Doorsteps 2
The Challenge: Sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children is an appalling, ever-increasing international problem. More than 820,000 people are trafficked internationally every year, of whom approximately 80% are female and almost 50% are minors. At least 100,000 of those oppressed women and children live in Cambodia, and a wide variety of sexual exploitation is present in that country, including sex tourism, sex trafficking, pornography, prostitution, child marriages, and sexual molestation. The children experiencing this abuse are left with severe physical and psychological traumas, sleeping and eating disorders, sexually transmitted diseases, and unwanted pregnancies.
The Idea: In 2006, Viva to completed a needs assessment in Cambodia around the issue of trafficking and sexual exploitation. It revealed that not only is it costly to rehabilitate a trafficked child, it is also incredibly difficult and painful for the individual. So in addition to rehabiliation we must also focus on community-based prevention strategies, looking at what causes women and children to be vulnerable to exploitation in the first place. For example, extreme poverty, high unemployment, fewer job opportunities for women and children, and low literacy levels offer optimal opportunity for traffickers to exploit victims. Children's own family members often sell them to pay off debts, and sometimes children are simply kidnapped. Physical threats, intimidation, debt bondage, language barriers, and lacking a safe place to return to are forces which combine to make escape difficult. Clearly it is vital to get to these women and children before they become vulnerable, and offer them some kind of security.
The Solution: The Doorstep programme was begun by Viva, in partnership with another organisation, to begin to address these issues. Firstly by strengthening and funding already existing programmes within the local network, focusing on offering education, vocational training, and micro-enterprise initiatives to ensure self-sustainability for the women and children. Secondly by investing in the network and its collaborative activities, in order to facilitate and encourage the discovery of new ways to collectively and proactively engage in the prevention and prosecution of sex traffickers and offenders, making the communities safer for potentially vulnerable women and children.
The Result: The individual projects in the network are growing and getting stronger by the day, with existing programmes flourishing and new ones being developed. More children are being helped, and helped in a stronger, more cohesive, more united way. Other collaborative initiatives within the Chab Dai network are increasing and blossoming, particularly with regard to advocacy issues, as the projects are further motivated and empowered by the success of the Doorstep programme.
The Partnership: Here we see a passionate christian rock band and the knowledge of a local network join forces to actively combat a difficult and pressing issue. Using the vehicle of the network, and the expertise and connections of Viva, Stand Out International is able to see an issue close to its heart being genuinely tackled and fought.