SAN JOSE, Calif. - Students of the United Vietnamese Student Association (UVSA) gathered in the Northside Community Center of downtown San Jose to pay tribute to the Vietnamese heritage as well as to shed light on the issue of child trafficking and sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia. The event has been dubbed the Black April Commemoration Candlelight Vigil, which took place Friday, April 30, 2004. This is the second year that UVSA has organized the event.

by Lý Hoàng Thu (Việt Mercury)

Being April the National Child Abuse Prevention Month, the event this year also serves to shed light on the horrific crimes that go on behind closed doors in third world countries. In the world of poverty, children become the easiest commodities for sexual predators.

UVSA has organized a campaign to educate the public, especially students, about the importance of Black April. The campaign includes an Awareness Week, a Day of Silence, petition drives, and supporting independent projects aimed at helping children. This year’s theme, “Bên Em Đang Có Ta” roughly translates to “With You, I Am By Your Side.”

Day of Black April

On the day of the event, members of the San Jose Police Department arrived, not only to provide security, but also to inform the public on the importance of creating child identification kits in the event a child becomes lost or abducted.

Ben Menor, Director of the Northside Community Center, gives an introductory speech, congratulating the students for organizing an event, and reminding everyone that it has often been the youth who have made great strides in changing the world.

Phương Từ, President of UVSA, follows with an introduction to the meaning of Black April, a day in which Communist forces in Vietnam took foothold in Saigon, prompting millions to evacuate the former South Vietnam by land, sea, and air.

UVSA advisor Xuân Cao gives everyone a card and pencil for her activity. The activity asks for everyone to write ten items of utmost personal importance, whether they be people, objects, or sometimes abstract concepts. Then she asks everyone to cross off two items at a time, the audience hesitating of what is the most important to keep. The activity conveyed what the experience of the refugee was like in having to choose what to take and what to leave behind before fleeing the country. Ms. Cao later shares her experience being a refugee, and leaving Vietnam at the age of 5. Like many refugees, she remembers being woken up one night and being asked to go to a dock or shore, and climb into a boat. The boat would be out in sea for days until passing ships would pick them up.

Following was a video montage of various high school students speaking about their impression of Black April. The audience was then asked to share any of their opinions and experiences as well.

A video of the Dateline MSNBC investigation of children being prostituted in Cambodia was shown. The audience watched in silence as the truth was laid before them. The video broke out into a song, “Bên Em Đang Có Ta.” Everyone was asked to join in singing this song while candles were being lit.

Each candle was lit in memory of those who perished, and for the children’s whose voices cannot be heard.