Cambodia (MNN) ― International organizations say tens of thousands of women and children are involved in sex trade in Cambodia and Thailand. Poverty drives an industry where a pedophile can buy a child for a bag of rice.
Greed is an issue in Thailand where 40% of the 8- to 15-year-olds are forced into a life of prostitution. In Cambodia, a high demand for virgins is fueling the flow of underage girls into Cambodia's sex trade where the industry accounts for 100 new HIV/AIDS cases a day.
Even as more voices join the fight against human trafficking, the industry has found ways to keep the supply and demand ongoing. Consequently, the faces of the victims have changed but not the flow.
Rob Hoskins with OneHope says they've launched a prevention campaign in the "green harvest" areas. "Pimps from the cities--the mafia, the crime lords--go out into the rural areas, and they recruit children and young people from farmers who are very ignorant and very poor. Promises are made, and the poor sell their children so that they can get money. That's where the war is really being fought; that's the front line."
Comprehensive efforts are being made, beginning at the local level, to reduce the market. That's where decisions are made by parents on whether or not to sell their children.
OneHope is in the rural schools sharing the Gospel and raising a harvest of a different kind. Hoskins says that's why their work in the rural schools is strategic. "I think by us going to the grass roots areas where the recruitment is taking place, and sharing the love of Jesus--it's the most powerful weapon this church has to combat this 'green harvest' and to be able to stem the tide of boys and girls being drawn into this horrible sex trade."
Pray that the doors remain open for help from OneHope. It costs 33 cents to provide a Book of Hope to a child--it's a chronological and harmonized version of the four Gospels telling the story of the life of Jesus.
Pray that OneHope would reach its 2009 Faith Goal of the distribution of 800,000 copies of the Book of Hope in Thailand and 625,000 in Cambodia. You can help. Click here to learn more.
