22
mosaic—winter 2020
P R OT E C T I N G V U L N E R A B L E CHILDREN FROM THE TOURIST SEX TRADE by Kathleen Soucy
L
ast year, I had the privilege of travelling to the Dominican Republic with my husband, Bruno, and Patricia Echegoyen, CBM’s Program Officer for Latin America and Rwanda. In a small beach town of about 50,000 people, located on the northern coastline of the island, we met 14-year-old Diego*. He lives with his father, who works as a gardener, his stay-at-home mother and four siblings. What Diego likes the most about where he lives is going to the beach with his friends. “There isn’t much to do because it is dangerous here,” he explained. “There are thieves, drug dealers and other dangerous people in our town. They don’t bother us too much because we don’t do anything to provoke them, but we have to be careful.”
“Faced with limited resources, some are compelled to surrender their children to the lucrative tourist sex trade as a last resort.” In addition to living in an area affected by violence and corruption, many of Diego’s friends live in broken homes – with parents who don’t know how to care for their children well and lack consistent employment. Faced with limited resources, some are compelled to surrender their children to the lucrative tourist sex trade as a last resort.
photos: Bruno Soucy
The Last Resort
In the Dominican Republic, the main economic drivers are tourism and agricultural exports, especially along the coastal areas. Most Canadians are familiar with vacation hotspots, such as Puerto Plata and Punta Cana. However, just minutes from beautiful resorts, communities are affected by drug trafficking, sexual exploitation and violence – most notably against women and immigrants of Haitian origin. Although Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, the poverty level is significantly higher in Haiti, which is still recovering from the effects of natural disasters and political instability. Sex traffickers can be seen walking along beaches advertising young people – especially female youth – on their mobile devices like a restaurant menu for mostly foreign tourists. Sadly, the people who should be protecting the most vulnerable are often complicit. It is against this backdrop that CBM’s ministry partner, Iglesias Bautistas de Republica Dominicana (IBAREDO), is serving in and with the communities where its churches are planted. Founded in 2002, IBAREDO’s 20 member churches and their numerous missions are mostly small and located in poor, isolated neighbourhoods. Almost all IBAREDO pastors are bi-vocational and many lack formal theological training. Despite their limited resources, local congregations are actively engaged with their communities, often supporting vulnerable children and youth. Through mobilizing the hearts and talents of their members, these small churches are finding resourceful ways to meet the needs around them.
