See The World Through Our Eyes Project

Thu 18 to Sun 21 Nov | 11am to 8pm
Presented by See The World Through Our Eyes Project
Admission free

Venue: The Annexe Gallery, 1st & 2nd Floor, Central Market Annexe, Jalan Hang Kasturi, 50470 Kuala Lumpur.

You are cordially invited to the EVERYONE HAS HOPE Exhibition Opening on Thu 18 Nov, 8pm.
Featuring special performances by the children of the Burmese refugees
Refreshments will be served.

Sixteen Burmese refugee children, age 13 to 16 — Zaw Naw, Hanah, Nilarson,
Zaw Rein, Peter J, Neem, Grace Elly, Alex, Andrew, Amos, Suithlawntial,
Joan, Maliani, Jonah, Myo Toe Aung, Sam Tun — living in Kuala Lumpur give
us a slice of their lives here through pictures they took themselves.

Over the past few months, they learned the art of photography with the help
of a small group of dedicated Taylor’s College students and staff, and
support of British Council’s Global Changemakers and The Annexe Gallery. The
project’s main aim was to allow these children to develop skills in the
arts, have fun, and ultimately tell their story to the world.

These children have a native land that for 40 years has been ravaged and
oppressed by a ruling junta. Here in Kuala Lumpur, their families struggle
to make ends meet, and even more importantly they are not allowed to attend
public schools.

Do you want to see through their eyes?

Photograph by Zaw Rein

Photo by Andrew
CONTACT
If you have any enquiries about the exhibition or the See The World Through Our Eyes Project, please contact Colin Boyd Shafer at
<mailto:colin.shafer@taylors.edu.my> colin.shafer@taylors.edu.my

1.2 Million Children

a short animated film by Effie Pappa. The film depicts a third world child pursuing the dream of freedom but falls victim to exploitation.

Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People.

Mam, herself a survivor of sex trafficking, spoke with conviction as she made clear that “saving a girl only takes five minutes, but rehabilitating her and reintegrating her into society again takes five years”.

Read more here.

Stop Child Sex Trafficking Campaign

Dearest friends,

We at The Body Shop need your help and continuous support for our upcoming project to Stop Child Sex Trafficking. This global campaign kick-starts here in Malaysia on the 7th of August 2010 by a launch by The Body Shop and The Home Ministry followed by a march down Jalan Bukit Bintang where we will distribute leaflets and car stickers to bring about an awareness to this global issue which has plagued our shores for many years.

As such, we will need all the manpower necessary especially from you who appeal to the Malaysian crowd and can bring about the attention needed to march down the streets and create a ruckus in order to draw attention to the issue.

We have already received our police permit and approval from the ministry and as such will not jeopardise your involvement in any way. Please, please come and lend us your hands and be part of this change. Your support is greatly appreciated and we trust that together, we can make a difference. Please see the attachment for the official invite. My colleague Joanne or me will be calling you soon to find out if you will be part of this global change. Thanking you in advance.

Warmest,

Loshini Catherine John

Values & Communications Manager

The Body Shop (West Malaysia)

T: +603-5632 4313

F: +603-5632 4317

***********Please feel free to email this flyer out to all your contacts************

Article: Beware the child predators from UAE

Article from The Star

By R.S.N. MURALI

DUBAI: Some Malaysian children are believed to have fallen prey to paedophiles from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who surf the Internet looking for their victims.

A Dubai police spokesman told The Star that their intelligence revealed the acts of sexual abuse happened outside the UAE.

“The paedophiles cultivate friendships with children from countries like Malaysia. Later, they make trips to Kuala Lumpur under the pretext of coming here for a holiday before meeting up with the youngsters and sexually abusing them,” said the spokesman. The paedophiles use money to lure the children.

Based on previous cases, the modus operandi of these paedophiles were to target young Internet surfers from other countries; later enticing them with expensive gifts and cash if they agreed to escort the predators for holiday at the victims’ country of origin. In many cases, gullible parents allowed their children to follow the predators, after being besotted with the wealth and decent looks of these men.

The spokesman also said that UAE had last week entered into the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), a collaboration between law enforcers around the world to combat international networks of child predators.

He added the UAE’s VGT would be lead by a senior government official, who had directed for closer surveillance on those going online into Malaysian web hosts.

Article: Legalised paedophilia – Malaysian child marriages

Last week, we read about the marriage of two 10 year-old girls to 40 year-old men. This is commonplace in sub-Saharan Africa or Afghanistan. Sadly, these occurred in Kelantan, which incidentally has the nation’s highest rate of incest and HIV/AIDS cases.

