If you follow my blogs, you might have read the article I wrote about seven things I learned about human sex trafficking–specifically in Thailand. You can read it here. However, this time around I was in the Philippines. Even though the two countries are not all that far apart. There are some major cultural differences between the two that changes the nature of the sex trafficking industry.
1. Ordinary jobs in the Philippines require a college degree. Including McDonald’s.
Okay, strange. What on earth does this have to do with human sex trafficking? Pretty much everything. Not everyone can afford to go to college, and that doesn’t stop the bills from coming. Many of these girls and women are from low-income regions, or small islands, and they need a way to support their families in any way possible. I’ll elaborate on this further in my next point.
2. The majority of these girls were exploited.
Thailand’s trafficking scene has a little of this, but in the Philippines the majority of the girls and women are tricked into becoming apart of the industry. What happens is these bars send a handful of people out, advertising that they have waitress jobs open that do not require a college degree or a high school diploma. This pretty much causes these girls to leap at the opportunity. They’ll travel great distances, sometimes across many islands, using various buses, ferries, or taxi’s to get there. Many of them have spent the last of their money in order to even get to the “job” that was being offered.
Upon arrival, they are told “the waitress position was just filled, but we have another one for you,” while being given a skimpy uniform. So now here she is, stuck in a city with no money and no way of getting home. She doesn’t have the education qualifications to get a job anywhere else, and she still needs to help provide for her mother, father, siblings, children, or whoever it may be. To top that off she might not even have the money for a place to stay. The Mama-san (boss) knows this and has taken advantage of the girl’s vulnerable state in order to get this undesirable and illegal position filled. She may also offer a place to stay for the girl as she works and thereby sealing the girl there at her bar with an ever-growing debt.
Remember that these girls are not prostitutes, they are the prostituted. They did not choose to be there.
3. Many of these girls identify as Christians.
The Philippines is one of the few Asian countries with a huge number of believers (most of which are Roman-Catholic.) The last human-trafficking ministry I worked with was in Thailand, which has barely any Christians. Until about fifty years ago polygamy was legal in Thailand. The concept of men having as many women as he wants is still considered to be somewhat normal. In Thailand, it’s not uncommon for a mom and dad to send their daughter to the bars to make money. I wouldn’t say they’re proud of it, but it is normal enough.
The Philippines is totally different.
Because of the Christian values that many Filipinos have, being a bar girl or sex worker is considered to be much more shameful than it is in Thailand. Usually the family has no idea what their daughter does or where she works. The girls plan on never telling their loved ones what happened to them or how they got tricked. Some of the girls will talk about how they would pray every day begging God for forgiveness before going to work.
Aside from everything I listed above, there was a lot of consistency in the structure of the human sex trafficking industry I witnessed in Thailand and in the Philippines. The drink buying system, the hierarchy with the bar moms and Mama-san (and sometimes Papa-san), and how customers would pay for a girl to “take off work” all proved that there are a lot of similarities across the two countries.
About Wipe Every Tear:
How can I even begin to describe this ministry?
There’s a lot that makes them so unique.
First of all, they are the only human sex trafficking ministry that does outreach in Angeles City, Philippines. That’s right, the freedom of these women is dependent on only one ministry!! That’s absolutely insane!
They have only been around for about 5 years yet have managed to house more than 90 women and ladyboys (transgender women) while providing for their food and basic needs, the needs of their families and children, funding the women’s high school and college, ministering to the women, praying with them, declaring God’s truth over them, and so much more.
And that’s just part of it.
Their approach to outreach is so unusual. Because they take a more joyful approach, declaring the bars to be reclaimed for the kingdom from the enemy, and celebrating Jesus as they dwell in the bars, the environment shifted dramatically. The moment they changed from the standard bar outreach approach was the same moment the girls started flooding into the Wipe Every Tear program.
If you’re interested in donating to support these women, help them get rescued, fund their education and career pursuits, providing a physically and spiritually healthy environment, click here.
