City: Poipet, Cambodia
Project: Children's Village - Safe  Haven
Partner: Cambodian Hope Organization

In partnership with Hope for the Nations and Cambodian Hope Organization, Be A HERO has completed Stage 1 of the children’s village in Poipet - a children’s home for 24 at-risk children. The Children’s Village is desperately needed to enable the rescue of children before they fall victims of kidnapping and trafficking.

City: Poipet, Cambodia
Project:  Safe Haven Children's Village
Partner: Cambodia Hope Organization

Safe Haven Children’s Village has six children’s home each for 8 at-risk children and one mother. The Children’s Village was desperately needed to enable the rescue of children before they fall victims of kidnapping and trafficking. Five hectares of land has been purchased to facilitate this project.

City:  Miraj, India
Project:  Night Creche & Computer School
Partner:  Homes of Hope International

The city of Miraj is located approximately 400km's south of Mumbai and is home to over 500 commercial sex workers. Miraj has one of the highest incidences of HIV/Aids in India.

The Night Crèche project will increase protection for these children at risk through a safe place for them to sleep at night, assistance with homework, teaching personal boundaries and health, a meal, seminars for their mothers, and access to a social worker and assessment services that will determine when a high risk child needs to be taken into full time care. Furthermore, the Night Crèche project will also conduct a computer school for primary and high school age children to give them skills that will enable them to find employment, or pursue tertiary education, upon completing high school.

City: Svay Pak, Cambodia
Project: Vocational Training
Partner: Agape International Ministries

Svay Pak is known as the prostitution capital of Phnom Penh. Be A HERO is working in Svay Pak to eradicate prostitution, human trafficking and slave labour by partnering in a vocational training facility which rescues the girls, rehabilitates them and then teaches sewing, English and Khmer literacy and numeracy, bible study, personal care and values.  The girls are employed in the sewing business which is providing them with good wages, working conditions and sustainability.

In the cities, neglected and abandoned children find themselves in the streets fending for themselves and vulnerable to the various evils of the urban jungle such as drug addiction, crimes and commercial sexual exploitation. Children who are neglected or abandoned are easy prey not only to accidents but to commercial sexual exploitation, drugs, crime and unwanted pregnancies.   Incidents of child abuse is still on the rise especially child sexual abuse. Also on the rise are reports of physical abuse and maltreatment of children. According to the statistics, there are approximately 40,000 to 50,000 street children of all categories in Metro Manila.  Studies conducted reveal that the number of street children range from 2 to 3% of the child and adult population.  The national project on street children estimated the number of street children at over 220,000 in 65 major cities as of 1993.   There are now about 350 government and non government agencies that are responding to street children and their families.  The government has given special focus on helping street children with programs focused on health and nutrition, educational assistance, parenting sessions, livelihood and skills training, residential care, foster care and adoption. However for as long as there would be squatter colonies sprouting in urban areas and for as long as there are not enough jobs, street children will continue to dominate in the streets.   In a 1993 survey of households, some 16% of households surveyed have children below 12 years old who are left unattended with no supervising adult in the house. This translates to one in six households where children are without adult supervision.  

Current efforts to fight child abuse are focused on tri-media campaign, information dissemination, raising awareness in the family, school and community of the evils of child abuse.  There is also a need for a more systematic effort at helping victims deal with the psychological trauma and scars of child abuse through proper psychological counseling programs that target not only the abused child but the family as well.

Background

The growing number of street children found in urban areas has long been a concern of the government.  Continuing efforts by the government and non-government agencies to provide services for both the street children and their families never seem to be enough. Street children are the largest number of vulnerable and exploited children in many countries with ages ranging from 5-18 years old. These children ply the sidewalks in a desperate attempt to eke out a living.   The Salvation Army Joyville Children’s Home is a rehabilitation center located in Pantay Road, Barangay Bukal, Tanay, Rizal, South of Manila. It is an ideal place for rehabilitation program because it is far from the city and the facilities offer better opportunities for wholesome development.     The major issues facing the children of this region are:-      Hunger & Poverty
    Diseases
    Natural Disasters
    Exploitation & Discrimination.