It is shocking, but not surprising that such marriages happened in modern Malaysia. Child marriages, today: Honour killings, next? The political will is too weak, to plug the various loopholes in syariah law which allows recalcitrant men to slip through.

Child marriage is sexual abuse and a violation of human rights. The exploited girl suffers tremendous emotional and physical trauma. She is denied an education. Her right to personal freedom and growth are curtailed. She is excluded from interacting with her friends, or participating in school/community activities. She may be prevented from refusing sex, and so risks having sexually transmitted diseases or HIV/AIDS. When pregnant, her health is at further risk from premature pregnancy or pregnancy related mortality.

Around the world, women enjoy advancements in education, living standards and economic and financial freedom. But women in Malaysia, specifically Muslim women, are apparently stuck in the middle ages, with their lives dictated not by one set of laws but two.

This dual system of laws must be revamped. It is unacceptable that an underage girl can marry with the permission of religious officials. What sort of deterrent is a fine and six months jail, when her life and future are ruined by the actions of two men – her irresponsible father and a lust fueled ‘husband’?

Read the full article by Mariam Mokhtar on MalaysianMirror

Suhakam: Ratify protocol against child porn

The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) is ready to push for two optional protocols to be ratified, in tandem with its recommendation on removing the government’s eight reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Commissioner Dr Raj Abdul Karim said at a press conference at Suhakam headquarters today that one of the protocols is on child pornography, trafficking of children and child prostitution.

Ratifying it would require the government to pass laws that protect children from being used as subjects of pornography, as well as to prevent them from viewing pornographic materials.

The second optional protocol relates to children caught in armed conflict. Raj said the government should have no objection to ratifying it since the situation is not prevalent in Malaysia.

However, she said the government does need to acknowledge and define ‘child pornography’ in legal terms.

General provisions against pornography are currently found in the Penal Code and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, but these do not make specific mention of children’s involvement.

In this respect, Malaysia is far behind Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand which have specific laws in place to protect children, she said.

With the advance of information and communications technology, there is a serious situation with “children being traded and used for pornography” in Malaysia.

Read the full article by Rahmah Gazali on MalaysiaKini

Article: Welcome To The Flesh Market

There is a law that can hold criminals accountable for their crimes in trafficking children for sexual exploitation. But Malaysia is one of three countries in Southeast Asia that hasn’t signed this Protocol. What are you going to do about it?

By Pauline Wong

Once upon a time, we wished for our younger siblings to be gone. We wanted them out of our lives, and wished they would disappear so we could have our own rooms or never have to pick up after their mess again or even keep an eye on them all the time.

But what would happen if they really went missing? Would you ever forgive yourself for your secret wish if you found out that they had suddenly vanished because they were among the 1.2 million children trafficked for sexual abuse and exploitation every single year?

Of course you wouldn’t want that! The level of annoyance of your pesky sibling could never amount to wanting any physical injury to befall them, even if you did say or think of some really mean things that you wished would happen to them in your many moments of rage.

However much money you said you’d gladly part with, just to have someone take him or her away, it would never have crossed your mind for your brother or sister – no matter how irritating, mischievous or painful – to be part of a staggering 79 per cent of US$27 billion, gleaned from the sexual exploitation of children.

In the end, while you sometimes can’t even stand the sight of your brother or sister, you’d never wish for them to be kidnapped, raped, beaten, tortured and violated sexually or turned into the object of some pedophiles’ lust, because deep down, you know you care for them deeply.

Blood is thicker than water and because of this, you know that you would even fight to protect them. And this is why, as youths, you must also be aware of the uphill battle we all face against child sex trafficking. It is your war too.

Read Pauline Wong’s full article on Malaysian Today.

Article: Malaysia busts child trafficking syndicate

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 13:29:00 07/18/2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysian police have smashed a child trafficking racket and rescued eight children and babies, an official said Sunday.

Police also detained 16 suspects, including four Indonesian women, in a sting operation after an Indonesian woman was nabbed on Monday when she tried to sell a 23-day-old baby girl for 10,000 ringgit ($3,120).

In the latest operation on Friday, police rescued a four-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl and detained two Indonesian sisters, said to be the caretakers of the children.

Police said they are yet to determine who is behind the group or whether the eight rescued children involved any foreigners. The eight children, including three infants, are aged between 23 days and 12 years.

“We are still investigating the case,” Huzir Mohamad, the criminal investigation department chief of eastern Sarawak state on Malaysia’s Borneo, where the syndicate was busted, told AFP.

He said the police may seek cooperation from its Indonesian counterpart to ascertain the role of the Indonesian women.

