This month we are working in Chiang Mai, Thailand with an organization called Remember Nhu. Remember Nhu is a non-profit that exists to prevent the exploitation of children in the sex trade industry throughout the world. They started in Cambodia in 2004 and now have children homes in Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Gambia and in an unnamed country (this country is left unnamed because Christianity is highly persecuted there and this home is, technically, illegally based). There are 80 girls and 8 boys that live in the 2 houses on this property currently and new ones are coming all the time. Two of the newest girls came about 3 months ago and have especially captured my heart. One is 13, but has the mental capacity of a 3 year old and the other is 3 years old and looks just like Dora the Explorer (seriously identical). Neither of them go to school during the day, one is too young and one because of special needs, so we get to spend the most time with the two of them and I love it 🙂
This organization was created because of a young girl named Nhu from Vietnam. She was sold by her grandmother when she was 12 years old to pay off her grandmother’s debt. She was checked at a hospital to make sure she was a virgin and then spend 3 days alone with a man, a pedophile, in a hotel room. She learned about Jesus before this and cried out to Him when she was in the hotel room. Sometimes His deliverance looks a little different than what we would expect. What I mean by that is that he didn’t send a helicopter in to rescue her right then. She actually was re-stitched up to look like a virgin and sold two more times before she was rescued. When she cried out to the Lord, he whispered two words to a man in Ohio searching for a way to serve God in a deeper way, He said ‘remember Nhu’. Carl had heard Nhu’s story of being sold while at a Christian Ministry Alliance and knew this was what he was supposed to do, which was later confirmed by the Lord’s whispers. Carl searched for Nhu for months until finding her and creating Remember Nhu.
Sex trafficking is a huge problem all over the world. Have you ever seen the movie ‘Taken’? Even in the US there are young girls and boys being sold or stolen and sold for their bodies. Currently in Thailand, there are about 2.8 million sex workers; including 2 million women, 20,000 adult males and 800,000 minors under the age of 18. $4.3USD billion per year or about 3% of the Thai economy, is spent on prostitution and at least 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade. Since the Vietnam war, Thailand has become known as a popular destination to purchase sex and, in fact, the #1 reason for tourist to visit the city of Pattaya, one of the biggest Thai cities for the trade, is sex tourism. The government’s stance on the issue is simple, prostitution is illegal so it does not exist. Meanwhile, thousands of restaurants, bars, hotels, massage parlors and tea houses offer sexual services, as well as the thousands of women lining the streets hoping to make their quota for the day. All over the world, over 1 million children are trafficked each year, which means about 2,700 children EVERY DAY.
Prostitution has been overlooked by authorities and even defended and used, even though it is technically illegal. It is tradition to take your son to see a prostitute when he turns 12. Foreigners come to Thailand for the sole purpose of buying sex or as a ‘special treat’ to a business trip. People justify using a prostitute by saying it is the best form of income they can get or that they are used to it. It is a common ‘out’ for families with debt or for Burmese refugees to have an income. Oh, by the way, these is a genocide going on in Burma that has been going on for the past 60 years (never heard of it? neither did I and I hate it). People are smuggled over the border and live in huge refugee camps that house 80,000+ people. Anyways, I’ll probably write more about that in another blog, but these refugees turn to prostitution because it is a common way for people without Thai papers to make money and so much money is poured into sex tourism.
Remember Nhu’s stance is that prevention is the best way to save these girls. Although, they can’t save everyone, unfortunately, but with the organizations helping girls get out as well as the preventative one, they hope to end the sex trade completely. Most of the girls that live in these homes are from the hill country in northern Thailand. I guess the closest way to describe how they are viewed by the Thai community is how we view ‘white trash’. They aren’t accepted as Thai and don’t follow a lot of the traditions. Many are poor and have debts with no way to pay them off, except to sell there 5 year old daughter to a business man to rape away her virginity. Sometimes the parents are convinced that the man is taking them to be royalty or promise education and a better life, but really they are taking them to destroy their life and sell them to a brothel or to rape them repeatedly for a few days and then toss them away. Remember Nhu has heard the stories of girls being sold and know what the warning signs look like. They see these red flags and ask the parents to house them with a full scholarship for the highest level of education the child can achieve and most parents say yes (all but one family, actually). The biggest warning sign is either hearing of parents already trying to sell their child or mothers who lost their husband and remarried. In the Thai culture the mother will usually abandon her children from another marriage, because of lack of money or from the new husband not wanting the children. In this case the children are left on the street or sold into prostitution and we want neither to happen.
Below is the video for the organization and it explains most of what they do, although it is an old video. The site we are living at hasn’t been build yet, but the land had been bought. We get to meet Nhu in the beginning of January when she comes to visit with her mom! As of now though, we get to spend time with these girls, hear their stories and to just love them and show them how life is meant to be. They have a family here that loves them more than they ever knew was possible and have parental love for the first time!
Also, just found a video about Remember Nhu from 2 years ago from another World Racer, so I posted that one as well. Enjoy!
