{"id":799,"date":"2010-12-15T13:57:02","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T13:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2010\/12\/girls-for-sale-how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-girls-freedom.html"},"modified":"2010-12-15T13:57:02","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T13:57:02","slug":"girls-for-sale-how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-girls-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/girls-for-sale-how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-girls-freedom.html","title":{"rendered":"Girls for Sale – How Much Would You Pay for a Girl’s Freedom?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man or woman can walk into many countries a pay to free a young girl, many times a minor, from the horrific life of being a sex slave. How much you ask? It depends. It could be, $50, $150, maybe $500. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
That boggles my mind. You mean I could pay $100 for a girl’s freedom? That’s exactly what Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times<\/a> did. He stayed at a seedy hotel and pretended to be a sex tourist and a girl was brought to his room. This is his account of what happened:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Srey Neth claimed to be 18 but looked several years younger. She insisted at first (through my Khmer interpreter) that she was free and not controlled by the guesthouse. But soon she told her real story: a female cousin had arranged her sale and taken her to the guesthouse. Now she was sharing a room with three other prostitutes, and they were all pimped to guests.<\/p>\n

”I can walk around in Poipet, but only with a close relative of the owner,” she said. ”They keep me under close watch.They do not let me go out alone. They’re afraid I would run away.”<\/p>\n

Why not try to escape at night?<\/p>\n

”They would get me back, and something bad would happen. Maybe a beating. I heard that when a group of girls tried to escape, they locked them in the rooms and beat them up.”<\/p>\n

”What about the police?” I asked. ”Couldn’t you call out to the police for help?”<\/p>\n

”The police wouldn’t help me because they get bribes from the brothel owners,” Srey Neth said, adding that senior police officials had come to the guesthouse for sex with her.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

This is the sad story of millions of girls in our world. The think I admire about Kristof is that he cares. He writes numerous articles about trafficking and goes to countries like Cambodia to expose the problem. In this case, he’s thinking about buying the girl’s freedom:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

I asked Srey Neth how much it would cost to buy her freedom. She named an amount equivalent to $150.<\/p>\n

”Do you really want to leave?” I asked. ”Are you sure you wouldn’t come back to this?”<\/p>\n

She had been watching TV and listlessly answering my questions. Now she turned abruptly and snorted. ”This is a hell,” she said sharply, speaking with passion for the first time. ”You think I want to do this?”<\/p>\n

That’s when I made a firm decision I’d been toying with for some time: I would try to buy freedom for these two girls and return them to their families.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what happened. In the meantime, think about this question, “What would you do?”<\/p>\n

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

A man or woman can walk into many countries a pay to free a young girl, many times a minor, from the horrific life of being a sex slave. How much you ask? It depends. It could be, $50, $150, maybe $500.  That boggles my mind. 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. 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