austraLasia 1658
Spain's El Pais notes DB Poipet's role in fighting child exploitation
MADRID: 30th September 2006 -- Spain's widest-circulation Daily, El Pais, ran an article on 9th September on the situation in Cambodia relating to the exploitation of children. Columnist Lola Huetes Machado analyses the problems which involve children in a range of exploitative activities by adults, often close relatives or friends and also tourists. She included in her process of consultation and research the Don Bosco Shelter for trafficked and street children in Poipet.
According to the El Pais report, there are some 4 million women and 2 million children worldwide caught up in a network of trafficking, and Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable locations in that phenomenon. Quoting a Salesian who shares responsibility for the Poipet DB Shelter, the article says that "mafias look for children in the villages, promise money to parents (that never comes), and the children are lost forever". A number of children from the Shelter were interviewed by El Pais. The interviews hint at the situation, the veritable 'slavery' faced by so many children: "I used to ask for money in Bangkok with my mother, and sometimes we worked on construction sites but she died", said a 7-year-old girl at the Centre. A 15-year-old boy relates that "The police arrested me in Bangkok. I was in prison with many adults. I used to sell sweets that my owner gave me". Another boy, 14, says that "We worked with some men. I didn't know my parents. I used to sell flowers in Bangkok. If I did not bring money they put me in a tank of water. A woman called the police. They knew I was Cambodian and brought me here".
Cambodia has become a paradise for the wrong kind of tourism, notes El Pais, a reputation that the Government, international organisations and local communities try to fight. Don Bosco Poipet is one of them but not alone. It networks with many of the other organisations fighting Cambodia's most serious evil.
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
Spain's El Pais notes DB Poipet's role in fighting child exploitation
MADRID: 30th September 2006 -- Spain's widest-circulation Daily, El Pais, ran an article on 9th September on the situation in Cambodia relating to the exploitation of children. Columnist Lola Huetes Machado analyses the problems which involve children in a range of exploitative activities by adults, often close relatives or friends and also tourists. She included in her process of consultation and research the Don Bosco Shelter for trafficked and street children in Poipet.
According to the El Pais report, there are some 4 million women and 2 million children worldwide caught up in a network of trafficking, and Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable locations in that phenomenon. Quoting a Salesian who shares responsibility for the Poipet DB Shelter, the article says that "mafias look for children in the villages, promise money to parents (that never comes), and the children are lost forever". A number of children from the Shelter were interviewed by El Pais. The interviews hint at the situation, the veritable 'slavery' faced by so many children: "I used to ask for money in Bangkok with my mother, and sometimes we worked on construction sites but she died", said a 7-year-old girl at the Centre. A 15-year-old boy relates that "The police arrested me in Bangkok. I was in prison with many adults. I used to sell sweets that my owner gave me". Another boy, 14, says that "We worked with some men. I didn't know my parents. I used to sell flowers in Bangkok. If I did not bring money they put me in a tank of water. A woman called the police. They knew I was Cambodian and brought me here".
Cambodia has become a paradise for the wrong kind of tourism, notes El Pais, a reputation that the Government, international organisations and local communities try to fight. Don Bosco Poipet is one of them but not alone. It networks with many of the other organisations fighting Cambodia's most serious evil.
___________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
