Georges Blanchard is a powerful combination of kindness, humanism, and hyperactivity. He is the founder of Alliance Anti Trafic (AAT), the first organization to fight against the trafficking of women and children for sexual slavery in Vietnam, and he has never stopped fighting to help others. He was awarded the Social & Humanitarian Trophy at the French Asia/Oceania Trophies 2019 and the Social and Humanitarian Trophy at the French Abroad Trophies 2020, presented by France Médias Monde. 

« I learned Vietnamese on the streets and at the People's University. Georges Blanchard speaks the language fluently. At the time, in the 90s, there was no Google Translate application, when he was working in the Mekong Delta and in Ho Chi Minh City to help street children, surrounded only by locals. Only elbow grease and a lot of open-mindedness. So, by rolling up his sleeves, he copied the entire Vietnamese dictionary, and the exercise paid off. He lives in Saigon, a city he loves and has never left. In 30 years, he has only returned to France 5 times. Married for 25 years to a Vietnamese woman and father of two children, this 57-year-old man mainly interacts with locals." Je ne suis pas un expat’, mais un migrant ! »

Before founding the Anti-Trafficking Alliance association, Georges had several lives, often directly related to youth and education. In France, he started his professional life as an apprentice in construction and volunteered for the MJC before becoming a socio-cultural educator for 8 years. During this time, he also spent a year in the army. While there, he created a cross-country skiing club and formed a music group. " Il n’y avait que des gradés, et le colonel était à la batterie », se souvient Georges, amusé. Sa capacité à rassembler et déconstruire l’image militaire stricte, lui vaut une médaille de la quatrième région militaire Alsace-Lorraine pour son travail dans le développement des relations Armée-Nation. C’est la première d’une longue série.

Electroshock

At the age of 10, with a majority of blonde-haired children at school in the Vosges region where he comes from, Georges Blanchard meets children from the Vietnamese diaspora. Their Asian faces make him yearn for elsewhere. On his black and white television, he sees images of the war and dreams of taking a plane to discover this country. A wish that will only come true at the age of 30.

The young man arrives in a Vietnam where the post-war period has practically stagnated. " We could still see houses with bullet holes. There was no electricity or restaurant after 6:30 p.m. Children and rats fought for food in the garbage cans below my room. There were 90% bicycles, and hardly any motorcycles. Right away, the poverty of the country catches his attention. He starts helping out in schools and pays for the education of some street children with his own savings, then gets involved with an NGO for a ten-year project dedicated to child rights development in Vietnam. One day, at my school in Da Kao, two little girls, aged 8 and 9, went missing. says Georges Blanchard. A woman arrived and explained to the girls that their mother was stuck at the market and had sent her to pick them up. The little ones followed her without asking any questions. Half an hour later, the mother arrived asking where her daughters were. They had been kidnapped. " Immediately, Georges informs the police, who ultimately find the little girls at the Tay Ninh border. They have just escaped from a horrifying fate: 11 kilometers from Phnom Penh, the village of Sway-Pack, referred to by the Vietnamese as Kilometer 11, is an entire village of child prostitution." During my investigations in this village, the two youngest prostitutes I encountered were only 6 years old! »

This tragic episode, which ends well, marks the beginning of Georges Blanchard's fight against the trafficking of women and children first in Vietnam, and later expanding to Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Alliance Anti Trafic and Its Beginnings 

In 1995, Georges carried out his first awareness campaign on human trafficking in Vietnam, not without difficulty, as the Vietnamese government did not yet recognize this social problem. Initially, he sought funding from the European community in Hanoi. At first, they refused, despite reports from an archbishop warning about the rapid development of some street children and their suspicious clothing changes. After an investigation, Georges identified about thirty children who were victims of pedophilia, being brought to a hotel, and collected testimonies from approximately 200 girls whose virginity had been sold by their families. " Returning to Saigon, a Frenchman from the European delegation on vacation called me and said, "You were right: I am in Nha Trang, and there are children masturbating men on the beach." As a result, they immediately agreed to finance me. »

