In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand Issue 2 | Page 17

see an end to child sex slavery, so I need to do some
succession planning – it’s just normal business sense,
and the best thing for Rotary to do is get younger
people in and involved in these issues.”

During their 21-day trip, the Project Starfish team
also travelled to Siam Reap, Cambodia, to compete
in a fundraising half marathon/10km walk for Hagar,
an organisation that restores the lives of women
and children left devastated b y severe human rights
abuses.

Cue one very special group of young Rotarians –
Rotaractors and Next
Rotary
Generation
(NRG)
members
who
have
quickly
become
about as passionate and
determined
as
David
to make a difference in
what is one of the most
challenging and gruelling
of global humanitarian
challenges.
Dunedin
Interactors might not be
making the trip, but they,
too, have weighed in with
fundraisers to do their bit
Dunedin Central Rotarian David Black with fellow
to help make this mission
members of the Project Starfish team leaving for Thailand.
a reality.
The nine Rotaractors from
Dunedin, Auckland and Norwich in the United Kingdom,
together with NRG members, joined David and two
other Rotarians in travelling to the Rescue Mission for
Children to see for themselves the work Asa and her
team are doing to not only ensure the Akha children
under their watch survive, but thrive.
As well as extending an invitation to the presidentelect of the Rotary Club of Chiang Mai to visit the
centre during their stay, David also arranged a series
of meetings with senior figures in organisations that
specialise in fighting trafficking and slavery, including
the United Nations Collaboration Against Trafficking
in Persons, the ILO Child Exploitation Project and the
Nvader team of investigators and lawyers who hunt
down and prosecute paedophiles.
“What I’ve tried
to create for
them
is
an
immersion
experience. So,
I’m
exposing
these
young
people to as
much as they
can take to
give them a full
understanding
of the extent
of the issues
involved
in
child
sex
slavery
and
h u m a n
trafficking,”
David says.

Hagar put on a prerace dinner to which
the Project Starfish
team
was
invited.
There, they were due
to meet people who
had
been
through
rehabilitation
after
surviving
trafficking
and slavery, and gained
new vocational skills in
order to get jobs and
build good futures.

“Some
of
these
survivors are now at
a point where they’re
strong enough that
they can share their story and help others. We’re going
to be part of that experience – and feel very privileged
to be,” David said in the lead-up to the trip.
“The young Rotarians are going in as eyes wide open
as it is possible to go in to this trip.
“We’ve had regular meetings as a team, and I’ve
explained to them what they’re going to see, and
that it’s going to be confronting emotionally. It’s their
journey, but I’m there to support them – we will be
supporting each other.
“At the Rescue Mission Centre, they’re going to
experience the positives: the children who are being
proactively brought into a situation where they’re
being cared for and educated, which, at some stage
in their education, will allow them to get citizenship –
and that legal citizenship status will mitigate the risk of
them being abducted.”
While at the centre, the Rotarians planned two
priorities: work hard and spend quality time with the
Akha children there.
“The last two trips I’ve made there (in 2009 and 2012)
have been, largely, research-based, engaging with
organisations and spreading the word – this is the first
one with hands-on project work, so it’s going to be
really great.
“We’re planting 800 guava trees, and a number of
banana palms in the orchard, establishing a water
culture system, and we’re also running a dental clinic
for the kids who are at the centre.
“The kids have this favourite waterfall up in the
mountains they love to go and swim in, so our
Rotaractors are really looking forward to going there
with them.”

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