Hunger & Poverty   

In Metro Manila, where population growth, urbanization and migration continuously increase, children are often forced by circumstances to help their families earn a living. Most street children are of poor parents who have migrated from rural areas to find better job opportunities in the city, but lack of education renders them ill-equipped to earn or survive in the city.  Current population projections for July 2007 are 91 077 287 people, of this 31 458 591 or 34.5 % are children.    Statistics from the World Fact book, note that the percentage of the population of the Philippines who are living below the poverty line is 40%. The unemployment rate from the same source states that as at 2006 the rate is 7.9% of the population or approximately 7 200 000 persons. For comparison that is 1/3 of the Australian Population. The Philippines public debt is estimated to be 61.6% of their GDP. (1)   (1) Ref: (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/)  

Diseases

“Every minute of every day, a child under the age of 15 becomes infected with HIV”.  (1) Many diseases affect the children of the Philippines the most prevalent are HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Dengue Fever, Malaria and Bacterial Diarrhoea.   Of the 15 years to 49 years age group there are believed to be 7 195 105 people affected with the HIV/Aids virus. (2)  

(1) Ref:  http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data (2) Ref:  http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data  

Natural Disasters

The Philippines lie within the typhoon belt for this region. There is an average of 15 typhoons per year and 5-6 cyclonic storms affect this area as well. Mudslides caused by the uncontrolled deforestation of the area also contribute to the natural disasters of the area along with landslides, active volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. (1)  

(1) Ref:  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Exploitation & Discrimination  

    Child sexual abuse remains controversial, the most concealed and under reported form of sexual abuse. To date, reported cases of sexual abuse and exploitation of children are increasing. In 1997, the reported cases of child abuse received by the Department of Social Welfare and Development were 4,394 - 53% of which were sexually abused.  The real extent of this problem is greater than what statistics show because of a number of unreported cases.
      Accurate figures for trafficking are difficult to obtain due to the illicit & illegal nature of the practice.
    It was estimated by the UN in 2003, that over 1 million children are being illegally involved around the world in Child Sex Trafficking.  It is more than likely this figure has increased according to past data information.  Of this number one third are believed to come from the Asia region and a significant majority of these are young girls between the ages of 12 – 18 years old.”
    Prostitution exists in nearly all the Countries of the World… “It is exacerbated by economic & social upheaval, extreme poverty, deprivation and excessive consumerism”… (2)
    You can, for $ 1.00 (AUS) buy a 12 year old girl off the street and own her for the night; she will be yours to do whatever you want.
    The demand for domestic servants, cheap labour, adoption, prostitution, and pornography are what drives the illegal practices of human trafficking. (1)
    The street child works under the heat of the sun or in the dark of the night from 6 to 16 hours, seven days a week, often in a combination of “occupations” each considered their only means to survive. Street children have a bleak present and an uncertain future.  Life in the street is a constant struggle to overcome the various negative elements that threaten to overtake and destroy the hope for survival.  In the cities, neglected and abandoned children find themselves in the streets fending for themselves and vulnerable to the various evils of the urban jungle such as drug addiction, crimes and commercial sexual exploitation. Children who are neglected or abandoned are easy prey not only to accidents but to commercial sexual exploitation, drugs, crime and unwanted pregnancies.

  (1) Ref:  http://www.childwise.net. (2) Ref:  http://www.crin.org/themes/ViewTheme.

