The Lord be with you
Each Sunday, in our prayers, we remember those who are trapped in modern day
slavery and ask God to bless efforts that are pleasing in his sight to end this
terrible sin. The following article by Cal Thomas helps bring the scope of the
problem into greater focus.
BANGKOK -- Most
of us can read about sex trafficking with a sense of detachment. It is only when
we see its results up close that we are forced to confront the full extent of
its horror.
Nana Plaza
is one of several "red light" districts in Bangkok.
It is less than two blocks from my upscale hotel, but worlds away from it, a
distance, you could say, separating Heaven from Hell. Girls -- and that's what
many of them are -- wear almost nothing. They are there to please. My guide
points out a three-story structure. "The higher you go," he says,
"the raunchier it gets." It looks raunchy enough on the ground floor.
In the song "One Night in Bangkok,"
a line describes my feeling: "I can feel the devil walking next to
me."
Prostitution has been illegal in Thailand
since 1960, but the Thailand Government Public Health Department estimates
there are 75,000 prostitutes in the country. Some nongovernment organizations
put the figure much higher. "Sexual tourists" come here, their visits
set up by travel agents, as if they were booking people for a cruise or a trip
to the beach. The newspapers constantly rail against corrupt officials who
tolerate the sex trade and turn a blind eye to exploited women.
Into this den of iniquity have come Bonita and Roy Thompson,
two Christian missionaries. Eight years ago they gave up careers as California
educators to come to a place where they make less money and receive little
notice.
Their payment comes in the lives of those girls they are
able to save from a life of prostitution. Their ministry is called Home of New
Beginnings
At a Christmas party they give annually for the "bar
girls," more than 200 prostitutes show up to play games like musical
chairs and to hear a message from a former prostitute who tells her story of
redemption, offering them a new life if they will only trust God.
A few respond. One is called "Nim," not her real
name. Nim says she was abandoned by her mother and later sold by an
opportunistic "auntie" to a couple who needed her to care for their
aging parents. Nim says her work proved unsatisfactory and she was sold again
to a bar where she was forced into prostitution.
When the Thompsons rescued her they took her to a doctor who
estimated her age at 11 or 12. She had no formal schooling, but they tutored
her and she is now in a regular school. Nim recently received a "character
pin" from the oldest daughter of Thailand's
king in recognition of her changed life and academic success.
The rescued girls live in housing run by the Thompsons. They
receive an allowance that partially compensates them for lost earnings. Many
send portions of their allowances to family, which they used to do with their
income from prostitution.
"One of our girls," says Bonita, "is in her
senior year at a university, studying chemical engineering. She is currently
interning with a company that expects to hire her upon graduation. Another is
in her senior year in textile design and has been selected by one of the top
designers in Thailand
to work with him on a project."
At a recently concluded conference on women's rights in London,
attendees were told that ever-younger girls are being forced into prostitution
because of declining economic conditions in many parts of the world. The
Straits Times reports that, according to The International Labour Organization,
"About 21 million people ... are in forced labour, meaning they have been
coerced or deceived into jobs which they cannot leave. ...
about 4.5 million of these, mainly women and girls, were
victims of sexual exploitation..." Overall, cites the ILO, "...the
human trafficking trade was estimated to be worth US$32 billion (S$39 billion)
a year."
The Thompsons are doing their small part, though the numbers
seem overwhelming at times. Think of these girls as someone's daughter or
granddaughter and even though some of those relatives may have sold them, the
message of love and self-worth sometimes breaks through, even in the red light
districts of Bangkok
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