The WE LOVE KIDS fundraiser two weeks ago was a great success! Lots of people in the Kansas City area got to learn about our work in Cambodia at our We Love Kids center, and how exploited children in India, Burma and Nepal are being rescued and protected. But everything we are doing is just a drop in the bucket! What will it take to reduce the numbers listed above by UNICEF? If this is not the responsibility of the global church, what is?

One of our girls who doesn't have to go into a coffee shop to survive...she is now in high school!

Thu, the 16 year old girl featured in the last 2 blogs is still on our hearts in a big way…as I mentioned in the last blog, we (that is  myself, Joni and my wonderful staff of Vietnamese people at our center) were delighted that Thu told us she had STOPPED working at the coffee shop and started coming to our Sunday cell church again. However in the last few weeks she has suddenly stopped showing up again. My staff coordinator, Trang went to her house and met her older brother, a drug dealer….he refused our help to have Thu registered in a special job training project and insisted that “Thu’s family would care for her”…However, looking at his occupation, we have serious doubts about that! Vietnamese families are bound by confucian ethics, and no matter how desperate they are, they will never admit that they need help. Battle with us for Thu’s life that she will come to a truly realization that she must break free from the dysfunctional family ties that will turn her life toward darkness..

Stand with us in the battle!

Many folks have likened the stopping of trafficking to “trying to kill a snake with seven heads”, if you chop off one head, another one grows in its place- or, closing the barn door after the cow gets out. Since most trafficking starts within the family, what can an agency or an organization, even as well intentioned as most are, do to REALLY prevent a girl from being sold? This is hidden in such a way that by the time an anti-trafficking organization finds out, it’s too late…the girl has already been persuaded to follow a sister into the same lifestyle, or sold without her knowlege and consent. Are there really any viable solutions within a society that doesn’t enforce its own anti-trafficking and prostitution laws? In a society which doesn’t care about marginalized groups that don’t have legal status, and are virtually stateless peoples? Girls who are forced into prostitution usually, if not always, do so to reinforce dysfunctional family relationships. What is the real solution to this? One day, it came to me: the real solution is a new family: one that is based on what families are intended to be built on: unconditional love and virtue. One that not only trys to help you become the person you can be,  but provides real accountability and sets the boundaries of right and wrong…in other words, a loving family community. That is what We Love Kids began building in Phnom Penh Cambodia in 2005. It’s been a battle: one of the kids in our family has begun taking drugs. One of the girls, under severe pressure from her older brother and sister, has gone into a coffee shop. On the other hand, many children have become Christians and are living stable, happy lives. They join our cell church/youth group every Sunday. We go swimming, bowling, have Bible study, VBS, Christmas parties, Vietnamese New Year parties and trips to the beach. WLK gives kids a loving environment with foster moms and big brothers and sisters. For four years, our Vietnamese teachers have  faithfully taught  kindergarten,  helped mainstream kids into school at the proper age. Literacy and higher level classes are taught during the week. These kids’ parents may be alcoholics, gambling addicts, prostitutes,  junk recyclers, construction workers. One of our children lives with her grandparents since her mother died of AIDS. Upstairs in their little apartment, an illegal gambling den thrives.

In the midst of this sad world, , We Love Kids is trying to build a city on the hill, be salt and light in a dark place. Stand with us.

Well, some of the kids we work with here at the We Love Kids centers know…and here are a few of their stories (their names have been changed to protect their privacy).

Mai, a little girl born in Phnom Penh, to a prostitute mother, is being raised by her gandparents. Her mother died of AIDS. Mai was born HIV positive. The grandparents, we suspect, run a gambling den secretly in their little house. Fortunately, Mai’s grandparents love her. When we approached them, several years ago, about getting the new anti-retro viral drugs for Mai, they agreed immediately. Mai has been on them ever since. Though small for her age, her health is stable. Unfortunately we suspect that her half-sister, who is older than Mai, has entered the world of prostitution. No one at Mai’s house will talk about her. Mai is 10 years old now, a lovely girl. She comes to our center for discipleship group regualarly. Two years ago, we baptized Mai, after she begged us repeatly, and Grandma and Grandpa finally agreed. We were surprised at that, since they had always seemed rather hostile toward us. Mai is doing well, though being HIV positive is a shadow over her life that will never go away. Will she live to adulthood? No one knows.

Two girls bought out of a coffee shop/brothel at the Saigon bridge, Phnom Penh Cambodia

The Saigon bridge is a word that is synonymous with horror in Phnom Penh. Everybody, everybody knows that it is where Vietnamese teenager girls are sold into the numerous coffee shops (read, brothel) along the Bassac river  and enslaved virtually forever. A few weeks in a coffee shop changes not only a girl’s occupation, it destroys her soul. Girls ”sold” usually by a parent or relative, usually for $50, may resist the male visitors’ attention for a short period of time, but nearly always are forced to bow  to the pressure of the coffee shop. That’s in cases where the Vietnamese owner is a “softie” and doesn’t force the girl to begin prostituting herself.

I (Joni) was working with a family in the provinces, and found out that the parents, because of severe financial stress, had sent their two totally illiterate daughters to the Saigon bridge in Phnom Penh.  The two girls, one 17 and one, 18, had no skills of any kind and had only lived on a fishing boat on the Mekong river their whole lives. Their mother bought them each a watch and some cheap jewelry and took them to the city, dropped them off and received $50. The usual price is $50 for one, so she got a bargain- two souls for the price of one. When I found out where the girls were, I immediately took one of my Vietnamese staff and went to the shop. Initially, it was a good meeting. The two girls seemed happy to see me. The owner and his wife were friendly. But when I stood up to say goodbye, one of the girls burst into tears. At that moment I knew I had to get them out. I immediately contacted a home for high risk girls and the director agreed to take them in that day. I went back to the coffee shop and tried to start negotiating. This almost immediately degenerated into intense conflict, even when I offered to pay back the $50 (which I did). Finally, though they had to bow to the power of the white westerner- they knew theycouldn’t win in such a situation. I removed the girls, to their great relief, and placed them in a home. A few months later, the parents shamefacedly took them back home to stay.

Thu (center) with her mom and our teacher, Mrs. Trang at WLK Center

 Thu’s Journey

Thu,  (not her real name) one of the many  kids who have been involved with We Love Kids came to us when  she was nearly 12 years old. She was completely illiterate and started first grade. Little by little, we learned Thu’s story. Her father, a severe alcoholic, died when he fell down the steps of their shack in the slum near our center.  Her older brother  died earlier of a heroin overdose, and her younger brother was in prison for dealing heroin. Her older sister went to Thailand to get a job in the red light district of Bangkok, but was arrested and imprisoned. Every time we sat down to talk with Thu, she would burst into tears. She knew how bleak her future was. We shared the good news with her mother, who prayed with us, but couldn’t seem to believe that anything good could ever happen to her family. Thu’s future seemed destined to become a horror story.
 
After first grade, she dropped out, and began babysitting to earn a little money. We didn’t see her for nearly a year. But my teacher, Trang, and I continued to pursue her as much as we could, and prayed as much as we could! Suddenly, some months ago, she reappeared, and began attending the new discipleship group for our teenagers. We began to see hope in her. Trang noticed during visits to the shack that several  prostitutes were hanging out around her house, and we feared for her. Amazingly, God opened a door for her to attend a one year hairdressing school run by Christians.  Thu and her mother were really touched by this provision. She has grown in the Lord and was baptized in March. Her mother came to the baptism and was moved, though isn’t a Christian yet. Our hope is for Thu to move into our center with Trang to have a better environment as well as several others who are in great need.  Pray for Thu and her mother!