A personal journey into the dangers of the global slave trade.  Children for sale and the heroes who rescue them. That’s explored this week on Listen Up!

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For more information on our guests and resources click “Watch Episode” below.

Context

More people live in bonded slavery today than when the slave trade was abolished in the 1800’s. This is not about bad jobs or low income, but rather a complete loss of freedom. Over 30 million people around the globe are trapped in modern day slavery.

The issue of course, is children (both male and female) caught up in the Global sex slave trade.

Children who are often sold by their parents to brothels for a fee where the owners stand make tens of thousands of dollars a day in their exploitation. Many say this culture is linked to the Pol Pot era of Cambodia where children and family were devalued over the need for basic survival.

But there is a glimmer of hope. Here, we will meet a school teacher who barely escaped being sold, and now works to protect children. We’ll meet a stock broker, a pastor, a psychologist, and brave people who are saying we can stop the sale of children.

As best as we can present, this is their story.
 

Guests

Kim Bui
NewHope Schools
The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada
www.cmalliance.ca
The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada
30 Carrier Dr Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario M9W 5T7
Office: (416) 674-7878 • Fax: (416) 674-0808 | info@cmacan.org

Kim left Vietnam on April 30, 1975 on the last helicopter from the U.S. Embassy. She always kept in her heart that God miraculously took her out of Vietnam to Canada for a purpose. For 26 years she studied and worked as an accountant helping Vietnamese Alliance Churches in Canada in different ministries: children, youth, women, and evangelism, etc.

In 2001, she came to Cambodia to visit her sister and her husband who were missionaries for Vietnamese. However, the trip did not end with a happy ending. She found out that one girl, who became a Christian through her message, would be sold into a brothel in the next few days. Devastated, she asked God to send her back to Cambodia.

After several years of interning and study, in January, 2007, she was sent by the C&MA in Canada to Cambodia to work with the Vietnamese.

Don Brewster
Executive Director, Aim 4 Asia
http://aim4asia.org/
PO Box 2037, Rocklin, Ca 95677 | 916 947-1016 | 916 765-2413 | donb@aim4asia.org

Aim for Asia is an organization that traces the extreme poverty that leads to the child sex slave trade to the ravishes made on the citizens of Cambodia by the Pol Pot genocide that occurred in the mid 70’s. Under Agape International Missions, they seek to help and find alternatives to children as young as 10 being put into the child sex slave trade.

The Ratanak Foundation
http://www.ratanak.org/
Box 521 - 3495 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC  V5Z 4R3 | PHONE: 778-833-1963 | info@ratanak.org

The Ratanak Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing help and hope to the Khmer people of Cambodia.

Ratanak was the name of a little girl who, in late 1989, lay in a hospital in North West Cambodia. As her mother looked on, the doctors tried to save her life. There was no medication or medical equipment available to save her.

The Ratanak Foundation is dedicated to bringing spiritual hope to the Khmer people by assisting Cambodia rebuild the social and medical services which would have saved the life of the little girl named Ratanak.

Ruth Elliot
Director, Daughters (of Cambodia)
http://www.daughterscambodia.org
Tel: + 855 (0)12 576 852 | PO Box 1219, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

An organization dedicated to targeting and helping women currently trapped in the sex slave industry in Cambodia. Since Daughters origin in 1997, over 100 girls have been helped to start a new life.

Helen Sworn
Director, Chab Dai
http://www.chabdai.org
Chab Dai Coalition
P.O. Box 1185  Phnom Penh  Cambodia | T +855 12 481 597 | cambodiaoffice@chabdai.org
Chab Dai Coalition - USA
P.O. Box 6116, Folsom, California 95763 USA | T +01 916 983 4918 | F +01 916 983 3230
usoffice@chabdai.org

A Christian organization dedicated to ending child sex slavery with a focus on Cambodia. Chab Dai is registered as a non-governmental NGO with the Royal Cambodian government.

Patrick Stayton
Cambodia Field Office Director, International Justice Mission
www.ijm.org
International Justice Mission
PO Box 58147, Washington, DC 20037 | 703.465.5495 | 703.465.5499 (fax)
International Justice Mission Canada
100 Fullarton Street, London, Ontario  N6A 1K1 | 519.679.5030 | Fax: 519.663.1165 | Email: info@ijm.ca

International Justice Mission is an agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community.
 

Resources

Further information on AIM 4 ASIA
rahabshousemissiontrip.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-1-andor-2.html
www.auburnjournal.com/detail/89872.html
www.heavenlynight.org/concert_tickets.htm

Further information on Daughters (Cambodia)
http://lifeseventful.com/20071214/daughters/
http://freedomspromise.blogspot.com/2008/03/daughters.html

Further information on Chab Dai and Human Sex-trafficking
http://www.humantrafficking.org
http://www.heavenlynight.org/stories_updates.htm
http://www.no-trafficking.org/content/pdf/march%202006%20-%20upcoming%20events.pdf
http://www.no-trafficking.org/content/Country_Pages_Cambodia/workinggroup_cambodia.htm

Further information on NewHope Schools and Christian Missionary Alliance
http://cambodiamission2008.blogspot.com/2008/06/cambodia-bound-july-2008.html

Further information and updates on the International Justice Mission (IJM)

http://www.ijm.org/releases/2008/06_18_08_Cambodia_release_FINAL.pdf
http://www.ijmuk.org/news
http://www.ijmuk.org/node/37
http://www.ijm.ca/fromthefieldjune08.html

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