Children Of The Dust
In 1995-96, I worked on a special project for World Vision Vietnam documenting the plight of street children in Vietnam, we called Children of the Dust, a title used to describe the children who lived on the streets.
Working with Ngo Kim Cuc from the World Vision Vietnam office we traveled to Hanoi, Hue, Danang and Saigon to interview children living on the streets with their families, in drop-in centers that offered them a safe place, and in detention centers where they had been caught for committing petty crimes.
It was an eye opening experience that affected both Cuc and I as we learned from the children, the hardships of their lives.
We learned of their struggles… being kicked out of their homes by their families, being tricked by foreigners who drugged them, then assaulted them.
Nguyen Ran, head of the Street Children Project in Danang, had set up several shelters for the children to live in, that took them off the streets and gave them hope, with a future and an education.
We spent two full months traveling on two separate trips, meeting the kids on the streets, attended a gathering of the children in a camp out organized by Mr. Ran on the beach in Danang where over a hundred children gathered and played games and danced and enjoyed themselves as children.
In my years in Asia, this project remains my most cherished project to this day.