• An estimated 10 million children have been forced into the sex industry
• About 500 million children live with debilitating hunger
• 134 million children have no access to any school whatsoever
• 15 million children are orphaned as a result of AIDS
• 246 million children work, with 171 million engaged in the worst forms of child labour
• 265 million children have not been immunized against any disease
• Over one third of children have to live in dwellings with more than five people per room
• Over half a billion children have no toilet facilities whatsoever
• Almost half a billion children lack access to published information of any kind
• 376 million children have more than a 15-minute walk to water and or are using unsafe water sources
• 300,000 young people are exploited as child soldiers

The UN ranks Cambodia as one of the world’s poorest countries and the people of Poipet have very little. As a border town Poipet is home to many Cambodians who hope to find work in Thailand. Most fail, and are relegated to the huge slum communities, becoming drawn into the town’s underground world of illegal gambling, prostitution, and sex trafficking. At particular risk are the 300 street children who daily carry packages across the border for the equivalent of only seven cents per delivery, sleeping in the open at night. Many of these children are kidnapped, trafficked across borders, and forced to work in the international sex trade.

City:  Phnom Penh
Project: Vocational training
Partner:  Empowering Cambodia

This project has a heart to equip, empower and enrich the lives of the Cambodian people by providing long term solutions through the provision of quality development projects and is one of the centres supported by the HERO Shop.

Program beneficiaries bring with them a number of issues resulting from their circumstances, which include, but are not limited to children and youth who are living in extreme poverty, victims of sex trafficking, rape, domestic violence and addictions; children, youth and adults living with HIV; orphans either due to death, abandonment or poverty; and child headed households and labourers.

Add your voice to Stop Human Trafficking through Stop the Traffik Australia

Warning: Some of the content of this article is disturbing - reporting treatment of trafficking victims.

What is human trafficking? According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), human trafficking is defined as, "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation."

Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely populated countries, with its people crammed into a delta of rivers that empties into the Bay of Bengal.

Poverty is deep and widespread; almost half of the population live on less than one dollar a day. However, Bangladesh has reduced population growth and improved health and education.

171,000 children under five die in Bangladesh every year. Unclean water, contagious diseases, pneumonia and poor nutrition take their toll. In a country with 11% inflation and growing inequality, keeping children alive and healthy is a huge challenge.

The major employer is agriculture, but it is unable to meet the demand for jobs. So, many Bangladeshis - in common with citizens from other countries in the region - seek work abroad, sometimes illegally.

The low-lying country is vulnerable to flooding and cyclones and it stands to be badly affected by predicted rises in sea levels.

Often children are used in the production of the tea, coffee, chocolate and other items we use daily and give to our own children (like easter eggs).  Other industries (like clothing) use slave labour and exploitation to bring us cheap merchandise.

The FAIRTRADE Mark and Rainforest Alliance are an independent consumer labels which appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting a better deal.

More and more businesses are producing their products ethically.  Check the labels of your purchases and see where you can Be A HERO with your purchases every day.

Interestingly, these products cost a little more than other products,but someone else has a fair income and working conditions and their children get to go to school instead of working in farms that produce tea, coffee and chocolate for our indulgence!

Download the Stop the Traffik Good Egg Guide and take it shopping with you! Ask the supermarket assistant or manager to show you where their Traffik-Free Easter products are. Tell them you are supporting farmers who are engaging in good labour practices and contributing the STOP THE TRAFFIK of children in the chocolate industry.

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times)

Eleven-year-old Sareth was friends with some of the children who lived in the crowded, tiny house in a back alley in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov commune. “They would leave in the afternoon, and come back in the morning,” he said. “They didn’t go to school, they would just sleep all day.”

Sareth did not realize that the children were the victims of a child labour ring.

His father, Sarath, said he saw the children leave daily around 5 pm on the back of a motorbike, each carrying a platter of sliced mango and other fruit.

The children would work all night selling fruit around the city, before returning to the tiny house in Chbar Ampov around 5am, and start the ordeal again a few hours later. Some residents of the neighbourhood said the children began working at around 10 am.

