Pastor pays hookers to counsel them
By Theresa Tan
PASTOR Joseph Sim is a man on a mission - to Geylang.
One of a number of volunteers reaching out to such women, Pastor
Sim has been talking to prostitutes from China at Geylang every
other day for two years, trying to turn them over a new leaf. What
sets the pastor apart from other counsellors is that he will pay
the women - out of his own pocket - to get them to talk to him and
his helper, a volunteer. -- DESMOND WEE
He is in the area almost every other day talking to prostitutes
from China, whom he calls 'hospitality entrepreneurs'.
Sometimes, he even pays them, just so they will talk to him.
The 76-year-old grandfather has been combing the streets of the
red-light district for the past two years, trying to convince the
streetwalkers to turn over a new leaf.
He said: 'My hope is that they repent and turn to God.'
Pastor Sim is among a number of volunteers who have been trying to
reach out to prostitutes operating in Geylang over the past seven
to eight years.
These volunteers hope to counsel them and help them find other
work, said Reverend Edward Job, executive president of Christian
Care Services (Singapore), a non-profit group.
In fact, Rev Job and a network of churches in Geylang are in the
process of setting up a drop-in centre there to help prostitutes,
loan-shark victims and foreign workers.
But what sets Pastor Sim apart from other counsellors is that he
will pay the women - out of his own pocket - to get them to talk to
him and his helper, a volunteer.
He says paying them is a necessary part of his job.
'These girls are not interested in talking to you. All they want is
money. They are oblivious to all other things.'
Even so, he said that he has managed to get only about 10 of the
women to have in-depth chats with him.
Of these, he said, he believes he has persuaded two of them to
change.
His work does not end with talking to them. He follows up by going
to China to see the women he has talked to.
Some are now leading comfortable lives back home, he said, but
still want to make more money.
'It's greed that brought them to Singapore,' he said.
Why not let the police solve the problem?
That alone will not change the situation, he said.
'Today they may catch 10; tomorrow, 20 new girls will fly in,' he
said.
