Child Trafficking Prevention Program

Ratanak International funds a Child Trafficking Prevention Program through our partner agency, Chab Dai, at the community level in many rural villages and most border provinces from where the kids are sold.  This program works to educate, enable, and strengthen children and their families regarding the perils of trafficking.  It serves to educate communities regard the methods used by human traffickers, and there are intervention and follow up strategies for those who have already been abused or trafficked.  Advocacy, speaking up for and with these children, is essential – to plant the seed of change within Cambodia and beyond.

This is a low-key indigenous program where westerners are not directly involved. The sense of pride and ownership expressed by the Cambodian program staff is clear in their actions and enthusiasm.

Post revolutionary Cambodia has no clue about the concept of basic human rights. There is no understanding of the value of a child or any other human being for that matter. The rules of survival are all that matter. There is no understanding of what “child trafficking” actually is. In this context traffickers can move into villages and buy kids from desperately poor parents with ease. We were astonished to find the practice of selling kids even within the church. Pastors hearing about the problem of “trafficking” would stare in disbelief and comment how they also had delivered children to the “nice white men” who seemed so friendly and who gave money to the kids! We realized that many Cambodian Church pastors were particularly vulnerable since their only exposure to white males had been missionaries who served and loved the people. It was hard for them to come to terms with the fact that there were seriously evil Caucasians in Cambodia also.

     So a teaching program was developed to educate first the church and then the wider community regarding these issues. The training consists of a four day course. Covering topics such as: What is trafficking? Who are the victims? Is trafficking illegal? Why are children trafficked? Traffickers Strategy, Law and human rights, The biblical view of the law, Child protection strategies, and Understanding God’s heart for Children.