Twenty-two children, all from a village in Prey Veng province, had been exploited as free labor for almost a year before Khmer Times tipped off anti-trafficking NGO AIM SWAT about them.

Neighbours' claimed they never suspected a child-labour exploitation ring was headquartered next door, though they all said they saw the children leave to work all night.

“[The children] have freedom like other kids. They just helped with the business,” said 28-year-old Chhay Ya.

Early Morning Raid

Police take suspected traffickers from a house in Chbar Ampov commune where 22 children were rescued yesterday morning, following a two-month investigation that began with a tip-off from Khmer Times. Ban Sokrith

At around 9am yesterday morning, a team of police from the government’s anti-human trafficking force and members of AIM SWAT went to the house in Chbar Ampov. They surrounded it and arrested two adults suspected of trafficking.

They brought them and the children to the police station to give depositions. As of 6:30 pm yesterday the children and the suspected traffickers were still being held at the station.

According to Eric Meldrum, a former detective from the UK who is now investigation director at AIM SWAT, the police have not yet decided on the charges.

The raid followed two months of information-gathering by AIM SWAT and the police, after they received photographs, videos and information from Khmer Times.

Editors at Khmer Times decided not to publish a report on the child-trafficking ring because it could put the children in further danger. Instead, they approached Mr. Meldrum and requested that he and his organization investigate the case.

Mr. Meldum said the case sets a precedent because it is the first time a child labor ring has been busted in Cambodia. “Usually the kids are out begging or selling with their families,” he explained. “In this case the families had brought them here. (The children) were clearly being exploited. They were living together in a macabre little hothouse and made to work all the time.”

One clue that indicated these children were far more organized than others selling trinkets and food on the streets of Phnom Penh was the packaging of the fruit they sold. The slices were layered on Styrofoam, wrapped in cellophane, and carried on metal trays. The children were also monitored by two young men on motorbikes. One of them was arrested yesterday.

The children started work on the Riverside and in front of Nagaworld, and then shifted to Street 51 at about 11.30 pm, according to vendors interviewed by Khmer Times.

Parental Neglect?

Neighbours' said the only time the children’s parents would visit the alley was to collect their children’s meager salaries. Some neighbours' put the amount at 60,000 riel (about $15) a month, while others said the children were not paid.

Mr. Meldrum said it is unclear to what extent the parents were aware of their children’s work. “Did the parents not realize they were working these kinds of hours?” he asked.

Busting the trafficking ring is only the first step in ensuring the children do not fall back into the hands of traffickers, after they return home. “The children will be reintegrated with their families wherever possible,” said Mr. Meldrum. “Appropriate action will be taken to ensure that this doesn’t happen to them again, and to ensure that the family doesn’t feel the need to make their children work.”

Mr. Meldrum said the bust has made the Phnom Penh police more aware of the risks of children being exploited by trafficking rings as free labour. “This is the first arrest of its kind,” he said, “so it’s a big step forward for child protection.”

The house where the 22 children from a village in Prey Veng were being kept. The children, who sold fruit on the city’s street, ranged in age from seven to early teens. KT/Fabien Mouret
 

Additional reporting by Vincent MacIsaac

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16047/child-labor-ring-busted

We are so passionate about helping those rescued, our partners are at the forefront of helping those in desperate need, so we have two special sporting deals in September.

Basketball and touch football uniforms made by our girls.

OFFER ONE

Order one set of singlets (12) and we will give you a coach and manager shirt complimentary.

Total cost to you $280 = 12 singlets + 2 polo shirts free

Many colour combinations, includes personalised two colour screen-print artwork and delivery.
(poly micromesh moisture wicked fabric)

5% discount - Pay in full online today and pay just $250

OFFER TWO

Order one set of sports shirts (12) and we will give you a coaches and managers shirt complimentary.

Total cost to you $280 = 12 singlets + 2 polo shirts

Many colour combinations, includes personalised two colour screen-print artwork and delivery.
(poly micromesh moisture wicked fabric)

5% discount - Pay in full online today and pay just $250

This is a limited offer for September only!

