We are proud to announce that at Vietnam Trail Marathon 2020 we will partner with Blue Dragon alongside our existing charity partners.
Blue Dragon has been working in Vietnam for 15 years to end human trafficking and to provide care to Vietnamese children and families in crisis.
Below are some highlights of their work in 2019:
- Rescued 107 victims of human trafficking; all female, and all trafficked for sexual exploitation, contributing to more than 900 people rescued in total from slavery by Blue Dragon.
- Offered a place to stay for 85 children on the streets of Hanoi while helping them either get back to their families, or find safe long term accommodation.
- Supported 100 young adults attain a university education, along with another 598 children in school.
- Built a boarding house and classrooms in one of the remotest regions of Vietnam for primary school children of ethnic minority communities who live too far from school to travel each day.
- Represented 27 people in 18 court cases around the country, with a 100% success rate of sending human traffickers and child sex abusers to prison.
- Worked with the Vietnamese government to ensure legally enshrined protections to victims of crimes. Now, when any person is the victim of a crime, the law is clear that they are entitled to legal representation. Previously this was not the case.
Topas proudly supports the incredible work of Blue Dragon and would like to send our thanks to our VTM runners who have made this possible.
In 2020 the Vietnam Trail Series will also be supporting projects by Newborns Vietnam (in Lao Cai and Hanoi), Operation Smile (in Thanh Hoa and Lao Cai) and Hue Help (in Thanh Hoa). We will also continue our work on smaller, local projects along our race routes.
For more information about Blue Dragon, please visit https://www.bluedragon.org/