Group tries to get kids out of flesh trade

Group tries to get kids out of flesh trade

By Putu Wirata

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): When the beaches along the Kuta tourist
strip have cleared and pulsating music beckons from crowded
nightspots, Jessy goes to work.

She dances in a local discotheque and keeps her eye out for a
john, preferably foreign. If the price is right, she will leave
with him.

"I have enough savings in the bank because of this satisfying
work," she said with a loud laugh, showing off her ATM card.

Jessy says she is 13.

She is one of the young girls -- some barely in their teens --
in miniskirts and skimpy tops who hang out in Kuta, one of the
busiest tourist resorts in Bali. They, along with groups of young
boys, are part of the scenery.

"Some of them are prostitutes looking for tourists," said a
volunteer of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in Denpasar.

He added that some of the boys sell newspapers but others were
pickpockets.

LBH Bali, with assistance from about 40 volunteers, recently
started a project to help the prostitutes and beggars along the
main Kuta road.

"We will educate and give them basic skills, (on) how to make
a living without being a beggar or prostitute," explained Soni M.
Qodry, head of the volunteer program.

Under this two-year project, LBH Bali will provide shelter for
the children and teach them the basic accounting methods needed
to start a small business.

"In the long term, we will manage to abolish child
exploitation," Soni said confidently.

Hundreds of beggars crowd Kuta's streets, and most of them are
children.

Prostitution and begging are organized, Soni said. During the
peak tourist season, he added, those involved picked up children
in trucks and assigned them to different areas to reduce the
chances of raids by the authorities.

Most of them are from poor farming families living at the foot
of Mount Agung, including Muntig and Medahan villages in
Karangasem regency. Others, like Jessy, are from Java and areas
outside Bali.

They help their parents in the ricefields during the rainy
season. But there is nothing for them to do during the dry
season.

Their parents send them to Denpasar or Kuta to earn money as
beggars.

Teachers are powerless to stop them from abandoning their
educations.

"We don't dare to advice them (the parents), because they will
say that the children are their business. When we forbid them to
leave their educations, their parents ask for money and food,"
said an elementary school teacher from the Kubu district in
Karangasem.

Children usually get enough money from begging among foreign
tourists to buy food, or they sell their bodies.

They live in slums along Jl. Sedasari in Kuta. Six to 15
children will share a room, which costs about Rp 50,000 a month.

Pimps are there to help them find customers, but Jessy does
not rely on assistance from others.

"I learn English little by little and look for the guests
myself," she said.

Originally from Semarang, Central Java, she said she came to
Denpasar with a friend to look for work.

Her first job was as a maid for a Western couple. On a day off
in 1996, her friend took her to a discotheque.

"A Caucasian man ordered me to accompany him for a night and
he gave me US$50," Jessy said proudly.

Unemployment, lack of work qualifications and poverty are the
main forces that drive the teens to the streets. Municipal
security officials have raided their hangouts several times and
sent the children home.

This does little good. They inevitably return to the city,
especially during the peak tourist season, and fall into the same
traps of begging and prostitution.

"We know that it is very difficult to eliminate the
exploitation of prostitutes and beggars. But we have to fight
against the exploitation," Soni said.

The project will be carried out in phases. First, they will
approach the children to join the program. They will be educated
in simple management skills and about how to set up a small
enterprise. There is also religious instruction.

In the second stage, the project will provide financing for
those who want to start their own small businesses. Their
eventual repayment of the loans will be used to help other
children leave the streets.

"When they have a proper job, this prevents them from becoming
criminals and having a bad attitude," Soni said.