THE CAUSE
A 19 years-old suffers from schizophrenia because she had been locked in a room and forced to watch sex tapes with her mentally disabled husband to induce sexual activities that would lead to a pregnancy.
A woman who was raped by her boss, gave birth to a child that she could not take back to Viet Nam because she had a husband waiting at home, and therefore, had to abandon her child.
A woman cried to Father Hùng, and as he described it: "Cô ta khốc như chưa từng được khốc." And when Cha Hùng asked her “Why..? Why would you come here even if you knew that this would happen to you?” She replied: "Vì con của con nó học giỏi quá Cha ơi...mà con không có tiền cho nó học tiếp..."
A group of military men who worked at a factory and got paid nearly nothing, retired after work to a small, dirty room where they hung a red flag with a single yellow star as a reminder that THEY TOO are human, people from a country called Viet Nam, and they are not animals - Although it may seemed as if they were, the way they have been treated. Taking Father Hung's advice they called a Vietnam official in Taiwan to plead their case. They took down the flag after they were told, "Không làm thì đi về!"
These are the stories of our people, our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. They are not isolated cases of tragedy, but a pattern of behavior by a people so impoverished and desperate that a loved daughter can be sold for money. The epidemic problem is not limited to young women and girls “marrying” foreign men, but includes laborers tricked into slavery through the promise of a better future. According to the 2005 U.S. State Departments’ Release Trafficking in Persons Report, of the hundreds of thousands, “a large percentage of the Vietnamese women who are trafficked to Taiwan are lured by fraudulent offers of employment or marriage to Taiwanese men.”
Half-way across the world, another group of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, here in the United States, together form a vibrant economy, a celebration of culture, pride mingled with modern dynamism. After 30 years, as we emerge as a community to reckon with, we must remind ourselves that our successes are banal, our accomplishments only superficial if we did not share it with our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
Father Nguyen Van Hung, the head of the shelters in Taiwan, has taken this step when he left his comfortable life in Australia to take up the fight for victims of human trafficking in Taiwan.
Read on and find out why we at VPS deem this cause of utmost priority and are honored to contribute to this fight for humanity and dignity for our people. We hope you join us.
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