There are some things in life you just can’t prepare for.
Coming into the World Race, I knew that Thailand would be a month of ministry helping girls escape from sex slavery.
The idea of middle aged girls getting sold by their family and friends into a life of prostitution is something that you just can’t understand until you see it.
I need to tell you the facts, but remember these aren’t just bodies, these are real people. They are no longer just young women who sell themselves because they need money. It is High school and Middle school girls who are SOLD INTO A LIFE OF SLAVERY.
- 60% of all white males flying through the Bangkok Airport at any one moment are in Thailand for the purpose of sex.
- 90% of Thai men have had sex with a prostitute.
- The average age of a girl in a brothel in 1997 was 17. That was 13 years ago.
- In 1999 the average age was 15.
- In 2003 the average age was 13. In 6 Years the average girl in prostitution was 13!
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In 2007 case workers found that there were girls as young as 3 years old being sold in brothels.
Health records show that if a girl is in a brothel before the age of 18,
she has a 97.5% chance of receiving HIV AIDS.
1 out of every 5 people in Thailand make their living through sex.
The average price spent by a Madam (the one who runs a brothel) to buy a
prostitute is 600 US dollars. That is equivalent to one years salary to
the average Thai person.
The problem is that to buy a girl out of a brothel even one day after
being owned is at least 3,000 US Dollars. It can be as much as 20,000.
Not to mention that for every girl bought out of slavery, two more girls
on average are bought into it with that money.
As I listen to Carl, my ministry contact talk about these problems in
Thailand, my first reaction is the same as everyone else, “well lets
just storm the streets and buy girls out and get them away!”
But that is just the beginning. Thailand is a culture in slavery to
karma, plagued by poverty and deeply rooted in respect.
Karma– These girls are told they must have done something in their past
life that brought them into such a miserable situation in this life.
Poverty– Parents will sell their kids into sex slavery because they are
promised food for the child, and money for the parents.
Some parents are told their child is going to work a respectable job in
the city as a seamstrise, only to find out they lost their child to sex
slavery.
Other relatives willingly sell the girls to get money to satisfy drug
and alcohol addictions.
Respect– Girls trapped in sex trafficking are making money. Even
though they might be offered other jobs that don’t involved getting
abused by men, they will make about 1/5th the income. They want to send
money home. And so they will sacrifice their self respect to support
their families.
Trapped– Now the child is stuck in a brothel. They can’t run away because they
will be physically abused. They can’t not perform for their buyers
because they will get beat.
So instead of playing games and going to school like other 14 year olds,
these girls get raped 15 times a day, and can do nothing about it.
The final issue is honor.
An astounding 90% of all girls taken out of the sex industry will return
to it because they are rejected by society. They are the social
outcasts and so they return to the only life they know: prostitution.
Remember Nhu Ministries is working here in Chiangmia Thailand focusing
on PREVENTION.
Instead of trying to get girls out of the sex trade, they are providing a
safe home for girls to live where they can not be sold into slavery.
The ministry currently has 5 different girls homes in 5 different
countries that are targeted to hold 60 girls in each home.
The house parents teach the girls about Jesus, how to cook, clean, and
other trades like cosmetology. All the girls get educated in English,
and are also sponsored to go to school (a luxery that many poor families
can not provide for their kids on their own.)
And here we are. 13 white guys, not here to feed this industry, but to
help change the future of these girls.
Every day we wake up. Work all day through the heat mixing concrete,
laying blocks and creating bathrooms and bedrooms where girls will one
day live.
Never in my life have I felt like something so simple will make such a
great difference. Because if we don’t build these homes, there wont be
room to house these girls. If we can’t house these girls, they can’t be
apart of these homes. And if they can’t be apart of these homes…well
we’re just going to do everything we can to make sure that isn’t an
option for these little girls.
