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Education
Update – September 2004
Mission Possible: Helping Children Around the World
by Patrick Schoof
Youth Advocate Program International provides voice
and visibility to the most vulnerable children worldwide,
and has for the past decade. Its formal mission is to
“promote and protect the rights and well-being
of the world’s youth, giving particular attention
to children victimized by conflict, exploitation, and
state and personal violence”.
Specifically, it focuses on issues such as preventing
and eliminating the worst forms of child labor, the
use of children in armed conflict, commercial sexual
exploitation of children, and incarceration of children
as adults. YAP International also works to protect and
ensure rights and services for children affected by
war, exploitation, homelessness, statelessness, discrimination,
HIV/AIDS, and for refugee and internally-displaced children.
In order to develop sound strategies and policy, YAP
International serves on numerous national and international
child rights and protection committees. Its research
work combined with its committee and advocacy work,
continually improves the ability of the organization
to make a more meaningful contribution to awareness
campaigns, education programs, training, and policy
development.
YAP International’s broad-based knowledge on a
wide range of atrocities facing children today, and
its ability to bring to the table informed perspective
and insight to aid children, is one of its greatest
strengths. It is also the reason why the organization
has been asked to provide consultation to a wide range
of constituencies from government, to teachers, to reporters,
to talk shows.
In its ten year history, the organization has produced
nine books, numerous resources papers, a new resource
website, a series of curriculum modules, and is in the
process of gathering research for several new publications
and developing new projects with international partners.
Youth Advocate Program International helps to ensure
the public, policy-makers, and media are educated on
these issues so these issues will move to center stage
where long-term, positive change can occur. Therefore,
its organization’s work is critical in preventing
these atrocities; in protecting children currently affected
and those at-risk; and, in ensuring victimization, exploitation,
and violence does not extend to future generations.
You can make a difference by becoming more informed,
and informing those around you, in this case, educators,
administrators, and students. YAP International even
has the tools to make this easy at our website: www.yapi.org.
Patrick Schoof is the Executive Director of YAP
International, and has worked on issues affecting children
and youth for twenty years. He advises policy-makers
and the media, and serves on a dozen national and international
child rights and protection committees.
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Caribbean Voice Newspaper – August
23, 2004
Child Sexual Exploitation on the Rise in the Caribbean
The Caribbean is known for its tropical weather, beautiful
beaches, and vibrant culture. However, you may not be
aware that it is also known as one of many organized
crime centers in the world for the commercial sexual
exploitation of children (CSEC) and child trafficking.
Today, nearly 2 million children worldwide are engaged
in prostitution and pornography. Each year, as many
as 500,000 women are trafficked from Latin America and
the Caribbean to the USA and Europe, many of which are
children. In Santo Domingo alone, there are 50,000 prostitutes,
again many are children, providing sexual services for
local customers and the rising number of sex tourists.
Unfortunately, there are many more hidden children that
we have not yet found.
Many would like to believe these atrocities are declining,
yet there are more commercially exploited children than
ever in history. How is this possible? The answer is
multi-faceted, including factors such as poverty, lack
of education, unemployment, discrimination against girls
and children, and overpopulation. Children are kidnapped
and sold in larger urban centers; street children without
options are forced into prostitution; some families
are compelled to sell a child to pay off a debt that
keeps the family in extreme poverty; and, some children
leave school to support their family and end up working
in night clubs, brothels, or massage parlors.
The trafficking of people has also grown substantially.
It is now the world’s third largest illegal industry
next to the sale of arms and drugs, and many experts
believe it has recently moved into the number two position.
It is a highly lucrative segment of organized crime,
in which traffickers pretend to smuggle people for an
opportunity at a better life attending school or with
a good job elsewhere. However, when these children arrive,
they are sold into prostitution, their identity papers
are taken, and they are told to comply or they will
be beaten, and if they escape their family will be killed.
Sex tourism is on the rise and continuing to spread
throughout the Caribbean as well; that is, people who
travel from one location to another for the sole purpose
of having sex with a child. Some experts believe the
increase is due to greater enforcement measures in the
Philippines, Thailand, and other areas of the world.
Nonetheless, between habitual sexual tourists and those
who use children as a matter of convenience while traveling,
the sex tourism industry in growing.
Undeniably, the impact on children is devastating. They
are often beaten and drugged for control. They contract
STDs, HIV infection, and AIDS, without being able to
choose sex partners or make them wear condoms. This
affects everyone in the Caribbean; UNAIDS says 500,000
to 700,000 residents are already HIV positive. Prostituted
girls are also at risk of pregnancy, and drug use in
trying to cope with the pain of their reality. They
suffer depression, disassociation of emotions, and post-traumatic
stress disorder. Most of these children will never escape,
and those that do will find it difficult to reintegrate
into society as a result of lost trust, stigmatization,
and powerlessness.
