In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand Issue 2 | Page 16

Children’s graves in Thailand - globally, every 6.42 seconds a child takes their last breath.
sponsors so more can receive the care and education
they need to give them the skills and empowerment to
create positive futures.
Speaking to Rotary District 9980’s magazine, In Gear,
shortly before leaving for his visit to the Rescue
Mission Centre in mid-November, David stresses the
importance of doing everything that’s needed to get
the remaining classrooms and facilities finished.
Educating Akha children isn’t just a matter of opening
up vocational opportunities for them, he says – it
can be a literal lifesaver, a gateway to securing the
very identity and status that raises them above the
statelessness that currently renders them such
vulnerable targets – easy pickings for traffickers.
“The more children who can go into the rescue centre
and be educated, the more who will earn citizenship,
and the more who will be protected from being
abducted into slavery.

get them citizenship, which will mitigate the risk of
abductions and sex slavery, and give them a chance at
a vocation that’s not going to end up in the backstreets
of Bangkok. That’s the key for us.”

T

HE 53-YEAR-OLD risk management and health
and safety specialist concedes chances are
slim human trafficking and child sex slavery
will be stamped out in his lifetime, but he is
determined it must, ultimately, be stopped.
“I may only have 20, or maybe 30, years of active service
left within Rotary, and I know, realistically, I might not

“Education is key in so many senses. Historically, they
have had children come to the clinic with full-blown
AIDS, children they were unable to help, save taking
them to a purpose-run clinic for AIDS patients.
“We have had traffickers going up into Akha villages in
trucks and buses, saying: ‘We’ll give your children jobs
in hotels and restaurants’. They give the parents a few
baht – which, for a subsistence farmer is a lot of money
– and, they think: ‘My God, our kids are going to have a
future’. And that’s the last they ever see of them.
“Rather than being the ambulance at the bottom of
the cliff, we’re saying we’ll get these kids educated and

Poverty and statelessness render youngsters from the
Akha tribe vulnerable to human traffickers.

Page 16 | In Gear - Rotary in southern New Zealand - District 9980 | www.rotarydistrict9980.org