No Child Should be Sold

On May 10th ACRATH members in WA attended a presentation given by Maria Moffitt, Partnership Manager at Destiny Rescue and supported by Jackie Knight, a volunteer at Destiny Rescue. The event was organised by Soroptimists International Fremantle and we very much appreciated the invitation to attend.
Maria gave a very confronting talk on child sex trafficking and what we can do about it through the support of Destiny Rescue Australia.
Slavery still exists with 40.3 million people enslaved worldwide with 25% (10M) of these are children. It is estimated that 1.2 Million children will be sold into sexual slavery this year and due to COVID-19 this number will increase next year because the families that are financially on the brink this year will be pushed over the edge next year.
Destiny Rescue is an Australian founded, internationally recognised NGO dedicated to fighting the trafficking of children predominately in the South East Asian sex industry. Destiny Rescue works alongside local law enforcement, as well as the AFP and FBI, providing intelligence and logistical analysis to government agencies as well restorative After-Care to the children they help liberate. Destiny Rescue operates in Thailand, Cambodia, the Phillipines, Nepal, two undisclosed Asian countries and The Dominican Republic.
Destiny Rescue does 3 things:
1. RESCUE – their highly trained teams of agents go undercover into some of the darkest places on the planet in search of children trapped in sex trafficking and exploitation. Once identified, agents work tirelessly to bring these children into freedom.
2. RESTORATION – Destiny Rescue operates several rescue-houses. Depending on circumstances, girls will attend these rescue-houses as short term residents or day students. They provide a safe haven and caring environment. Rescued girls receive medical attention, trauma counselling, education and vocational training.
3. REINTEGRATION – Depending on the circumstances, Destiny Rescue Social Workers will reunite rescue girls with their family or arrange safe shared accommodation within the community.
Destiny Rescue have rescued 6,200 individuals since 2011
Maria showed the following video of Destiny Rescue Founder and International President Tony Kirwan sharing the story of one of his most unforgettable moments on rescue. Rescuing children from sex trafficking is hard. Click here to view the video clip.
How can we help?
Maria took us through some of the costs for Destiny Rescue:
1. To rescue one child and for them to go through one years worth of Destiny Rescue programs such as after care, restoration and reintegration to make sure they are back to school or work costs $1500.
2. To conduct a raid involves surveillance, logistics, transport and it is multiple children going through the programs, is roughly $10000.
3. We welcome monthly Rescue Partners to help fund the raids and rescues. Your monthly gift of ANY amount will help set her free and keep her safe.
Maria asked that when organisations are working out their budgets they consider giving support to Destiny Rescue.