Georges opened his first professional retraining center for female prostitutes in 1998, in Vung Tau, before crossing paths with AFESIP. " In 2000, the NGO AFESIP in Cambodia also wanted to help victims of human trafficking. When they realized that there were only Vietnamese children in the brothels, they decided to collaborate with Vietnamese NGOs. "Georges undertakes to open AFESIP in Saigon, which will later become Alliance Anti Traffic. In 2001, the very first regional network against human trafficking is established through the efforts of local NGOs in Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam." Our goal was to prepare real rescue operations with local police forces and gather real evidence to show in order to raise awareness among the collective consciousness and governments of the region. Thanks to our work, numerous laws were created. »

Unstoppable, Georges Blanchard worked with a former FBI agent on the production of a film, in which the agent went undercover in Vietnamese brothels where children were being exploited, posing as a client. We handed over this document to the police, who then forwarded it to the government. its recognized investigations in 2003, the association can finally work in collaboration with the authorities and the government. The television channel VTV1 gathers around it for a 25-minute film." The very first one, who was going to present to the people the issue of trafficking and sexual exploitation! he has only just crossed the first step. Real achievements will follow after several years of fierce struggle: in 2003, the existence of human trafficking and the recognition of victims as such are accepted by the government, and Georges will be honored with 3 medals and a permanent citizen card of Vietnam, approved by the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung.

Today, the Alliance Anti Trafficking Vietnam team consists of 10 people, including 4 former victims, working as street educators. The NGO has rescued 5,579 victims of human trafficking, supported 62,288 women (including 10% of minors) involved in prostitution, educated 113,079 children in official schools on prevention, and provided 708 scholarships to children at risk of being trafficked. AAT has also established a special unit. Where Dreams Bloom, supervised by students from the University of Social Workers in Ho Chi Minh City, for the close monitoring of about thirty girls aged 7 to 18, identified as being at risk of being sold into prostitution before reaching adulthood. In total, around fifty people are working for AAT in several countries in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. Thanks to their joint and regular actions, more than 8,500 victims of sex trafficking have been rescued.

Security and sustainability.

If Georges Blanchard has never changed course, he has not only made friends in his fight. Attempts at intimidation and death threats have dotted his path. Georges has even had to sometimes work directly with certain traffickers to achieve his goals. " There was this girl, Linh*, who was kidnapped at the age of 14 by the Chinese mafia in a province of the Mekong. After being turned into a sexual object through plastic surgery, she was sold to Macao and drugged to prevent her from escaping. At the age of 16, after being resold to a prostitution network in Hong Kong, she managed to escape and seek refuge at the center for Vietnamese women established by AFESIP in Cambodia. An international complaint has been filed against the criminals. The Vietnamese police arrested three Vietnamese individuals involved within three days. "Next, the Chinese mafia paid Cambodian police officers to assassinate Linh." We paid Vietnamese traffickers to kidnap Linh in Cambodia and bring her back to Vietnam, where my wife and I welcomed and protected her. some time later, Linh returned to Cambodia, where she herself would have become a trafficker. Unfortunately, the lack of support and assistance for these individuals, especially in central and southern Vietnam, means that over 50% of rescued girls who were victims of human trafficking end up going down the same path. Despite being relieved to have returned, the victims' sense of surviving something horrible quickly turns into a deadly boredom." In the countries where they were brought, they could smoke, drink, and dance in nightclubs, while in the Vietnamese countryside, they do not see a future: no education, no diplomas, etc. "Regrets George. Lastly, some large families see no harm in prostituting or sending their own daughter to human trafficking networks. It is rather seen as a sacrifice, the pillar that will provide for the family and allow for the education of a younger brother."

The tireless Georges Blanchard never ceases to promote the importance of education and prevention, his battle horse, he who left school at 14 years old and still regrets it today. Engaged in writing his autobiography, with the help of a journalist, he has chosen a lovely title that defines him well: "A Journey of Resilience and Redemption." The man who stay. »

I did not become successful because I am intelligent, but because I met intelligent people.

* Le prénom a été changé

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