- It is estimated that over one million (that is 1,000,000!)
children are
trafficked into sexual slavery every year. That works out to be around 2,700 children sold as sex
slaves every day. - Sex Tourism is a $32 billion dollar a year industry.
- According to UNICEF, the definition of a ‘child victim
of trafficking’ is any person under 18 who is recruited, transported,
transferred, harbored or received for the purpose of exploitation, either
within or outside a country.
I hope that most of you were shocked by the
immensity of the issue; I also hope that if you weren’t already aware of the
sex trade problem these basic facts will open your eyes and create a curiosity
to seek out and fight against the issue. But if you’re like me, numbers are
numbers, definitions are even worse.
And in this case neither can describe the darkness that surrounds this
industry…this disgusting enterprise.
When I set out for downtown Bangkok for the
first time this month I was ecstatic.
Bangkok is a famous town…I had my camera and a few bucks, it was time to
be a tourist. When I stepped
out of the sky-train and took my first step onto pavement, I was disgusted. I
was horrified! It was early
afternoon and girls were already hanging out in the bars. Elderly white men passed me on the
streets with young Thai girls half their age hanging on their arms. I all but
wrote off Thailand right then and there.
Then I came to Chiang Mai and met the girls of
Remember Nhu. These beautiful
young girls who had been taken in by Remember Nhu because they were at risk of
being sold by their families to brothels.
They are so full of life and love, joy and kindness. They have made Thailand and my month
here more incredible than I could imagine. Each of them had me wrapped around their finger from the
first dinner we shared together.
And to think that each girl you will see in the video below was at high
risk for sex trafficking, each of these girls were in danger of having their
innocence stolen, of becoming the victims of unimaginable atrocities.
Unfortunately this stuff exists in the world today, but check out the video to
see how God is redeeming a sinister blemish on modern society.
