Children at the Temples
For the last two weeks many children have been absent from school. The long Lunar New Year holiday has seen Siem Reap's tourist numbers surge. So, many families stop the children going to school and send them to the Temple area to sell instead. There are many things that are very bad about this. Firstly, the children are not even selling directly for their parent's, they are hired out by the day to a middle man who pays them $1 a day regardless of how much they make, through begging or from sales. These middle men are often Temple guards who can watch to see exactly what goes on and how much money the children are being given. Often the children are told to say that they have a dollar they can go to school. Rubbish.
Of course, the kids are very cute, why do you think that they are chosen to go and make spaniel eyes at tourists? But, before you cave in and buy think about the consequences. If no one bought anything from the children at all in a very short time the kids would be back in school getting an education and doing what kids should be doing. Easy money encourages the parent's to give up working themselves, why should they work when the kids can go out and earn?
Children in Cambodia are very naive; they have no knowledge of the world. No one tells them that there are bad people and how they should react to strangers; indeed, they are encouraged to approach total strangers to look cute to get money. Cambodia is a paedophile's dream world. They can fulfill every sickening fantasy here for very small amounts of money and with almost no chance of being caught. It is a very small step for many uneducated, poor people to realise how much a child's virginity and tender years are worth and how much they can make from renting them into the sex trade. It happens all the time. People will sell a child for a flat screen television. If it is your desire you can buy them for $60; use them in any disgusting way you want and then discard them just for them to be passed on to someone else.
So, next time you are approached by an appealing child to buy something, or put money in an outstretched hand stop and think what that might mean. If nothing else consider if you would rent out your vulnerable child and put them in a potentially dangerous situation just so a Mr Big somewhere can get rich. Why should it be different here? Children need to be at home being taken care of and to go to school to learn. Cambodia, which often feels like a basket case to me, needs to educate it's children and get them into school not to put them at risk on the streets.
Of course, the kids are very cute, why do you think that they are chosen to go and make spaniel eyes at tourists? But, before you cave in and buy think about the consequences. If no one bought anything from the children at all in a very short time the kids would be back in school getting an education and doing what kids should be doing. Easy money encourages the parent's to give up working themselves, why should they work when the kids can go out and earn?
Children in Cambodia are very naive; they have no knowledge of the world. No one tells them that there are bad people and how they should react to strangers; indeed, they are encouraged to approach total strangers to look cute to get money. Cambodia is a paedophile's dream world. They can fulfill every sickening fantasy here for very small amounts of money and with almost no chance of being caught. It is a very small step for many uneducated, poor people to realise how much a child's virginity and tender years are worth and how much they can make from renting them into the sex trade. It happens all the time. People will sell a child for a flat screen television. If it is your desire you can buy them for $60; use them in any disgusting way you want and then discard them just for them to be passed on to someone else.
So, next time you are approached by an appealing child to buy something, or put money in an outstretched hand stop and think what that might mean. If nothing else consider if you would rent out your vulnerable child and put them in a potentially dangerous situation just so a Mr Big somewhere can get rich. Why should it be different here? Children need to be at home being taken care of and to go to school to learn. Cambodia, which often feels like a basket case to me, needs to educate it's children and get them into school not to put them at risk on the streets.
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