Three of the hundreds of children in Yangon whom you are helping to protect
From the Front Lines of Yangon
Protecting at-risk kids from trafficking in Myanmar’s largest city
Dear Family,
Q: What could be better than rescuing a child from human trafficking or slavery?
A: Preventing them from becoming victims in the first place!
All around the world children live in situations of poverty, neglect, abuse, and without basic education—all prime factors that dramatically increase their risk of becoming trafficked as commodities to satisfy the greed and lust of those who have more power and money.
So in some of the worst places in the world for human trafficking—Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Mexico, Nepal, Laos and the Philippines—we’re helping you protect innocent lives.
In January you sent us to Myanmar, and we’re very excited to now be working in the slums of Yangon, a city of about 4.5 million. Squatting on marshy, flood-prone land across the massive Bago River from the sprawling city’s main shipping port, children are often sold by the day to enter the city for sex or other labor in order to help desperate—and many depraved—families survive.
These are typical homes in the slums where we are working together. It rained just before we arrived—a very rare event for January—and we could only imagine the misery that must fall over these communities during the summer monsoon season.
But you are now doing something about this problem by helping to rent shack-like homes in 8 slum communities to provide a beach-head presence. From each of those footholds, children are invited to eat healthy meals, education (both academic and trafficking prevention), games, basic healthcare, skills training (for teens) and most important of all, they hear the good news of God’s love for them—the transforming power that is vital for changing lives.
Above and below, delightful scenes of kids having fun inside one of our sponsored “light houses” (to borrow a term from our work in Cambodia)
These young women are all learning to sew, a skill that will help meet the needs of their families without being forced to enter the sex industry
This offering of love also touches the hearts of parents, many of whom rent their own children to support their addictions to alcohol or drugs, by beginning the process of transforming communities. It takes time for such eternal impact, but we’re so blessed to have you with us in this battle for the hearts and lives of children!
Serving the Lord with you,
Jeff and Karin Trotter
Directors, Human Trafficking & Slavery Ministry
MORE PHOTOS…
At left, we had to ride a ferry to cross the river from the city of Yangon to two of the slums we visited that day; at right, these girls came to beg from us as we were about to get into a taxi (they were likely part of a begging gang that regularly hit up exiting ferry passengers, which means they had a handler who collects most of the money they receive—another form of trafficking that’s frequently connected to various forms of abuse)
Just a few of the beautiful faces of children in Myanmar (the two at right [and above] have thanaka on their faces, a paste made from ground tree bark that helps protect skin from the sun and is widely used among women and children…and condsidered a “trademark” look of the citizens of the country, especially of the rural and lower economic classes)
