Music is pumping through my ears into my veins; songs that are so familiar. My shoulders start to swagger a little and my head bobs. Melodies defy the natural. Suddenly, teleportation is possible and instantly I am are somewhere else; somewhere familiar. These songs, many times over, when they enter my system take me back to cold November and December Saturday nights; high heels, my nicest pair of denim jeans, my favorite lip gloss in my pocket, arms locked as we cross the street, laughter bursting through the air, my besties and I are at Therapy Café. We are about to salsa dance the night away; some of my favorite memories.
As my head begins to bob, I step onto Banglar Road, Patong, Thailand. I am praying that when I leave this place, these songs continue to teleport me back to Therapy Café without detouring back here; this place where old men hold the hands of seven year old girls as they lead them down alley ways toward neon lights and women are raffled off as door prizes. Satan has distorted so much already, I pray the sanctity of these songs and memories from home are preserved in my mind.
On Banglar Road there are over 200 open-air bars. Each bar has approximately six to seven girls who “work” there. That means there are at the very least 1200 girls attempting to make ends-meet by selling their bodies for a small profit every single night of the week. This number does not include the large number of Go Go’s on Banglar Road. Go Go’s are strip clubs that offer dances, strip teases and live sex shows. They operate like brothels in that the girls in the Go Go’s were more than likely sold to the owner and have much less freedom, whereas, the girls in the open air bars are not owned by the bar owners.
Here is a small glimpse of what we are facing:
Human Trafficking.
General briefing:
Human trafficking: moving of persons from one place to the next through force, fraud, and/or coercion for the purpose of servitude, debt payment, and forced sexual acts under coercions.
*** 27 million men, women, children world wide are in modern day slavery:
80% female, 50% children.
*** 32 billion dollars annually generated from human trafficking industry: 3rd most
lucrative business in the world.
*** 200,000 new slaves introduced annually into the US alone.
*** 1 million children introduced annually into the global sex trade.
*** 800,000 persons trafficked annually across foreign borders.
Force: coercion by physical means: rape, beatings, confinement.
Fraud: perversion of truth to entice a person to surrender legal rights.
Coercion: using tactics to persuade someone to take a course of action: threats/drugs/abuse of legal process.
Sex Trafficking:
Terms:
1) Red light district.
2) proxy husband– man who “takes on a prostitute” for an extended period of time as a forced sex slave or domestic slave. **In sex tourism these men will “rent” girls out for extended periods of time to be pseudo girlfriends during their vacation. Girls will act as tour guide, sex slave, domestic slave etc.
3) GO GO BAR: bar with stage for dancing, stripping and sex live shows.
4) John/Trick: a man that purchases a woman.
5) Lady Boy: dresses, acts, takes on the persona of a woman.
6) “MANY BEAUTIFUL GIRLS AND A FEW UGLY GIRLS TOO” if the ugly girls are bought and never return home, it’s okay. Whatever happens to them happens to them. They are viewed as dispensable and not worth anything.
TYPES: Prostitution; pornography; sex tourism; strip clubs; sex shows; dancing.
Victims: women, children, men.
Tactics: false marriage proposals; being sold by parents, neighbor, relative; kidnapped by traffickers.
Health risks: drug and alcohol addiction: introduced by traffickers.
Physical injuries: broken bones, bruises, STDs, AIDS: myths- having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS- (kids sown back up without anesthesia and sold again as virgins the next night), miscarriages, forced abortions, psychological harm: suicidal thoughts, suicide, PTSD, acute anxiety, depression.
COUNTRY OUTLINE:
Thailand:
- 66% of all men that land at Bangkok airport are there for sex tourism.
- 10% of profit from prostitution comes from Western Society. 80-90% comes from Thai men who see a prostitute on a regular basis.
- Guys at younger and younger ages are being introduced to prostitutes; 12-13 year old boys being introduced to sex by their dads who will take them to prostitutes.
- Thai men have “little wives” or “minor wives”- regular prostitutes.
- 1/3 of all Thai men and 40% of house wives have HIV/AIDS.
- Ensan: NE city of Thailand where a majority of prostitutes come from. Extreme poverty; farming communities. No education. Girls come to city to find work and support family back home. Only about 5% of women and girls stay in Ensan.
- Pittaya: Pedophile and child sex trafficking capital of the World.
- 86% of male prostitutes are heterosexual men being forced into prostitution by family members.
Please be praying for Thailand and God’s glory to reign down. Please pray for my team this month!
Life. 