Need more info or need more/less shirts?

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">Email or call me on 0402137305 to have your order personally designed for your company.

David Crawford

International Day of the Girl Child

             The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030

In 2011, a United Nations resolution established 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child (IDGC), a day designated for promoting the rights of girls and addressing the unique challenges they face. The inaugural day in 2012 focused on the issue of ending child marriage; in 2013 the theme was “Innovating for Girls’ Education”; and in 2014 the theme was “Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence”.

As the lead agency for the Day, UNICEF, in consultation with other United Nations agencies and civil society partners, selected as this year's theme, “The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030”. 

This year, as the international community assesses progress under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) since their implementation in 2000 and launches the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for implementation by 2030, girls born at the turn of the millennium have reached adolescence, and the generation of girls born this year will be adolescents in 2030.

As we reflect on the achievements of the past 15 years and plan sustainable development goals for the next 15, it is an opportune time to consider the importance of social, economic, and political investment in the power of adolescent girls as fundamental to breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination and to achieving equitable and sustainable development outcomes.UNICEF

At Be A HERO we have a strong focus on supporting the Girl Child throughout many of our projects.

Listed below this video from our project patner in Cambodia is some projects that you can show your support to.

City:  Phnom Penh
Project: Vocational training
Partner:  Empowering Cambodia

This project has a heart to equip, empower and enrich the lives of the Cambodian people by providing long term solutions through the provision of quality development projects and is one of the centres supported by the HERO Shop.
Learn more or take action

City:  Phnom Penh
Project:  Rescue Home for trafficking and prostitution
Partner:  SHE

This Rescue Home is a holistic development project and after care shelter catering to the specific needs girls aged 5- 16 who have been raped, prostituted, trafficked, or at risk. 
Based in Phnom Penh, the Home provides each of these girls with a safe and secure place where counselling, medical attention, and educational/vocational training and opportunities are provided. Educational activities include attending private school with supplemented language classes in both Khmer and English, literacy and computer skills.


Learn more or take action

City:  Miraj, India
Project:  Night Creche & Computer School
Partner:  Homes of Hope International

The city of Miraj is located approximately 400km's south of Mumbai and is home to over 500 commercial sex workers. Miraj has one of the highest incidences of HIV/Aids in India.

The Night Crèche project will increase protection for these children at risk through a safe place for them to sleep at night, assistance with homework, teaching personal boundaries and health, a meal, seminars for their mothers, and access to a social worker and assessment services that will determine when a high risk child needs to be taken into full time care. Furthermore, the Night Crèche project will also conduct a computer school for primary and high school age children to give them skills that will enable them to find employment, or pursue tertiary education, upon completing high school.
Learn more or take action

 

City: Svay Pak, Cambodia
Project: Vocational Training
Partner: Agape International Ministries

Svay Pak is known as the prostitution capital of Phnom Penh. Be A HERO is working in Svay Pak to eradicate prostitution, human trafficking and slave labour by partnering in a vocational training facility which rescues the girls, rehabilitates them and then teaches sewing, English and Khmer literacy and numeracy, bible study, personal care and values.  The girls are employed in the sewing business which is providing them with good wages, working conditions and sustainability.
Learn more or take action

We had a great day Friday playing barefoot bowls at Cleveland Bowls Club while raising funds for rescued girls in Cambodia.

A huge thank you to the team at Smartline Cleveland for organising the event, especially Erin and Karen for such great work to support our projects.

We have manged to raise over $4000 to purchase sewing machines forthe Agape Traning Centre in Svay Pak Cambodia

We cant thank you enough.

The HERO Shop is in production of quality made-to-order garments - polo shirts, t-shirts and corporate shirts and restaurant aprons.

Garments are available in mens sizes S-XXXL and women's sizes 8-20 (Australian sizing).

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">