March 9, 2007

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - Long Xuyen, Vietnam

Slowly, slowly we make our way out of noisy, motorbike-clogged Saigon, heading south today to the Mekong Delta. This is an area of Vietnam I've never had the pleasure of seeing so will be all new territory. Tall cement apartments eventually disappear, giving way to jungled lowlands known as the "fruit basket"of Vietnam. Son Michael Pham says the Mekong is where 90% of the country's fruit is grown. Trees hang heavy with bananas, coconuts, and the biggest mangos I have ever seen! In the Mekong, swampy water stands everywhere, the fingers of this widespread river system spreading wide all across southern Vietnam. We cross a new bridge about every mile, and take two ferries to get to our destination of Long Xuyen. First, though, we stop briefly in Cao Lanh, a quiet city with wide clean streets, and pick up two women, Nhi and Thao. They'll be our guides and give us a first-hand look at the program they work for called ADAPT. ADAPT stands for An Giang Dong Thap Alliance for Prevention of Trafficking. Its mission is to stop the trafficking of young girls to Cambodia, a country infamous for its child sex trade. Nhi explains the border is only about 5 miles away and these comely local girls are often lured there with a promise of good jobs, only to be sold into prostitution with no way home. ADAPT works desperately to keep these girls in school, knowing that education helps protect them.

The program works with nearly 500 girls in 28 schools. Traveling through the delta is not easy, especially when the rains come and the roads are under water. The time between provinces is immense, the government paperwork is enervating, and each girl's case is always changing.

Nhi explains how ADAPT works in three different ways:
1) Vocational training and job placement. This is simply giving young women opportunity so that they are less likely to leave for a place like Cambodia.
2) Scholarships. The program pays for the girl's school supplies, uniforms, fees, health insurance, and even brings medication to other family members.
3) Reintegration and support of returnees. This is an extremely challenging proposition--trying to repatriate girls who have left the country illegally and now want to come home. Many are traumatized and need psychological help as well as training on how to work in businesses other than prostitution.

ADAPT staffers Nhi and Thoa are some of the most dedicated people you'll ever meet. They work day and night, determined to save as many beautiful Vietnamese children as they can from a terrible fate. The program targets girls they've determined are especially vulnerable--those who come from poor families where women are the main wage earner, where there are handicapped or ill members of the family, or homes with no parents around at all. They start working with these girls early, too, many as young as age 12. The key is FOLLOW UP. Today we are getting an extraordinary opportunity to follow along as Nhi and Thao make "house calls." They constantly check up on the girls, encourage the families to keep them in school, and offer lots of encouragement to do what's right. Now we find ourselves tramping along through an incredibly picturesque village somewhere deep in Dong Thap province. Primitive clapboard and cement huts perch high on stilts, a necessity when the Mekong rises in the rainy season. Tall trees form a cool canopy overhead. Fetid water channeled through little canals and ponds separate the homes. A child sleepily swings in a hammock. Around every corner, villagers are shyly peeking out at us, a westerner is a very uncommon sight. But they smile readily when we greet them. And the ice is broken after we take pictures and then show the folks their photos on our digital cameras. Soon they're lining up to have their pictures taken, laughing uproariously at their images. Nhi eventually comes to a ramshackle single room house and calls through the curtain door. Grandma pokes her head out and then we meet a stunning 12 year old middle schooler who has been in the program for over a year now. Nhi is concerned about this girl because the Grandmother wants her to quit school and sell lottery tickets to make money. Nhi explains that is a really bad situation because not only does the girl miss school, but she's exposed to all sorts of predators on the streets while selling. Nhi has worked hard to convince Grandma that her granddaughter must keep going to school, and so far, it's working! As we leave, this precious girl links her arm through mine and strokes my cheek. I can't help but wonder what her fate will be if somehow she gets on the wrong track.

Next, we travel to a middle school and pick up two girls, ages 12 and 13, who are also in the program. They pile into our van and we give them a ride to their homes. Nhi and Thao check in with the girls' families to see if everything is still going okay. One girl's parents are gone. They've moved to the city, trying to make some money. The sickly Grandmother wants the girl to stay home and take care of her. The 13-year-old wants to be respectful but she also really wants to go to school. Nhi advises the girl to not overreact to Granny's demands, and just keep going to class. Nhi then has a very animated and long talk with Grandma. The conversation apparently goes well and Grandma seems convinced, for now at least, that her granddaughter should go to school. Nhi has a way of winning people over. Next stop is in An Giang province where we deliver some new clothes to a precious girl who is out on the front porch sweeping. No one else is at home. She is very shy and averts her eyes when we give her a few gifts. At last, she looks up and smiles for my camera. Your heart just aches for these girls' innocence.

Nhi says her program is only funded for 3 years and after that, it's anyone's guess as to whether it will continue. Tragically, there seems to be no end to the sexual victimization of children, so programs like ADAPT are desperately needed to protect these vulnerable kids. Son Michael Pham is pledging support through his Kids Without Borders organization. Plans are in the works to build a vocational training center for these girls in the Mekong Delta area. The needs, though, are endless.

It's clear that Nhi and Thao are tireless in their commitment. Every time they turn around, Nhi says, there's yet another girl who needs their help. How can you turn them away? You can't, says Nhi. ADAPT just adapts, and finds a way to stretch its funding a little farther. And for as long as they can, Nhi, Thao and others who work for ADAPT will face down high water, gender discrimination, ignorance, insects, long distances, tough terrain, and bureaucracy to save these children, one girl at a time.

For more information about ADAPT, go to www.pacificlinks.org.