Their big night to SHINE!!

At the beginning of this project, I wrote a blog titled " Shine, they definitely will". Well on Tuesday 4th August SHINE, they definitely did! Kids from both villages came together to perform for the commune of Thuan An. We had over 1000 people in the audience and 65 performers backstage, including the Water puppet team. We literally performed in a dust bowl, and the crowd loved every minute of it, there wasn;t a dry eye in the audience.

The kids were absolutely incredible, they were so supportive of each other and completely rocked it up on stage. I am so so so proud of them. I will let the photos and kids feedback tell the story for you, as words can not capture how incredible this night was; for our children, for the community adn for us. Our children are truly shining!

TECHNICAL RUN FOR THE HAI TIEN KIDS

INTRODUCTION SPEECH

Over the past 10 weeks, Linh, Nam and myself have had the privilege of working with 43 children from Hai Tien and Phuong Dien villages. I always remind myself that you can never underestimate a child, if you stop and ask them what it is he or she needs, they have an answer, and usually a good one, afterall we are all experts of our own lives, and at such young ages they already have invaluable knowledge and wisdom to contribute to this world. However as an adult I feel that it is our responsibility to protect, support and guide them through their journey.

Our initial reason for creating this program was to give children who had already been trafficked, and children who are at high risk of being trafficked, an opportunity to share their lives and experiences with each other, and to then tell their stories to their communities. Also, for us to give them the opportunity to explore their own potential and alternative positive options to working in Saigon, and of course to have a whole lot of fun whilst doing it. And I believe that’s what we did!

For the first three weeks, we spent time getting to know one another and developing our groups through trust, teamwork and games. We also developed a language of theatre in which they could express themselves and explore their creativity. In the following 3 weeks we looked at the children’s experiences of trafficking and the issues in their lives that contribute to this situation. We also explored how the children can affect their own lives and make positive contributions amongst their communities and towards their future dreams. Finally in the past 3 weeks we have woven together their stories and created the performances you are about to see tonight.

It has been an incredible journey for all of us. I can say for sure, that Linh, Nam and I are so proud of every one of these children. In my years of working with young people, I have never met such an incredibly talented, willing, courageous, resilient and accepting group of kids. We have laughed, cried and shared our hearts with each other and I thank them all for teaching us so much. In my eyes this project is already a success, because as you will see tonight, every one of these children are shining!

I thank you all for coming to support these kids tonight, but more importantly thank you for coming with a willingness to hear their stories and may you gain a greater understanding of the reality of life for a working child in Vietnam. May we all continue to work together to create safer lives and brighter futures for our children.

THE PERFORMANCES

How did you feel after the performance, and what did your family and friends think of the performance?

• At first, I was very nervous but when I got on stage I gained confidence. Our story really affected the audience, many people were crying. My friends really admired us and asked how we kept a straight face whilst performing
• During the performance we could ride the emotion of the audience, when they laughed and cried. My mother said that we did very well!
  
• I was very nervous before the performance, but when I went up on stage my nervousness was finished. The audience said that the cruel trafficker character I played was very suitable for me. But infact, when I beat Lan on stage I just wanted to cry. I cried backstage after that scene.
  
• Our performance was very good and our dance was amazing!
  
• Many of my friends said the performance was very good and many cried.
  
• My family and friends admired my character
• I was so nervous before, but once on stage I was fine. When Lan cried on stage, my parents cried too.
  
• My family was very happy to see me on stage and very happy with our performance
  
• I was very happy to be on stage. My family was very satisfied to see me on stage. They thought it was a huge success.
  
• My friends didn’t say anything to me on the night, but the next day when I went out with my friends, they said the performance was great and that it could affect the community and change the minds of the mothers who want to send their children to Saigon in the future.
  
• I was very nervous. After the performance I didn’t hear any comments but in the following days I heard that it was a very successful performance.
  
• Before the show I was so nervous when I saw all the people who had come to watch, and after, my friends said that I did very well.
  
• I was really nervous even on stage. But after the scene when I was the leader of the gang, I felt very confident.
  
• There were so many people, I was so nervous, but like everyone else as soon as I got on stage I felt very confident. Many people gave very good comments about my performance. Some people teased me about “ selling my 2 pigs so I could travel to Saigon to rescue my daughter”. But my friends admired me and said that only a talented girl could play that role.
  
• Our neighbors were suprised that “Huong’s Daughter” was on stage.
  
• I was very happy when a lot of people applauded and supported us after the performance.
  
• I looked at the audience and could see that a lot of people were crying. It was a success!!!
• I was nervous but after on stage, I felt confident. I didn’t hear any bad comments about my performance. It felt great to be in a performance that created awareness amongst families to stop sending their kids to Saigon.
  
• I was very very nervous before the performance, but once I was on stage, I didn’t want to leave.