Greyman Blog

Northern Thailand.
My wife and I are sitting on the verandah of the trekking lodge that Grey Man provided the initial funding for and was then finished with help from Nike, Thailand. We are taking a break from our hectic schedule of checking on Grey Man projects and kicking back with a cup of coffee and admiring the view. As the sounds of the village below drift up to us I have a chance to reflect on what can be accomplished when people who care enough choose to take action.

The trekking lodge

A few years ago this village was very poor and had the unenviable statistic of having the highest incidence of AIDS in Thailand.  Sad but true. Our friend Sila took me to the bamboo grove just outside the  vllage where they bury their dead.  So many gravesites, so many deaths from AIDS.  So many good people.  Young girls lured to the cities and into prostitution, trafficked often by relatives or people they knew.

Every time I pass a certain house in the village which is more elegant than the bamboo huts surrounding it I am reminded of the girl who went to Bangkok to work in a karaoke bar , only to catch HIV and come back to the village to die. This house is the one she built for her mother before she died.

However, in just a few short years, our partner agency Kids Ark has helped turn the statistics around through education, HIV/AIDS awareness and alternative income sources. Each time I come here the village quality of life has improved just a little bit more.

One view from the verandah of the lodge

This trekking lodge that Grey Man started now provides full-time income for one family and part-time income for another 23 families, including 3 school-girls (Nana (12), Ima (12) and May(11)) who help with the cooking. It also contributes funds to the community health centre, the village temple, regular sports days for the school kids, upkeep of the toilets, and assists with taking trekkers and locals to the district hospital if sickness or injuries occur.

Our initiatives to transport kids to school and support kids education, including assistance to their families, in this and other villages has reduced the chances of trafficking to virtually zero.

One of our school buses

Think on this. These initiatives were started by people who took action even when the obstacles were daunting. They were never ready to change the world but they did change it for this village. You will never be smart enough, capable enough, organized enough or strong enough to make a difference in the world……so stop waiting till you are and just do it anyway:-)

John.

Grey Man received intelligence in March, 2006 about a pimp (a lady boy, trans-sexual called Nom) who was offering underage girls.  A sting operation was put in place and he turned up with a number of under-aged girls but unfortunately got cold feet and left before the operation was concluded. 

Two years later after receiving intelligence from a reliable source we again came across the pimp and again attempted a sting.  It took our operatives 6 months to build trust and we had to accept over-aged (over 18) girls during this time (no sex was involved) and found that all of them had become sex workers because they were in debt to the pimp.  Even when some of them had paid off their debt they were too frightened to leave and many showed us the signs of physical abuse from Nom that kept them working for him.

In October, last year, Nom finally offered us a young girl.  He said she was a grade 8 school girl (aged 14) and asked for 3500 Thai baht ($US100) for short-term sex (1 hour) with her.  Grey Man authorised our operatives to conduct a sting operation in conjunction with local police.  Unfortunately, Nom turned up with a girl who was not a school-girl at all.  We were sick of dealing with him by this stage and decided to get him off the streets once and for all and to protect the girls that were indebted to him and whom he had abused.

The sting went ahead and Nom was arrested.  From her Thai ID card the girl turned out to be 21 years old. She stated the reason she ended up as a sex worker was because she owed Nom money that she borrowed to pay for her education.  We asked a social worker to contact her parents and she was taken back to her family.

Police and Grey Man personnel arresting Nom the pimp

Although our brief is the rescue of children from the sex trade, we will also rescue adult women from sex work if they have been trafficked or forced into it.  We will also rescue those trafficked into other abusive forms of labour if the situation presents itself.  This case took some time but in the end we got an abusive pimp off the streets (he is awaiting trial), rescued a woman from prostitution and also freed her and her friends from debt bondage and the abuse of Nom.  This case took up a lot of Grey Man resources but demonstrates that we will pursue the perpetrators and rescue the victims wherever the opportunity presents itself.

John

I want to introduce you today to one of the heroes of anti-trafficking.  Her name is Somaly Mam.  She was trafficked into a brothel around the age of 11 and was beaten, raped and tortured but she survived.  She went on to become a champion of children and has rescued over 4000 children from the sex trade.  Grey Man operatives have worked with her organisation AFESIP in Thailand and we hope to work with her people even more in the future, but for now I’d like you to view the video of Somaly and realise what one person can do against overwhelming odds.

We realised a long-time back that rescuing children was not enough.  The real answer lies in giving children a future and that requires education.  Ethnic minority children often do not go to school or for only a minimal time.  This leads to lower employment prospects in the future.  To combat this issue we partnered with Kid’s Ark Foundation  in Thailand.  Their main focus is the support and care of AIDS orphans but they also have provided education to hundreds of children.

We liked their style and their philosophy.  They made financial support for a family conditional on the children attending school.  If the children were removed from school to be trafficked or for any other reason the money stopped coming.  This works very well and all of the children supported this way remain in school.  Grey Man started our prevention programme by supporting 28 families in one of the Lahu hill-tribe villages.  We continue this but have since expanded into providing transport for 100 children spread across three villages.  Without this transport many of these children would never receive an education. 

Motorbike donated by The Grey Man

We have also provided a motorbike for one child shelter that will allow the social workers to take information on trafficking to the villages at risk and will be used to travel to the families of trafficking victims to discuss re-integration into the family. 

Kru Nam is one of our favourite people so we have just provided the final payment for a truck to take Burmese ethnic minority kids from Kru Nam’s shelter to school. 

These two last projects were accomplished in partnership with Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS).  They are all small steps but have the potential to create a major impact in the life of these children.