This week we are introducing Giang, who came into the orphanage in 2013 when she was just 10 years old. Now that Giang has turned 18, she is about to the leave the orphanage this month, and is concerned about her future once she does. Her current plans are to find work locally sewing clothes, but as Giang has no money, it will be very hard for her to find work that also provides her with a safe place to stay.
Giang’s story is especially important because a common issue that is often reported in Vietnam by both NGOs and governmental organisations is that young women in these circumstances are particularly vulnerable of being taken advantage of - sometimes even by people they know. There is a huge market for Vietnamese traffickers to sell ‘brides’ to Chinese men who can’t find a wife due to the one child policy in China, and as the province of Ha Giang is the northern most province of Vietnam and straddles southern China, many people are smuggled across the border here each year.
Often these young women are befriended by unscrupulous characters who promise them work and marvellous opportunities, but in fact, mislead them and smuggle them across the border to horrible fates of slavery, sexual abuse, and trauma. Some of these women are eventually rescued, but it can take years to track them down and bring them back again, if at all.
That’s why this week we sincerely ask you to help Giang get on her feet, so that she will have enough money to be able to find a safe place to stay from the very beginning.
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