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Understanding
a situation that seems ununderstandable sometimes leads us to action:
and so please continue reading and I challenge you to pray into this
article that you, too, will have a greater understanding and heart and
compassion for those who so desperately need to know God's Love through
you.
My definition of human trafficking is “the exploitation of vulnerability”. Human trafficking equals the exploitation of vulnerability.
So why are people vulnerable to the victimization of human trafficking?
My own experience and research points to 3 major broad categories. They
all overlap in some ways, but I believe that these 3 categories
illustrate the majority of reasons for vulnerability and victimization.
1) The first is the most obvious: economic hard-ship. Poverty. But not
all impoverished women and girls work in prostitution. Twenty-five
years ago, when I was first meeting Thai women and girls in
prostitution in Bangkok, they told me that they were working in
prostitution in order to send money home to their mothers and fathers
and to support their brothers and sisters. They were providing food and
new houses and vehicles and school fees for their families. They would
tell me that they were “sacrificing” themselves for their families.
They were raised from birth to be-lieve that the value of their life
was dependent on how much money they could make for their families. Their
families’ economic difficulty combined with the cultural value of
obligation to the family creates vulnerability that is exploited. In
many community-based cultures around the world, including some cultures
in Europe, the girl child is raised with this value - that she is
economically responsible for her family. And if she has little or no
education, and sees prostitution as the way to make the most money
possible for her family, then she will sacrifice herself in this way.
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2)
If poverty and culture are exploited in developing countries, then why
are there so many women and young girls who are victims of human
trafficking and prostitution in developed countries? The second
vulnerability factor is the incidence of childhood sexual abuse. In
my own country, the USA, as many as 70-95% of those working in
prostitution have been sexually abused as children in their families or
communities. Sexual abuse does inestimable harm to the soul of young
person. Children who have been abused live with immense sexual
confusion which can lead to their identities being defined by sexual
expression.
In the USA, Canada and the UK, drug abuse and prostitution very often
go hand in hand. People often say, “they're working to support drug
habits”. That may be true. Often, drugs are used to numb the emotional
pain of an abusive childhood and result in the downward spiral of
addiction to both the drugs and to the prostitution that supports the
habit. In some cases, the pimps have forced the drug abuse in order to
keep the girls and women dependent and in an endless cycle of working
for drugs and providing money for him.
3)
For a number of years, I only used the 2 broad catego-ries of
poverty/culture and childhood sexual abuse that I have just named to
de-scribe vulnerability factors. And then I was confronted by a dear
Christian woman in a wealthy country who chastised me: “My daughter is
also a victim of human traf-ficking and prostitution” she told me. “And
she is neither poor nor was she abused. Rather she was “groomed” into
prostitution by a man who developed a relationship with her with the
goal that he would become her pimp and have her working in
prostitution.” I learned from this broken-hearted woman that I must
include the category of “grooming” to describe a 3rd major vulnerability factor.
In The Netherlands, those who “groom” teen-age girls into prostitution
are called “lover-boys” by those girls. However, there's no true “love”
involved - only exploitation. “Lover-boys” hang around places where
teen-age girls would be: on the edge of high school grounds or shopping
malls, at discothèques or beaches. They compliment the girls as they
walk past: “oh you're so beautiful”. If the girl has a strong sense of
self-esteem, she will just say “thanks!” and keep walking. But a girl
who doesn't hear many compliments, who has low self-esteem, will stop,
the compliments will continue, dates will be made and the “lover-boy”
knows that he has her hooked. He will do everything to convince her
that he is her only love, that her family and friends don't love her as
much as he does, and in this way, he attempts to isolate her from her
primary relationships. A sexual relationship develops, and thereafter,
he convinces her that she should have sex with his friends. There may
be gang-rape. And then comes the moment when all of the sudden he has
no money. And, he continues, since she's had sex with so many men
already, working in prostitution will not be any different and will
solve all their financial problems. She comes to believe that the more
money she makes for him, the more he will love her, or love her again.
By this time, she's found out that he has 3 or 4 or 5 other women
working for him but she's sure that she's the one he loves the most.
“Grooming” girls into prostitution as a form of human trafficking was
previously an invisible phenomenon and certainly wasn't identified as
trafficking. Many people wanted to believe that since the women were
not chained to the brothels and could walk away at any time, they had
obviously “chosen” to work there. And yes, there is an element of
“choice”. But I always say that “choice” has a very thin veneer.
Scratch the thin surface of “choice” and you find the story behind the
story of woundedness and helplessness and hopelessness. I know that I,
personally, had little self-esteem when I was 15 or 16 years old, and
am thankful that, by the Grace of God, no one set out to groom me into
prostitution!
Dear Sisters, I pray:
- that the more deeply you understand the women (and men) who are
victims of trafficking/prostitution that you see and hear about, the
more compassion you will feel.
- that YOU will pray that God will continue to raise up individuals who
are Called to offer God's Unconditional Love to those who are trapped.
Please Pray for your EBF
Anti-Trafficking Network, meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, August
23-25. Pray that more and more Believers in this part of the world will
have a compassionate heart for victims of human
trafficking/prostitution and feel led to creatively minister in
Christ's name to their needs.
Love and Blessings to All!
Lauran
Rev. Lauran Bethell serves as Global
Consultant, helping Christians to minister in Christ’s name to victims
of human trafficking and prostitution.
She is a missionary with International Ministries ABC/USA, and is based in The Netherlands.
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