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 Posté le: Lun Aoû 26, 2013 1:42 pm Sujet du message: abusing more drugs |
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{A guiding light}
Food, fun and new work opportunities are produced during the popular baking classes.Oi managed to leave the sex trade, but his life took a tragic turn four years ago when his stepfather sold his four-year-old sister because he said Oi wasn't sending enough money home for him to take care of both siblings. Despite both Russell's and Oi's efforts to track her down, she is still missing."That was Oi's destruction. He started drinking more, abusing more drugs, and his younger brother came to Chiang Mai and fell into prostitution," she says.Oi is now serving a three-year jail term for stealing money from a man who took him home when he went back into sex work to earn more money.But while Oi continues to fight his battle with the help of the Urban Light team, there are many happy stories to come out of the centre, such as that of O*. O is also from an Akha hilltribe north of Chiang Mai, which is typical of many boys working in the city's red-light district. When his father was killed, his mother sent his sister to Chiang Mai to work in a karaoke bar. As she got older and then married, four years ago it became O's turn to go to the city to support his family. At the time, he was 19."When I first came to Chiang Mai, I was looking for a job. I had friends from the same village here. They said, 'You don't have to do a hard job if you don't want to. I'll take you to the bar'."It was there his friends introduced him to men for the purpose of working in the sex trade, and that was the beginning of O's source of income."I wasn't expecting to do this kind of job when I came to Chiang Mai. I believed them that I would just work in the bar. [But] I needed the money and I didn't have any choices to do other work like working at a restaurant. We have family to take care of and have to send them money, and 6,Michael Kors Purses,000-8,000 [per month] _ that's not enough," he says.As most hilltribe children are raised to earn money for their families, their low education levels often prove a hindrance to finding work outside their village."There is no way to find a good job, so they have to work in massage places or go to bars to send money back to their family. They can make 10,000-15,000 baht [per month]. When they see that they can make money this way, they do it so they can take care of their family," O says."No one wants to do it,michael kors canada, but they have to. I needed the money for myself and my family _ I wanted to go back to school, but I couldn't. I didn't know what to do."I felt very bad. Sometimes I felt like I was just an object, not a human."While O was working in the bars, it was Oi who introduced him to Urban Light, who in turn sent him to English language school. He now speaks fluent English, is employed in the prevention of human trafficking and exploitation in northern Thailand, is putting his sisters through school and university, is passionate about playing frisbee and has plans to promote the value of education in his home village."I have new friends, I have a new world. I can see the other side of the world that I used to see before. I definitely know that I'm going to have a better future than before," he says.But Russell adds there is a long way to go to help the many other people in the same situation as Oi and O were, and that there are increasingly new ways in which children and young people are being exploited."Some organisations say sex trafficking has diminished. Child prostitution has not diminished _ it's been cloaked. Some bars are shutting down, but what we see is that they're opening up in different industries."Now [some of] the internet shops are huge where they lure kids in with 10 baht games for an hour. All these kids are street kids and at risk. These internet shops have back rooms where these boys can participate in child pornography and online sex chats on the spot. So we're not going to have access to those places, but for people to say it's not there _ it's entirely there."*Name has been changed.Urban Light drop-in centre.The centre also provides health checks for youths. |
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