We continue to search for better data on these children,
yet it is very difficult to gather information. Researchers
are limited for security reasons related to the strength
of organized crime syndicates. When it is safe and they
have permission, few people are willing to share what
they know and those that do often provide similar answers
suggesting they have been coached. It is nearly impossible
to estimate how many children are victims of trafficking,
prostitution, or pornography, even when it is likely
they are being prostituted in and around your own neighborhood.
You may ask, how are non-profits making a difference
due to the clandestine nature of the practice, lack
of concrete evidence, national embarrassment often preventing
governments from sharing data, and varying situational
factors? Our organization, like others, begins by educating
the public and encouraging action; then, we take action
ourselves. Action is often in rescuing child prostitutes
and trafficked children, providing rehabilitation and
reintegration programs, and through developing national
and international policies and enforcement mechanisms.
All of these tactics have been successful to varying
degrees, and therefore organizations continue the strategy.
If you want to help these children, it is easy to do
so. First, become informed. Next, raise awareness by
talking with those closest to you, and then your elected
officials. Journalists can inform the public. Educators
can protect children by sharing this information with
students. Businesses, non-profits, and religious groups
can support education, children's clubs, and street
shelters. For more information on how you can make a
difference, visit us online at www.yapi.org.
Patrick Schoof has worked on issues affecting children
and youth for twenty years, and serves on more than
a dozen national and international child rights and
protection committees. He is currently the Executive
Director of Youth Advocate Program International in
Washington, DC.
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Parade Magazine - August 15, 2004
Sites You’ll Like
www.yapi.org
Get informed then get involved with Youth Advocate Program
International’s efforts to protect the rights
and welfare of children around the world.
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Washington Post – July 29, 2004
Letters to the Editor
My staff and I were disappointed to read the caption
“Making a Living” under a photo of a Bangladeshi
boy pushing a rickshaw (World, July 26). In having worked
on youth issues for more than a decade, I know this
boy is not making a living. It is likely that he will
never have a primary education, and will work for less
than a dollar a day the rest of his life.
The public needs to understand that millions of people
are not making a living, and as many as 20 million children
are engaged in the worst forms of child labor, working
all day, everyday, for little or nothing. It is the
great hidden tragedy of our age; and, at best, it is
only survival.
Patrick Schoof
Executive Director
Youth Advocate Program International
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Family News in Focus - July 16, 2004
World Sex Trafficking Eyed by State Department
by Keith Peters, Washington, D.C., correspondent
A recent report is a sobering reminder of the problem.
According to a new State Department sex-trafficking
report, 600,000 men, women and children are taken across
international borders each year and forced into prostitution
and labor.
The victims of human trafficking are 21st century slaves.
Some are forced to sell their bodies, some made to work
in sweatshops or on farms, and many children are pressed
into military service. Patrick Schoof, executive director
of Youth Advocate Program International, said slavery
is the great hidden tragedy of our age.
"What most people are unaware of," he said,
"is not only does it exist, but in sheer numbers
there are more slaves in the world today than there
were during the entire four hundred years of the transatlantic
slave trade."
Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the United
States' position succinctly in an editorial entitled
"Our Trafficking Policy — Stop." The
State Department's Chad Bettes said there is a main
goal in the report.
"We want to stimulate greater government action
on behalf of modern-day slaves," Bettes explained.
"And we are trying to partner with governments
(to) shine light on this issue so that they take greater
action on behalf of these victims."
He added that he hopes the report stimulates Americans
to action as well:
"(We hope Americans) speak out in support of anti-trafficking
efforts, speak out to their legislators, to President
Bush and others who have been leaders in this cause
but need continued public support to keep moving forward."
Bettes said another way to combat trafficking is through
organizations that provide support to victims, and he
added that there are plenty of faith-based organizations
doing incredible work around the world to fight the
scourge.
The report urges all countries to maintain and increase
efforts to combat human-trafficking.
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For
interviews, issue background, and/or referrals, please
contact:
Patrick Schoof, Executive Director
Youth Advocate Program International
4545 42nd Street, NW, Suite 209
Washington , DC 20016
Phone: 202-244-1986
Fax: 202-244-6396
www.yapi.org
© copyright - Youth
Advocate Program International 2003-04
Last updated 10/5/2004
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