{"id":700,"date":"2010-08-27T10:42:30","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T10:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2010\/08\/how-a-three-year-old-turns-into-a-sex-slave-true-story.html"},"modified":"2010-08-27T10:42:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T10:42:30","slug":"how-a-three-year-old-turns-into-a-sex-slave-true-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/08\/how-a-three-year-old-turns-into-a-sex-slave-true-story.html","title":{"rendered":"How a Three Year Old Turns Into a Sex Slave – True Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Banas<\/a><\/p>\n

\"michaelangelo-feet.jpg\"<\/span><\/div>\n
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What do you see when you look at
\nthis picture? <\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously there are four feet, two
\nfrom an adult and two precious little ones from a toddler.  I bet that you
\nwould never see or assume the truth behind this image, this haunting portrait.
\nThe two little feet that you just see were sold for $60 US Dollars to a
\npimp.  <\/span><\/p>\n

A three-year-old turned sex slave.  His name is Michael Angelo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Navotos, where Michael lives, is a
\ncommunity of 10,000 people who live on top <\/i><\/span>of tombs in a graveyard in the Philippines.  Michael
\nlives in the part of the community that is raised about twelve feet off Manila
\nBay’s polluted waters.  All nine of his family members live in a two-story
\nmakeshift squatter home.  Most of the bottom level is rotted out and can’t
\nbe used.  You get up to the top floor by climbing a slippery ladder and
\nonce you get up to the top, you realize that this family literally has
\nnothing.  Each child has one shirt.  Some don’t even have
\npants.  The baby’s bottom is diaper-less and the severe rash has bubbled
\nhis skin over to look like a thick crust.  Michael spends all day alone in
\nthe house with the baby and his other two-year-old brother while his father and
\nmother go out to try to find work so that they can eat.  His older
\nsiblings are left to govern themselves and find work. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Navotos<\/span><\/p>\n

When the pimp came to the door
\nwith a picture in her hand, the family thought that their luck had
\nchanged.  She promised them that by giving Michael to her they would
\nbecome rich.  She said, “At the age of 20 Michael will come back to
\nyou with a million dollars and you will not have to struggle like this
\nanymore.”  She also promised that Michael would be taken care of and
\ntreated like a king at his new home in Japan.  The exchange was made – a
\nchild for $60.00 – a poor boy turned to “king” in a matter of
\nminutes.   <\/span><\/p>\n

PCF has two schools., one in the
\ndump and the other in the graveyard.  One of the teachers found out about
\nMichael Angelo and notified the social work department at the school. 
\nThree of the social workers decided, despite how scared they were, that they
\nwere going to do something about this tragedy.  They worked tirelessly to
\nfind out all the details.  They discovered that the pimp worked for a
\ncouple that live at and own a bar in Japan.  They also sell children
\nundercover.  The pimp became pregnant herself about four years ago and it
\nwas decided by her boss that she would pimp out her own child when he was
\naround three-years-old.   The time had come for her to give up her
\nson but she could not bring herself to do it.  She took a picture of her
\nson around the Navotos village to find a child that looked like her son. 
\nWhen she found Michael Angelo, she found a way to save her own flesh and blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

The social workers called the
\nmother into the school, sat her down and scared the heck out of her.  They
\ntold her that the adoption was illegal and that she could be put in jail if she
\ndidn’t get the child back.  The conversation took hours before tears
\nstreamed down her eyes because she realized that her child would be used for
\nsexual pleasure by a man four times his size. They said that it took her about
\nanother hour to find the courage to go to the pimp’s house to retrieve her son.<\/span><\/p>\n

On June 15, 2008 at 12:00am, mere
\nhours before the child was scheduled to leave the country and fly to Japan,
\nMichael Angelo was back in [his mother’s] arms. I asked the social worker [if
\nshe thought] she will sell him again.  She shrugged her shoulders and
\nsaid, “We will notify the police to arrest her is she does.  She is
\nstill thinking about that million dollars.” <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I had the pleasure of
\nphotographing Michael Angelo.  He didn’t smile too much.  Perhaps the
\nshock of a white woman with a huge camera and lens planted right on him was a
\nlittle shocking.  His face was severely bruised because he had fallen
\nthrough one of the cracks in the floor. The dark color around his lips is not
\nchocolate; it is dried blood.  I don’t know how [he] survived the fall a twelve-foot
\nfall.  It’s as if the Lord’s hand is on this child.  When I left the
\nrickety house I turned back and saw his little head peaking out of a
\nmakeshift window.  Through his swollen check and black eye he
\nsurprised me with a smile that radiated joy into my entire body. In the frozenness
\nof this scared child I saw a glimmer of hope.  He waved his tiny little
\nhand frantically from side to side in such excitement as he sent me off in a
\nheart-felt joyful goodbye. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"window<\/span><\/p>\n

I stopped by the house one more
\ntime before leaving to see if I could find the mother and tell her that there
\nwas no million dollars, but we couldn’t find her anywhere. Michael was alone in
\nthe house with his two other siblings. This time, I captured his little head
\npeaking out for you.  So you will remember him.  Remember his bruises
\nand his face.  Remember that he was sold and then saved. Remember him,
\npray for him, and give your money to send missionaries to do the work of
\ngetting children like him out of danger and back in the Father’s arms!<\/span><\/p>\n

Want to make a HUGE difference and go on a trip that helps children caught in the sex trade? Then <\/span>Please click here to find out how you can go.<\/a> You’re life will never be the same.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Banas What do you see when you look at this picture?  Obviously there are four feet, two from an adult and two precious little ones from a toddler.  I bet that you would never see or assume the truth behind this image, this haunting portrait. The two little feet that you just see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-trafficking"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a Three Year Old Turns Into a Sex Slave - True Story - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/08\/how-a-three-year-old-turns-into-a-sex-slave-true-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Three Year Old Turns Into a Sex Slave - True Story - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Melissa Banas What do you see when you look at this picture?  Obviously there are four feet, two from an adult and two precious little ones from a toddler.  I bet that you would never see or assume the truth behind this image, this haunting portrait. 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He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}