Extreme Operations: Heartbreak

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Heartbreak

The young bar-girl Lynn was talking to decided not to come to XP's training centre. Lynn was in tears, telling us. Too afraid to trust the hand held out, she had decided to stay with the high-risk but more familiar environment in which she found herself.

That she did so is not as surprising as it seems at first glance. It is the proverbial frying pan and the fire situation. Yes, she knew she was in danger. But what she didn't know was whether or not she would be in greater danger if she went with this friendly white Western woman. Young women are trafficked to Thailand, Malaysia and further afield from Cambodia, lured by promises of work and development opportunities. How was she to know that this promised 'Everlasting Love' training program was not a trap?

The statistics are sobering. Rescue agencies tell us that for every girl saved from sexual exploitation, 99 are not. Needless to say, this situation has to change. Outreach is an important part of the task of building relationship and trust so that girls have confidence and know where to go for help.

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How to Use this Blog - for new users

This blog describes thoughts, experiences, discoveries and impressions during short term assignments in Brazil, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. These are entirely my own perceptions, and as such, may be inaccurate or misinformed at times. In no way should any of the agencies or people I work with be held responsible for any errors of information. As far as possible I try to make sure that inaccuracies are addressed when they are pointed out. Meanwhile, please forgive my ignorance.... I have so much to learn.

There is a lot of information about poverty, street children and human trafficking in general, and about the work of specific charities and organisations working to address it.

I have also included my notes from the various teaching sessions we had during XP's training schools: 'Operation Justice' (Cambodia) and 'Operation Extreme Love' (Thailand) of 2012, along with some notes from training sessions with Richard & Ingela Larsson Smith, who run 'Horses for Orphans' in Brazil.

Unlike websites, blogs run back to front, so if you want the whole story it will be useful to use the Blog Archive and read in date order, beginning in May 2012.

And if you scroll down, there is a 'search' option below, helpful if you want to know about a specific issue or country. Just type in a keyword and you will be shown where that word appears in the blog.