Christianity Today: Red-Light Rescue (HT Dana Ames) This is a lengthy article about how micro-enterprise is freeing women from the lives of prostitution around the world. It is worth taking the time to read. Here are some excerpts:
The 'business' of helping the sexually exploited help themselves.
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The problem is that women on street corners appear to be acting freely, Thompson says. But passers-by are blind to the chains that bind woman to prostitution: poverty, a lack of education, early drug use, a parent in prostitution, childhood sexual abuse, and the abusive tactics of traffickers and pimps.
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Few Christian organizations were reaching these women in Chiang Mai. So in 2003, the Crawfords decided to pioneer their own outreach, Just Food, Inc., representing "Justice and Food."
Western-style cafes are popular among locals, the large expatriate and missionary community, and the city's 3 million-plus tourists each year. Christa designed a menu full of the California cuisine she craved, and they opened a modest café housed in a bookstore, featuring items like Southwest chicken wraps and tandoori chicken pizza. They trained women—former prostitutes and those at-risk of entering the trade—to make tortillas and gourmet coffee drinks, to serve customers, and to run a kitchen.
Despite the café's enticing menu and décor, some Thai Christians refused to patronize a business tainted by the stigma of prostitution, and many churches have been hesitant to get involved in any way. "By associating with prostitutes, you're lowering your status," Mark says. "It's like working with lepers. Are you going to infect yourself if you're associating with these people?"
The Crawfords did help one Thai church to open a daycare facility for children of prostituted women.
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The Crawfords also want to turn Just Food, Inc., into a franchise, operating restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and spas where recovering women can gain work skills in supportive environments.
This year, they plan to offer loans to 30 women to start microenterprise businesses. They're seeking an experienced businessperson to oversee such business development. "We need most the people who think they are least qualified to be a missionary," Christa says, "because often missionaries are the least qualified to start and run successful businesses." While their hopes are high, Christa and Mark are not naïve to the challenges of their ministry, especially working with women who often lack formal education and are recovering from sexual exploitation.
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To encourage similar ministries around the world, the Crawfords and other ministry leaders are forming the International Christian Alliance on Prostitution (ICAP). Begun last spring, ICAP will offer training and resources to dozens of existing projects, encourage the growth of new ministries, and develop regional networks.
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Although Hilton had moved to India to minister to such women, he didn't know where to begin. But he thought, "If business could get them into the sex industry, why can't business get them out—and help them find Jesus at the same time?" A friend helped Hilton draw up a business plan.
They experimented with manufacturing leather bags, buffalo horn products, and finally jute, an environmentally friendly fiber. Locally produced cotton bags couldn't compete with China's low prices, but since India grows a majority of the world's jute, they determined that jute bags could compete. Hilton rented a building surrounded by brothels and hired 20 women who wanted to escape prostitution. Hilton's wife, Annie, trained the women in a couple months to sew 30 jute bags a day.
Today, 70 former prostitutes work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Freeset, sewing 100,000 tote and gift bags a year. The bags are sold internationally, largely by word of mouth, and many are custom-designed for the Christian conference market. The women earn about $52 a month including benefits, more than they'd get paid sewing nearly anywhere else in Kolkata.
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A similar "freedom business" is booming in Cambodia, thanks to social entrepreneur Pierre Tami. The Swiss Christian businessman left the airline industry in 1994 to establish Hagar Cambodia, a shelter and rehabilitation center for women and children in Phnom Penh.
With the aid of professional staff and the World Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, Tami developed three flourishing businesses—producing soy milk, sewing silk products, and cooking/catering—to provide employment for women and to help them support their families. Last year, Hagar Catering donated almost half its profits to ministry.
But two years ago, it was on the verge of closing. Frank Woods, a volunteer with 30 years of experience in the catering industry, turned the business around. Woods is now financially supported by a local church in Australia; he shows the women in Hagar Catering how God can help them in their daily lives as they cook and serve meals to hotel staff and garment factory workers.
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After Moon's rescue from the brothel, the Crawfords helped her start a business selling assorted nuts, which didn't pan out. A second effort, selling souvenirs to Thai tourists, proved more profitable. Then, a few months after her rescue, Moon married a Thai man and soon had two babies.
Two years ago, Just Food, Inc., loaned the family $200 for Moon's husband to launch a motorcycle taxi business. The family now earns $5 a day in Myanmar, double the amount they require for food and basic needs.
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Moon's identity has changed from rescued to rescuer, from victim to counselor, thanks to the Crawfords' ministry and God's redemptive love. But hundreds of thousands of women and girls around the globe are still waiting to escape.
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