Here is his story taken from the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation website.
The Beginning
"In October 2002, an Australian teacher, Michael Brosowski, arrived in Hanoi to teach English at the national university. However, within two months, Michael found himself teaching English to a group of kids he never expected to meet: shoeshine boys who walked the streets hoping to earn enough money to survive. Michael recognised the potential in these boys and took it upon himself to help them turn their lives around.
Enlisting the help of one of his university students, Pham Sy Chung, Michael and some friends began to offer classes in English, maths, art and yoga to the boys. Eventually, in an effort to give the boys a chance to just be kids, they started a football team – “Real Betis Vietnam”. The first game was attended by three teenage boys. Today an average of 45 boys and girls play every Sunday at a stadium by the Red River.
At the start, Michael and Chung taught lessons once a week for 5 to 10 kids. It wasn’t long before more and more kids were coming for help, all with varying needs. As the number of kids grew, so did the challenges presented to Michael and Chung. It was at that point that Michael decided to quit his job at the university and work full time with street kids, thus creating a snowball effect that continues today.
Birth Of The Dragon
By February 2003, many more kids were coming with medical needs, seeking a place to sleep, and wishing to return to school and training. Realising that nobody else in Hanoi was willing to help these children, Michael and Chung decided to create their own organisation.
The transformation from an informal group of volunteers to a registered organisation was a slow process and wasn’t completed until March 2004. In the meantime, Michael and Chung set up the first Blue Dragon residence for six former street kids, launched a program keeping poor rural children in school and continued reaching out to street kids in Hanoi.
Growth by Leaps and Bounds
When Chung left Blue Dragon to study in the US, Michael began employing staff to reach out to more children. In March 2005, with just two staff, a combined drop-in centre and office was opened in the Long Bien area of Hanoi, close to the Red River, where thousands of rural migrant families and street children live in poverty. Two and a half years later, Blue Dragon moved to a much larger centre to cope with the huge numbers of children coming every day for help.
From late 2005, Blue Dragon started working with children from central Vietnam who had been trafficked to Ho Chi Minh City to work on the streets or in factories. After Michael and a law student, Ta Ngoc Van, rescued a 13 year old boy who had been bought by traffickers, they decided to find ways to break the trafficking rings altogether. Two years later, one major trafficking ring had been permanently disrupted and over 30 trafficked children had been returned home. Van and his wife are now employed full time with Blue Dragon as Vietnam’s only Child Rights Advocates.
In 2007, Blue Dragon’s work expanded to Hoi An, in central Vietnam. A government run home for 30 girls and boys was badly in need of extra support and Blue Dragon offered to look after the daily running of the home for several years, while putting in place new systems and practices that would ensure the children could grow up in a safe and healthy environment. Since then, Blue Dragon partnered with another charity, Children’s Hope in Action, to manage the home. Also in 2007 a new combined office and drop-in centre opened back in Hanoi; more children than ever came to the new centre, many for the new free lunch program to fight malnourishment.
Blue Dragon rescued 3 girls who were kidnapped and sold to brothels in China in 2007, marking the expansion of our anti-trafficking efforts. Since then we have continued to fight international sex trafficking by rescuing young women and girls taken across the Vietnam-China border. To date, Blue Dragon has been involved with the rescue of 19 girls from brothels in China.
At the beginning of 2008, Blue Dragon was bigger than ever with 37 staff across four main programs. That year a re-named football team, “Blue Dragon United,” attracted between 40-80 children each week to the pitch. But games weren’t the only thing on our minds. VIP Bikes, a motorbike repair shop, was opened by Blue Dragon with funding from a private individual that year to provide vocational training and employment for disadvantaged youth. In 2010, a hugely successful VIP Bikes became an independent social enterprise that still retains its ties to Blue Dragon today.
2011 was a year of milestones. Blue Dragon rescued its 100th trafficked child, and played its 1000th game of football. Michael Brosowski was also honoured for his role in Blue Dragon. In 2011, he was nominated as one of that year’s “CNN Heroes”. He was most recently made a member of the Order of Australia in early 2012, a great honour that reflects the huge impact of the organization he co-founded.
Today
Blue Dragon today has 50 staff and cares for over 1,500 children in Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Hue, Hoi Anh and Dien Bien Phu. In 2012, Dragon House, a new centre in Hanoi, was opened, and in 2013, two new shelters have been established. Blue Dragon is able to reach out to more kids than ever before, building on the terrific results from the past ten years:
- To date, Blue Dragon has:
- Sent 2,621 kids back to school and training
- Provided accommodation to 138 girls and boys
- Served 306,390 meals
- Built or repaired 59 homes for families
- Distributed 35,210 litres of milk
- Handed out 38,204 kilos of rice
- Reunited 136 runaway children with their families
- Taken 1,036 kids to a doctor or hospital
- Put 6 teens through drug rehab
- Obtained legal registration papers for 2,001 children
- Rescued 272 trafficked children
- Placed 117 teens in jobs
- Played 1,229 games of soccer!
By focusing on getting kids back into education, training and apprenticeships, we are working for the long-term benefit of children who otherwise would face very bleak futures. And in ten years time, we’ll still be here doing what we do best – creating opportunities for lasting change."
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Source - http://www.streetkidsinvietnam.com/
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