Thursday, June 14, 2012

Modern-day slavery


Powerful video about sex trafficking and modern slavery around the world.  Thank you to Daisy Nunez for sharing this with us!  Please continue to pray for our ministry!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Cycle of Poverty and Prostitution


Photos taken in Sosua, Dominican Republic, a town with a booming sex trade.  This town is one of the major hubs here for sex tourism.  Photos by Jessica Ensing Photography.

When I share my messages, stories, and videos about child prostitution with friends, family, acquaintances, and the world wide web, the responses I get vary, but there is a general sense of surprise, disgust, shock, horror, and a desire to help.  People say "I can't believe that could ever happen" and "That's so awful" and "I'm so happy for what you're doing".  Trying to imagine a sweet innocent child as precious as the ones in our video forced into a life of prostitution is something that breaks all of our hearts and makes us want to help each of them.

But what about adult women in prostitution?  That subject is one often met entirely differently.  I've seen people point, laugh, make jokes, and use synonym words for adult prostitutes as a slang or derogatory term.  When sharing about wanting to help these women, I've been met with "It's her choice", "If she didn't want to do it, she wouldn't do it", and "She's making good money, why interfere?".  Some of the tourists who come here and buy prostitutes have actually felt they were helping these women by paying them a good fare.

Here is the thing that they don't know. 

Almost all of the women who now prostitute were raped and/or sexually abused as children.  Most of them were forced into becoming prostitutes when they were just children.  They learn this trade skill young instead of going to school, and after a few years, all other options they had ever hoped for seem to fade away for them.  Many of them start having their own children as teens, young teens, and they continue prostituting as a means for providing for their families.  Not because it was what they had dreamed and aspired to as a lifelong career, but because they love their children and want to care for them.  Their lives are not easy.  I have had women roll up their shirt sleeves and pant legs to show me scars from men who have cut them and beat them.  And these are only the physical scars.  The emotional scars run far deeper than the eye can see.

Let me tell you the story of A (name will remain unidentified), a woman who we discussed during our ministry meeting this week who our team has been working with.  A grew up in a severely abusive home.  Her brother died young of AIDS.  Her older sister became a drug addict and once tried to kill her.  Her mother abandoned her.  She became pregnant at the age of 12 and was "married off" to the older man who impregnated her.  She was forced to start prostituting to provide for her baby before I ever took my first communion or had my first period.  She didn't choose this life.  She didn't pick it for herself.  Now A is 28 years old with 3 children and is trying to turn her life around.  When asked about her prostituting, she feels ashamed and sad.  But she is trying to do something about it.  A is enrolled in university now in Santo Domingo studying tourism with the hope she will someday get a job in one of the resorts here.  She prostitutes on weekends and school breaks to make her tuition payments, in the hope that someday she will leave prostitution forever. This will help A to break a continuous cycle in her family that is so common here in the DR.  A cycle which could affect A's own children if she wasn't making the choice and putting forth the effort to do something to stop it.

We also learned a similar story this week of a woman named E.  Another woman who desperately wants to leave prostitution and make a better life for herself.  Different details, but the same strong desire for a new start.

Your prayers and support go to help these women start over.  And whether at the age of 8 or 28 or even 88, I think every person in the world deserves that fresh start.  A fresh start at reaching their dreams and living a safe and fulfilling life.


Will you take a moment right now to please pray for these two women who hope and dream for a new life and a better future?  Please pray for our team to have the strength and wisdom to help them in making a fresh start.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.  It is making all the difference to women like A and E to have a new start in reaching their dreams.


Monday, June 4, 2012

Pajama Party!


This past Saturday night, I had a pajama party with the girls from Templo Bautista Church, who are also from our former neighborhood, Barrio Cristo Rey.  Many children from this neighborhood live in poverty and are highly at-risk for physical and sexual abuse, rape, incest, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school.  Since we moved from Cristo Rey across town, I don't get to see these pretty little faces on my doorstep each night when I come home from work and I miss these kids tremendously.  And since baby girl will take over my life soon but for now is taking her sweet time, I thought this would be the perfect weekend for a sleepover party before baby girl arrives.

Of course, our sleepover consisted of all the fun things they usually do.  We ate pizza, went out for ice cream, danced and played in the park, played hide-and-go-seek and UNO, painted nails, colored pictures, and stayed up late watching Ice Age 2 on the laptop.  The girls played dress-up in my clothes and enjoyed borrowing my pajamas (which they had to tie up with hair ties to hold them up :)  But I also spent time talking to the girls about their rights as females, about Christian dating, and about what true love means.  I know you're probably thinking they look really young for this.  And yes I'd think so too.  But they take it all in and then pour out their feelings and stories.  One of these stories including a girl from their neighborhood who was repeatedly raped at the age of 9, and who now is pregnant at the age of 10.  And I think, I didn't even know what the word rape meant when I was 9 and was just feeling ready for pregnancy this year at the age of 29.  How can this possibly happen to a 4th grader?  But to these girls, it is all too familiar.  Elissa Duncan, who has been helping with our ministry over the past year, made up these awesome "Priceless Bills" and had them laminated to give to girls in the area.  These bills give girls guidelines to follow and remind them that they are priceless gifts from God who can never be purchased for any amount of money.  Their value and beauty is infinite and they are not property to be sold or purchased.  It also includes a drawing of a young girl wearing a leotard/bathing suit that says over it "Not to touch" so girls can learn about what parts of their bodies are private and should stay protected.  The girls cherished these bills and were excited taking them home with them as gifts from the sleepover.  No goody bags or gift bags, just a laminated piece of paper, but they read over each word carefully and carried them proudly with them out the door.  Thanks Elissa for sharing these, and for the difference you have made to so many girls around Jarabacoa by creating these "Priceless Bills"!

I can never emphasize enough how important it is to teach these girls their value and personal rights when they are YOUNG.  Our ministry is currently planning to teach workshops in the fall regarding sexual education and personal protection of their bodies.  I remember both as a student and teacher in Michigan, these assemblies were provided for us by professionals and we didn't have to worry about planning something ourselves.  But in this country where abuse, rape, and incest are so rampant and this kind of education is rare, it is so important to educate these girls of their personal rights.

In the meantime, my heart will continue to break for all of the stories I hear each day and I will pray for the protection and healing of the girls in each of these cases.  Will you join me in praying for this too?

Thank you to each person reading this for following us and teaming with us.  Please read and print this "Bill of Rights" to share with girls wherever YOU are to prevent abuse, rape, and trafficking.  Please continue to share with others and follow our Alliance! :)

Kristin and the Alianza team