In developing countries, a great many kids don't go to school
Instead, they toil in the streets. During my after lunch coffee hit in Hanoi, one boy shines my shoes. He is a soldier in an army of shoeshiners across the country. Chewing gum, newspapers, even lottery tickets are commonly sold by children. Postcards, beads and bangles and photocopied novels are available in the tourist centres and on the beaches of Vietnam, from sometimes very jaded and aggressive kids. A few years ago, a young girl of about eight selling copied LP guidebooks in Hanoi's old quarter shocked my mum with a colourful rebuke after she politely refused to buy the guide for Thailand.
Why should we expect them to be happy and accommodating? They are forced by economic hardship into these circumstances, often sent from their family homes in rural provinces to live in degrading, confined spaces in big cities, earning a pittance, selling snails.
Blue Dragon and Planet Wheeler are cooperating to secure a long term lease on a building to shelter homeless kids in Hanoi. Planet Wheeler also contributes to similar projects in Cambodia.
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