More about Girls off the Streets

As I’ve mentioned before in my post Girls off the Streets, I’m getting ready to head to Bangladesh and India to see the work that SIMaid is doing to rehabilitate girls who have been rescued from forced prostitution.

Please take five minutes to watch this video where the project is explained and I talk about my reasons for being part of the trip.



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How can you help Girls off the Streets?

I wrote recently about my involvement with Girls Off the Streets. As I said then, I’ll be traveling to Bangladesh and India to see the work SIMaid does to stop trafficking and sex slavery while transforming the lives of young girls rescued. My role will be as a storyteller, communicating the need online, on radio and to churches back here in Australia.

If you want to find out more about how to help the millions of girls, many quite young, who are raped each day to make money for others, there are a couple of events you can attend.

Firstly, you can be at Thornlie Church of Christ in Spencer Road at 6:30 this Sunday evening when, together with SIMaid Education and Development Officer Kieran Johnson, I’ll be talking about our upcoming trip.

The other event is on Saturday evening the 10th of November where you can hear Omar Djoeandy, SIM Australia Executive Director, and catch up with Kieran and me. That evening begins at 7:00 at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Shenton Park. Details are in the poster above. Click on the image for a closer look.



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Girls off the Streets


No funny, quirky post today but I’m hoping that you’ll give me a few minutes so that I can tell you about a huge issue.

Every day millions of girls, many quite young, are raped to make money for others. They’ve been kidnapped and forced into sex slavery.

Human trafficking enslaves about 27 million people around the world. That is more than the population of Australia. Of these modern day slaves the UN estimates 79% of them are caught up in sexual trafficking. According to “Save the Children” at any one time across the world, around 1.8 million children are being abused through prostitution, child pornography and sex tourism. In the UK there are 5,000 child prostitutes. 75% of them are girls.

In December I’ll be traveling to Bangladesh and India to learn more about the Girls Off the Streets initiative through SIMaid. I talked about the upcoming trip on my radio program with SIMaid representative, Kieran Johnson. You can listen to our chat by clicking the play button on the audio plaer at the bottom of this post.

In Bangladesh there are approximately 500 000 children living on the streets due to poverty or abuse. Many girls who live on the streets are sexually exploited.

The Indian Government states there are 2.8 million people prostituted in India, but human rights groups claim it is more like 15 million. 200 girls are entering into the sex trade every day with 80% of them doing so against their own free will.

I’ll be traveling to both countries with SIMaid to witness the work they do to stop trafficking and sex slavery while transforming the lives of young girls rescued. My role will be as a storyteller, communicating the need online, on radio and to churches back here in Australia.

I currently need to raise money for my travel costs (around $3000) and if you’d like to contribute please email me via my Contact Page so that I can let you know where to direct your money.



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Freeset Setting Women Free

In 1999 Kerry and Annie Hilton left New Zealand with their four children and moved to Kolkata, India to work and live amongst the poor. Naively, they signed up for an apartment in the middle of the day.

It was only when Kerry was taking a walk at night that he discovered they had moved into the largest red light area in the city. Their new neighbours were thousands of women forced into prostitution by trafficking and poverty. That was the beginning of a business named Freeset.

Freeset is located in Sonagacchi, the largest, most infamous sex district in Kolkata, India. Within a few square miles more than 10,000 women stand in line selling their bodies to thousands of men who visit daily. Many are trafficked from Bangladesh, Nepal and rural India. For others poverty has left them without options. The cries of their hungry children drive them to sell their bodies.

At thirteen, Sonali* was stolen from her village, dragged to the back streets of Sonagacchi and sold into prostitution. Her first customer drugged and raped her unconscious body.

Bashanti*, a daughter of poverty-stricken parents, was sold into the sex trade by her mother, sacrificed so the rest of the family could eat.

In India, prostitution is big business and thrives on exploitation and slavery, robbing the poor of dignity and innocence. (*Names have been changed.)

Freeset is a way of helping women escape a demeaning and exploitative life by giving them work making products which are sold around the world.

Freeset is a fair trade business offering employment to women trapped in Kolkata’s sex trade. We make quality jute bags and organic cotton t-shirts, but our business is freedom!

We would like to see the 10,000 sex workers in our neighborhood empowered with the choice of leaving a profession they never chose in the first place.

I had the privilege of speaking to Kerry on my radio program this morning about the work that Freeset does and their plans for the future. You can hear our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.



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Real Church

Tony Campolo is not your average preacher. Take a look at this video and you’ll understand what I mean.

I spotted this on Brian Eberly’s blog.

Sounds like real church to me.



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