First of all, to clarify things a bit - the embassies for some of these laborers have been contacted and all the possible legal recourses of action are currently being followed. Unfortunately, some of the workers are Vietnamese and do not have their own Embassy to look after them. However, while they wait for justice and to be able to return home, they are in desperate need of basic assistance, as described in Novita's post.
As far as I've learned, cases like these are numerous in this country. The embassies will not or can not effectively handle thousands of reported cases of sponsor abuse, so we can't solely depend on them. Embassies are generally not equipped to support and financially maintain their country-folk.
Their sponsor skipped town, so:
- they can't go home because their visas have not been cleared for exit
- they can't switch sponsors and retain another job
- they're s.o.l. until the "justice system" does its thing.
As far as a drop for goods and other such things - you can click on my contact link and I'll get back to you with our drop-off points, info, etc.
One of the things we had talked about, and Tyler, I think this speaks more to your idea - is getting families or individuals to "adopt" the group for a week. Depending on your means, whether you purchase a single sack of rice, a large bag of potatoes or lentils, or go grocery shopping for enough food for one week, we would, essentially, increase the "buying power" as Tyler says, by extending the donations week by week and not receiving things all at once. If you commit to donate sometime this month, someone else might commit to donate sometime in January, and so forth.
Anyway - shoot me an e-mail those of you who are interested in helping out and I'll give you more info!
Thanks for your sincere interest and responses.
First of all, to clarify things a bit - the embassies for some of these laborers have been contacted and all the possible legal recourses of action are currently being followed. Unfortunately, some of the workers are Vietnamese and do not have their own Embassy to look after them. However, while they wait for justice and to be able to return home, they are in desperate need of basic assistance, as described in Novita's post.
As far as I've learned, cases like these are numerous in this country. The embassies will not or can not effectively handle thousands of reported cases of sponsor abuse, so we can't solely depend on them. Embassies are generally not equipped to support and financially maintain their country-folk.
Their sponsor skipped town, so:
- they can't go home because their visas have not been cleared for exit
- they can't switch sponsors and retain another job
- they're s.o.l. until the "justice system" does its thing.
As far as a drop for goods and other such things - you can click on my contact link and I'll get back to you with our drop-off points, info, etc.
One of the things we had talked about, and Tyler, I think this speaks more to your idea - is getting families or individuals to "adopt" the group for a week. Depending on your means, whether you purchase a single sack of rice, a large bag of potatoes or lentils, or go grocery shopping for enough food for one week, we would, essentially, increase the "buying power" as Tyler says, by extending the donations week by week and not receiving things all at once. If you commit to donate sometime this month, someone else might commit to donate sometime in January, and so forth.
Anyway - shoot me an e-mail those of you who are interested in helping out and I'll give you more info!
Let's try to give these guys some hope!
Thanks for caring!
Take care, all!