Blue Dragon is an NGO that supports children in poverty in Vietnam, but what drew me to joining the GC is their work with Project X. I am truly passionate about 2 issues in this world – the Syrian refugee crisis and stopping the trafficking and sexual abuse of women, and Blue Dragon is really the only GC in school directly related to helping with the latter issue. Project X was set up by Blue Dragon to rescue women from being trafficked, and so far 160 young women have been directly rescued from brothels and forced marriage and another 319 young women have been assisted by Blue Dragon to return home after being rescued by police.
Though 160 and 319 may seem like small numbers on a global scale, as hundreds of thousands of women and children are being trafficked every year, Blue Dragon has shown me that though you may not make a change to the whole world, but to those 319 girls rescued, you changed their world for the better, and that stopping local issues such as trafficking in Vietnam, can have major repercussions on a global scale, as other people start to take initiative and stop sex trafficking.
Our GC will be hosting some of the Blue Dragon kids for a week in November, as well as hosting our annual exhibition at the Hilton Hotel on the 23rd of November. I believe that this exhibition is a really meaningful event within our UWC community, and on a global scale, as it is a night for us to not only showcase the abilities of the wonderful children at Blue Dragon and the work being done in Vietnam, but also to raise more awareness within our local Singaporean community about the issues of poverty and trafficking that are global problems (LO6).
My role during the Blue Dragon visit week is to help out with the AV set up and music for the night of the exhibition. This year, Ms. Levy has asked if we can have live music throughout the night, so my job, along with the couple other members of the team is to set up a series of continuous yet varied performances to play whilst people mingle around the exhibition. It has been challenging to get enough people on such short notice, but we have managed to come up with some acoustic performances by various singers, a dance routine by the Blue Dragon kids, a piano performance by a boy from Blue Dragon and a swing band. I am really looking forward to the big week and hope everything goes smoothly.
