At every event it is important for the Vietnamese community to start with the flag ceremony and for this particular event to end with a minute pray to pay respects to fallen heroes who fought for the freedom of Vietnam.  It was a raining day in Chicago, but more than 200 Vietnamese attended to commemorate one of the saddest day in Vietnamese History. 

The gloomy weather fitted the event to remember that freedom was lost in Vietnam.  The evening was more emotional because of the human trafficking of Vietnamese woman and children to countries such as Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Cambodia and Laos.  Mrs. Tran Thien-Tam and Mr. Phan Huy were special guest speakers for this topic.  Mrs. Tran is currently the President of a non-profit organization called Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Trafficking (VietACT) and Mr. Phan is one of founding member of VietACT.   VietACT is a grassroots organization dedicated to eradicating human trafficking of Vietnamese victims through collaboration, advocacy, and education, for the purpose of supporting, protecting and empowering victims.

A video clip of Vietnamese children, some young as 8 years old, were selling themselves for sex in Cambodia.  The mood of the audience turned into anger and anguish.  They were all in amazed by the kind of human beings who could do degrading acts to children this young and the adults who prey on these children.   One audience said "As a mother, I would never sell my children for any amount of money."  But she does not realize most of these children have been kidnapped or tricked into the sex industry.  The audience was so into the discussion and wanted want to ask more questions, but the event ended at 4PM.  Before the closing ceremony of the April 30th event, Mrs. Thuong Pham, the MC, encouraged the audience "Please let your children, families member here and in Vietnam, and friends to raise awareness about the human trafficking of Vietnamese Woman and Children.”  There were still people who stay behind after the closing ceremony to ask Huy Phan and Tammy Tran more question about the Human trafficking.  The event was a huge success, where we collected $1300 in donation and raise awareness to more than 200 Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese audience.