It’s 10:30 in the evening in HCM City. The humid air carries a thick stream of exhaust from the tourist buses, and a nearby rubbish bin emits a rancid smell.

Bui Bui is given a balloon that was picked up off the street by her mother Mai.

Sitting under the light is a little girl, alone on the wet ground next to a pile of used water bottles. One by one, she pours the remaining water out of the bottles and puts them in a big plastic bag.

Dusty girl

Nicknamed Bui Bui (Little Dusty) by her mother, the three-year-old girl has an innocent face with round black eyes that long to be shut.

Every day, no matter what the weather is like, Bui Bui and her mother get up early to sell lottery tickets. Since the income is insufficient, they also collect used plastic bottles for sale after 5pm.

“The situation has been like this since her dad abandoned us,” said the girl’s mother, Nguyen Ngoc Mai, as she handed her daughter a used balloon picked up off the street. “Bui Bui got used to earning money like this when she was in the womb.”

“We bathe and get changed in public toilets,” she said, speaking in a low voice. “There’s no bed of course. We often sleep under the eaves of Vien Dong Hotel on Pham Ngu Lao Street.”

“I’m lucky if I can sell 50 lottery tickets a day, meaning I earn VND50,000 (US$2.5). So I have to collect the used bottles to increase my income.”

Every day, Mai collects about three kilos of bottles, at the most. Sixty-seven bottles equals a kilo, which sells for VND3,000 ($0.15).

“Bui Bui helps me empty out the water since the buyers check them carefully. Sometimes, other homeless people fight me for my bottles,” she said.

Bui Bui and her mother are only two of thousands who live on HCM City streets. Many of them are street children who are physically handicapped, orphaned or family runaways.

To make money, they beg, sell gum, polish shoes, pick pockets or scrounge for something to sell or eat from garbage dumps.

According to HCM City’s Department of Labour Invalids and Social Affairs, the city has 10,000 street children, mostly from the central and Central Highland provinces. At least 5,000 of them are illiterate or school dropouts.

Hopeful future

As part of a Government decree passed several years ago on homeless children, the city authorities have been receiving street kids at city-run social centres, shelters, charity houses and vocational training centres.

The existing 50 shelters and centres are taking care of more than 2,000 street children, including children with disabilities.

Counseling for street children is free of charge, and available at 50 locations. Teachers and advisors help them gain access to school or vocational training.

Both foreign and local volunteers from various organisations and universities offer assistance to the children living at shelters, including free English lessons as well as emotional support to build their confidence.

The Government anticipates the number of street children will fall by 90 per cent by 2010, according to a report from the HCM City Department of Labour Invalids and Social Affairs.

Do Thi Bach Phat, manager of the Tre Xanh shelter, said the shelter had helped 300 street children with on-the-job training and job placement with support from humanitarian organisations.

With Tre Xanh’s help, a former street kid, Nguyen Anh Ðon, received vocational training and later got a job in a restaurant after graduation.

Although many of the children find shelter life comforting, others prefer a freer life by earning a living on their own.

Phat of Tre Xanh Shelter said that roughly 10 per cent of the street children at his shelter had not fared well and eventually returned to the streets or another way of life.

At the other extreme are the sons and daughters of wealthy families who come to the shelters because of family conflicts.

Truong Thi Yen, manager of Ba Chieu shelter, said she was shocked when a couple driving a Mercedes arrived at the shelter to take their son back home.

“Some children would like to lead a life like dust because they think they are badly treated by their family,” Yen said.

When Mai, Bui Bui’s mother, was asked why she did not send her daughter to a shelter, she replied: “I even don’t believe in myself, how could I believe in anyone else.”

Mai, however, hopes Bui Bui will have an opportunity to pursue an education.

“She loves drawing. She often draws on the ragged notebooks that I take from rubbish bins,” Mai said. “She wants to become an artist.”

In the backpackers’ area as midnight nears, Mai and Bui Bui carry the plastic bag full of bottles down a side street. Bui Bui’s gift from her mom, the pink balloon imprinted with a big blue elephant, fades in the light as the street lamps dim.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News