What can you buy for
$24?
Yes in Thailand you can buy a child for $24. Not just for a few days but forever and to do
whatever you want with them. In Thailand
a baby is worth a mere $24.
We are now in Mae Sot on the Burmese/Thai border working
with Life Impact International. Impact was founded by a 23 year old woman
from California ten years ago and their mission is to:
TO CHANGE A LIFE,
WHICH IN TURN HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CHANGE
THE WORLD
We
accomplish this through…
PREVENTion programs for “at-risk”
children and youth, displaced peoples,
refugees and orphans.
RESCUE-ing children sold into prostitution
or child slavery and those who are
victims of abuse, abandonment or extreme
poverty.
HEALing the lives of orphans, soldiers,
women and men through outreaches, humanitarian aid, disaster relief, children’s
homes and orphanages.
They have a safe house for “at-risk” children in Thailand
outside of Mae Sot. Each one of the kids
living at their home has their own different story of how they got there. Some are Burmese, some Thai, and some are
Indian. Some were rescued from slavery, prostitution,
poverty, or trafficking. We spent the
day sanding and staining one of the buildings on their property that is being
converted into a girls home. As we were
staining and sanding we started to meet the kids who call Impact their home and hear their stories, each one being more heart
breaking than the other.
The girls above have tragic stories. The girl on the right was going to be sold to
a brothel in Bangkok for $24. Her mother
is the top drug dealer and smuggler in Mae Sot.
When she was born her mother was going to sell her to sex
traffickers. When Impact heard about this they immediately stepped in. They heard that she was going to be sold for
$24 so they agreed to buy her from her mother.
After getting the child and as they were leaving the sex traffickers
were pulling in to take her to Bangkok.
Now she is thriving at Impact–
just being the beautiful child that she is.
The one on the left spent the first two years of her life living
in Thai prison with her mother. In
Thailand mothers are allowed to keep their babies in prison with them until
they reach two years old. While living in
prison, her diet consisted mostly of chocolate so when she got to the Impact home she kept asking where the
chocolate was. They gave her the
nickname “Chocolate” because that’s all she wants to eat. When you ask her “what her name is” she
replies “Chocolate”. Now at Impact she is able to be a child. She spent the afternoon giggling, smiling and
posing for pictures, and just enjoying being the kid that she is.
Please pray for Thailand and Burma. Pray for the kids living at Impact and the kids who are unfortunate and not saved before they reach the brothels. Trafficking children is big business
here. Words cannot describe how precious
these children are and how much it meant to just hug on them for the
afternoon. My heart broke for them.
