This Burmese Nunnery Saved 200 Girls From Sex
Slavery
12/15/2014
Paula
Froelich Time Magazine’s Person of the Year:
1975, 2006 , 2011; Founder, www.abroadabroad.com
Buddhist
nuns are everywhere among the streets of Myanmar -- of all
different ages, some as young as 5. Dressed in pink loose-fitting
shirts and pants with orange scarves, they have shaved heads and
rely on alms to pay for their schooling, food, housing, and other
basic needs.
Monks don't
have the same economic handicaps. The large temples pay for their
needs, but that's not surprising. In Myanmar, being a woman is
hard, more so if you are poor and live in the north of the country,
where tribes are still battling the government.
Girls in
these areas are in a precarious position, constantly in danger of
being trafficked across foreign borders. According to the United
Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking:
"Myanmar is
a source country for women, children, and men trafficked for the
purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation.
Myanmar people are trafficked to Thailand, China, Malaysia, South
Korea, and Macau for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and
forced labour."
There are
no reliable estimates on the number of people trafficked annually
in Myanmar, although a total of 134 trafficking cases were
investigated in 2008, involving 303 victims (153 female and 50
male), and 342 traffickers were prosecuted. UNICEF for example,
estimated in 2003 that 10,000 girls were being trafficked every
year from Myanmar into Thai brothels alone.
The number
has not declined.
Concern
over trafficking has led many parents in the north, who earn an
average of $1,200 a year, to send their daughters south to the
capital of Yangon and the only outlet for escape and education --
the nunneries.
One of
these institutions is located in Than Lynn, a 30-minute drive from
the center of Yangon. At the Thadama Myintzu Nunnery, run by the
nun Daw Aye Theingi, more than 200 girls, who range in age from 4
to 18, live in two small buildings with a rudimentary outdoor
kitchen and bathing area. In many cases, the girls do not see their
parents for years, if ever again.
Due to a
generous donation, the nunnery is building a modern three-story
building to house all the girls, but it won't be ready until
summer. Daw scrapes up the $200 a year it takes to send each girl
to a local school through donations.
"I want a better life for
them," Daw said. At age 18, the girls will decide if they want to
stay or leave to look for a life in the city. Almost none of them
return home.
Please note, due to local
corruption and the nunnery's lack of Internet connection or modern
appliances, we cannot say for sure how to give money directly to
these girls or Daw - but Sonne International is one organization that has
a donation fund for the nunnery and seems legit.
Another way to help is to give
to organizations on the ground that directly help women in Myanmar
like the We
Women Foundation.
But being aware, sharing this
story, and putting pressure on the Myanmar government goes a long
way. And if you ever get to Yangon, please stop by and say hello to
some very special nuns for us.