes.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Blue Dragon has made a significant contribution to Vietnams development through our work with some of the most disadvantaged children, families and communities in the country. We have rescued over 1,000 victims of human trafficking, helped them return to their homes, and ensured that they are able to overcome the trauma they experienced to build new, independent lives. We have helped over 1,200 children to get off the streets and over 600 to return home to their families. We have ensured that over 5,000 highly vulnerable children were able to return to or attend school, and helped 350 teenagers to get a job.
Beyond these numbers, Blue Dragon has developed effective models and demonstrated them to both government and non-government partners. When we began, social work was highly under-developed in Vietnam. Blue Dragon developed a social work model, trained young social workers and demonstrated to relevant government agencies the effectiveness of such an approach for street children. We have developed a curriculum for training grassroots social workers at the village level, to ensure that the most vulnerable can receive help in their own communities.
We have developed an effective, comprehensive model to fight human trafficking including rescue and reintegration for survivors, as well as effective grassroots prevention that ensures that vulnerable people understand the risks, and that there are mechanisms in place to raise the alarm and respond when someone goes missing.
We have represented over 130 victims of trafficking and child abuse in court, and in the process demonstrated to the legal system the importance of effective legal representation and victim-friendly investigation techniques. We are sharing our experience and knowledge with government agencies responsible for child protection and counter trafficking, and have provided training for over 7,000 government officials.
For the next period, Blue Dragon intends to expand our advocacy and experience-sharing in order to ensure wider application of successful models of child protection and counter trafficking. We are committed to serving children and families who need us most, while at the same time ensuring that the responsible domestic government and civil society agencies are better equipped for this important work. We will invest further in research and documenting and sharing our experience. We are working closely with the government on improving and reforming laws related to child protection and human trafficking to ensure that the legal framework is soundly in place.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals, To report to donors
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Blue Dragon Children's Foundation
Board of directorsas of 02/19/2024
Mr Chung Pham Sy
Michael Bertini
Sharon Steele
Nelson Le
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
No data
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
No data
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data