In December last year, Malaysian police busted a baby-selling syndicate which had been operating for more than five years and arrested 13 people, including a doctor, and rescued five infants.

A woman and her two daughters were later charged with trafficking in babies. They face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

The syndicates usually bought the babies from poor local women, from neighboring countries or from foreign maids in the country who were talked out of having abortions. They then sold them to childless couples.

Can we still not care?

Saturday, 03 July 2010 15:16, Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia

Tenaganita’s Aegil Fernandez (left) gave a talk entitled “Child and Women Trafficking – Is There Hope?” at the Assumption Church on June 24. SABM’s FARIDA JIVAMALA IBRAHIM came away shaken and angry

THE facts are horrifying. Sex trafficking, drug trafficking, slave trafficking, baby trafficking  – you name it, Malaysia and other countries are doing it.
Talk about global business!

And enforcement officers are very much in the thick of it.

It turned out that men too were being kidnapped and brought out of their countries and onto open sea  – to get ransoms paid and to toil as fishermen!

Here’s a brutal fact to grasp:

In 2008, our country had 982 children reported missing. Of these, to date, 500 of those 982 are still missing. What of the other years? What of 2009 and 2010 so far. The statistics are staggering and still climbing!
And these children are whisked away for prostitution (because the maniacs think the younger they are the less likely they are to catch AIDS or HIV) or for begging.

And for begging, what they do to get the public’s money  is to either break the legs of a child or chop off a hand or disfigure the face with acid. And these children are often smuggled out of the country.

And I didn’t know that here a sex slave earns RM150 for the sex syndicate (mind you, she doesn’t get the money). Women are either kidnapped or tricked into coming into this country with promises of legitimate decent jobs but are then sold like meat to bidders and entrapped in conditions which degrade them completely.

Read this:

Prostitutes here usually have to serve eight customers a day. That earns the syndicate a formidable RM1,200 per prostitute per day.

But hey, one syndicate can have as many as 100 prostitutes distributed in several places.

How much does it therefore earn in a day? Approximately  RM120,000.

And what if a woman gets pregnant? She goes for an abortion.

But wait – there’s an old business burgeoning again now. Babies for sale. Women are made pregnant again and again so babies can come forth. Pregnancy is great business now.

But again, that’s not all.

What about the refugees who have come here?

Read this excerpt from Tenaganita’s book “The Revolving Door” on modern-day slavery and know what refugees endure:

1. Mya – pregnant, with her husband and son – grabbed by Rela officers together with others and on the way to a detention camp. She says this through her translator:

“As we were marched to the lorry, my husband asked the same officer in English if I could go to the bathroom. He ignored him…..

“…My bladder was going to burst as my baby was pressing on it in my womb. I felt like dying trying to hold in my urine. I held it and it hurt so much….

“Throughout the journey…I sat squirming and whimpering…Finally, the same officer told my husband that ‘if she wants to urinate, she will have to do it here, in the truck,’ he said pointing to the floor. He laughed at me. I couldn’t take it anymore. I took the plastic bag which was used to hold my son’s medication, pulled my ‘longhji’ (a Burmese tunic) around me and urinated into the bag in the truck in the middle of everyone.

“The humiliation. I cried while I was doing that. I was ashamed. I felt humiliated that all those men were watching me urinate. But I couldn’t take it anymore. I urinated all over my hand while holding the plastic bag…”

2.  Mariah – recounted through her translator:

‘The lorry was parked outside the police station for at least half an hour. The two female officers exited the lorry and left Mariah and the other women in the lorry – the male officers stayed behind with them.

“Suddenly, the two male officers came towards  us and smiled. They lifted our skirts and touched our legs. We struggled, and tried to move our legs, but they grabbed hold of our legs and continued to touch our legs up to our thighs. One of them lifted my dress and put his hand on my brassiere and started to rub and fondle me. ‘Please stop, please stop,’ we pleaded with them.”

Only when the Burmese women threatened to  scream out loud for the female officers, did the male officers stop touching the Burmese women.

Mariah’s ordeal became worse in the weeks and months after and there came a time when for six days she and other women  were forced to stay in a jungle in Thailand and there the men raped everyone of them for all of the six days.

When asked what those experiences of being raped repeatedly were like, Mariah could not express what she went through. Her tears flowed freely in painful recollection.

What words can there be, really, to describe such experiences?

None at all.

Do you know what I would like to do?

Castrate  every enforcement officer (are there any innocent ones? Complicity is taking sides still!) and parade them naked before every refugee camp in this country.

Tenaganita is calling for the abolition of RELA.

What will you do?

–
http://sayaanakbangsamalaysia.net/