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.