Over the last month, I have been working with Samaritan Creations in Thailand. Their purpose as an organization is to help women leave a life of prostitution, provide steady jobs, to ignite restoration, and to love them with the love of God. The majority of my team has been helping by providing daily childcare for the women while Jennie Kate and I have been helping out with marketing and product design for next Christmas. We get to help out with daily devotionals with the women as well as take part in a weekly outreach to build relationships with women who are still in the industry.
I’m learning so so much about the human sex trafficking industry of Thailand, so I’m going to share some of what I learned with you. Keep in mind that most of what I am learning is specifically from Bangkok, Thailand. I might not have all the facts down for all cases of prostitution or how it applies to different cultures, cities. Anyway, let’s get started!
1. Women basically run the sex trafficking industry.
Now I know this does not apply to all cases, but I’m surprised to learn that the majority of the time the girls answer to a woman as their boss. They call her Mama-san. Mama-san collects the money, finds girls and women to work for her bar, and keeps track of their quotas.
2. The girls start to make money when customers buying them a drink.
Most bars require that each girl manages to get 1-2 drinks bought for her each night. If she cannot manage this, she is required to pay for her own drinks or have her paycheck completely withheld from her. The more people that buy drinks for her, the more money she’s made that night.
3. Customers can pay the bar for a girl to “take off work.”
Because prostitution is illegal in Thailand, this is how they justify it. The owner can say, “the customer just pays for the hours she would miss,” while assuming whatever happens between the girl and the customer stays between them. However, the structure of this work environment is to make this their final goal. Three reasons why:
1.The girls basically must flirt enough to get one or two men to buy them a drink according to bar rules every night (or pay out of pocket.)
2. Paying the bar for a girl to “take off work” at all is an option.
3. At least in the bars I’ve been to, there are at least 30-40 women serving drinks and dancing on any given night. No place needs that many employees. There is an assumption that many girls and women will be paid for to leave with a customer.
4. Many of the girls who step into the sex trafficking industry know what they’re getting into.
While some are tricked or trapped into the industry, most are not. Based on what I have seen and heard, these girls hate working in this industry. So why do they do it? Most of the girls do not have the education required for a normal job. They have not completed high school and most likely dropped out to work and support their family in difficult times. This isn’t exactly legal, and their job options at this age aren’t exactly legal either. While the men of the family are expected to build up the spiritual state of the family, the women are expected to support the physical state of the family. There are also loads of other cultural differences in Thailand that contribute to this. This is a very extensive topic so I will be going into further detail on this subject in the future.
5. In some bars, the girls are numbered.
You know how in some jobs you are given a name tag to pin to your shirt everyday? These girls get the same thing with a number on it. A number. That way, if she goes up onstage to dance with ten or twenty other girls and a customer notices her, he can ask Mama-san or one of the bar moms for her specifically.
6. The girls have different prices.
Depending the girls/women are broken up into different groups and may have different uniforms. These are based on things such as age, reputation, desirability, etc. Younger girls usually cost more while older girls usually cost less.
7. Many of the girls who start out are under the legal age to be working in a bar in the first place.
Thai law requires that you must be at least 20 years old in order to work in a bar. It isn’t uncommon to find a girl that’s about 15-19 years old. They often agree to use a fake age–usually 20-22.
To learn more about Samaritan Creations, visit http://www.samaritancreations.org/
To purchase products made by the women to support the women, visit The Market Place: Samaritan Creations
To donate to Samaritan Creations, visit http://www.samaritancreations.org/donate/
