Asian (Vietnamese) Street Children

Thanks again!

The German “Umweltinstitut München e.V. now published a new brochure about the clothes we wear. They criticize that in so many industrial nations you are ridiculed for wearing second-hand clothes or things that had to be repaired. Also that to some people the brand matters more than the fair-trade-seal or the organic-production-seal or that our society doesn’t find any clothes other than those consisting of cotton-wool suitable for certain occasions while there would be so many alternatives – sheep wool, hemp, milk-silk,...even spider-nets! To the dismay of the “Umweltinstitut” clothes-producing enterprises that are known to violate human rights don’t get boycotted either.
Also the institute warns people about wearing made of polyester as to produce these things petrol was used – often from rainforests and often from areas that once were inhabited by native tribes who had to be removed first.
Another warning goes for labels like “100% Cotton – Made in Germany”.
Firstly: Often these clothes are 10 or 20% below 100% pure cotton as the rest consists of pesticides and other chemicals still sticking to the cotton ever since these chemicals were used in the manufacturing of these clothes. Also in this case Germany probably was only the country where the last steps of the clothes production took place – like the design. In Germany they probably just sewed a few fancy pearls into the shirt or printed the demanded pattern onto it.

“Tagesschau” says that to keep the family from starving to death in some LDCs – especially from Asia – people start to send their eldest underage children as refugees to the EU. They hope that having their underage children here as refugees will make it easier for them to get to the EU. What they seem to ignoe is that for these children this trip often is traumatic and dangerous…if not a threat to their very life.

On October 12th at 7PM there was a beneficial concert in the protestant church of my village and – I know it sounds weird that a 23 year-old university student and her friend Jochen of the same age would attend a concert where compositions of romantic composers like Bach or Händel got played – I went there, since I like the melodies they announced they would play there.
Also I went there, because I knew that it was going to be an informative event as well and that the money gained during this event would be shared between the church, the orchestra and an organization that helps poor people in Asian countries as a member of this orchestra is also working for said aid-organization.
But now to the informative part…If you want to help, please donate to:
Spenden-Stichwort: Katastrophenvorsorge
Conto: 10 20 30
Bank für Sozialwirtschaft
Bank Code 370 205 00
IBAN DE62 3702 0500 0000 1020 30, BIC: BFSWDE33XXX
By the way we both liked the song “Cuckoo and Nightingale” most.

The aid-organization “UNICEF” (www.unicef.org) says that even though Vietnam is getting better and better it still shows traces of a developing country.
For example disabled children get neglected and disabled people in general are considered as less worthy. For example they told us the story of a young girl whose father left the family when she was born with a mental and physical disability. As a result the mother had to work as hard as two people would and she gave her daughter away to her own parents. Alas kindergardens and schools refused to accept this little girl as they didn’t know much about that disability and thought they’d be unable to deal with her. In the end the grandparents brought the child to a charitable organization where – thanks to the professional help of her trainers – she soon learned to speak, to walk and to deal with foreigners. Meanwhile they even got her to a point where they are sure that soon she will be able to attend a normal school as any other child of her age would.
Alas many other Vietnamese children are not as lucky as she was. If they have a disability, at least one parent will abandon them – with few exceptions of course. Since “disability” isn’t something to be discussed in public from a Vietnamese point of view, many kindergardens and schools don’t accept these children, fearing that a student /kindergarden kid like that would just cause trouble and overcharge staff. Thus the vicious circle always continues with generation after generation holding the same prejudices against those who have a disability and with an ever increasing number of people who have a disability who will probably remain uneducated and unemployed for the rest of their lives – just because these people who have a disability never got a real chance to prove themselves.
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Re-upload of one of my first comments:
“You asked me how to help, but all I can tell you is that there are several organisations trying to help disadvantaged children like these. You can support them either by joining them or by donating.
The following are their websites:
“http://www.thaichildrenstrust.org.uk/donate” (they help disadvantaged children from Thailand), “http://www.nanhikali.org/home/index.aspx” (they help disadvantaged Indian children, just as “http://www.childlineindia.org.in/”), “https://www.chailifeline.org/” (belongs to an organisation that tries to support ill children), “http://www.compassion.com/about/aboutus.htm”(a Christian organisation that helps children in need), “http://www.freethekids.org/” (they help children in greatest need, so we should help them), “http://www.unicef.org/” (the well-known aid organisation that helps children from developing countries), “http://www.kaicombeyfoundation.org/child-rescue-mission.htm” (they help poor children in some African countries), “http://www.panamainfo.com/en/donate-and-volunteer-panama039s-three-top-childrens039s-charities” (they help poor children from Panama), “http://www.africaguide.com/charity.htm” (they inform you about how to help disadvantaged children), “http://www.casa-alianza.org.uk/” (they help street children), “http://www.amchaghar.org/who-we-help.html” (they help disadvantaged children in India), “http://www.childrescue.net/” (they help them, too-just as the following organisation: “http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/index.htm”), “http://www.save-streetchildren-uganda.com/” (they help Ugandan street children), “http://www.globalservicecorps.org/site/donate/” (they help people from extremely poor countries like Tanzania), “http://www.practicalaction.org.uk/?id=children_biolatrines” (they give children from developing countries the chance of education and they give YOU the chance to help)”