Popping Your Child Trafficking Bubbles | Faye Simanjuntak | TEDxJakarta

I grew up in a bubble not in a physical sense of course but in the mental sense that ever since I was a kid I knew there were problems I knew I had to face them but they're not my problems I didn't have to face them I wasn't the one who was at fault so why is it my responsibility ever since I was a kid I realized that I had a lot of opportunities that other children didn't I could travel the world I had a family to go home to when I went home there was food waiting on the table I could go to schools that a lot of kids couldn't even dream of and in another sense I had the same opportunities that a lot of my peers did except for one there's one opportunity that I never realized was so special my mother and father had always told me it was important to give back they told me that I was privileged that I was lucky but I don't think I ever realized how lucky I was on Saturdays and Sundays my mother and I my mother and father brought me to orphanages to public housings and when I was a kid I'm going to admit up front right now that I didn't want to go I read rather stay home I would rather hang out with my friends my friends would come to school on Monday morning and tell me oh I did this I did that and I would be silent because honestly I didn't want to do it luckily that changed my mother came to me a couple years ago and told me you know what we're going on a trip and I said well okay she said that we were gonna visit 10 different orphanages in seven days and I said okay as any other child would you I met some people there they changed my life I don't know what it was about them maybe it was the way they smiled at the face of adversity maybe it was their talent for music but something about them stood out to me they didn't have a home and I said you know what I'm going to help them I need to donate money I went to my mom and said mom how are you going to help the mom is there any way you can help me she said no I said what do you mean you have money you have the people you have the contacts why or a telling me to do and she says wait but you have the passion and so that night I went home and I wrote a letter to over a hundred people saying next month is my birthday instead of gifts please for my ninth birthday give him give me money for them we raised 96 million and when that happened a lot of people came to mean they said you should be proud of yourself and I said oh yes thank you because I realized that as much as I was happy that I had helped them it was a short-term thing that was all I had done what else am I supposed to do coincidentally a couple weeks after my birthday we were learning oh we started a new unit at school social justice and during that unit we touched briefly on something called human trafficking I don't know what it was about it but I went home and I said that I wanted to know more about it i sat down opened up open up my mom's computer my mom sat next to me and I researched human trafficking and I realized that it wasn't just human trafficking it was child trafficking and it wasn't just child trafficking it was child labor it was child prostitution it was children my age being sold for sex and I looked at it and I thought okay but it doesn't happen in Indonesia I found out that a hundred and fifty thousand children are trapped every year in Indonesia I found out that 43.5% of these children are younger than 14 years old until a couple months ago that was my age now it's younger than me and I know for a lot of us what is this but a couple numbers percentages statistics who has time to think about that so I'm going to do you a favor at least I hope it is going to tell your story I had her I've had a friend I still do it I'd like to think I met her I first met her three years ago she was 18 years old and her name let's call her Malwa when I met her I don't think I realized what story I was about to listen to she told me that you know what she had gotten married at the age of 10 she had given birth at the age of 11 and then she was trafficked at the age of 12 I said well how did that happen she said she and her friends had been sitting and eating in a restaurant they had been talking about how they were going to end up supporting their children their husbands a woman came over to them and said oh I overheard what you were saying you need jobs I have the perfect job for you her friends immediately agreed they had no other choice mulatto herself thought wait are you sure she was hesitant but what other option did she have so she agrees she agrees and they get on a truck that night and they travel for hours and hours and hours and hours and they're picking up other girls along the way and nobody knows where they're going but they have no other choice because they don't know where they are they can't just stop the truck and get out they finally reach their destination Maya and her friends were trafficked into child labour mama told me she transitioned from one house from each house every month she said there is one man who would hit her with a specific table there was one man who threatened to rape her she was split up from her friends she was lost and alone and as I listened I didn't understand how this could happen so close to me I asked well what happened to your friends I know you escaped but where are your friends and she said we don't know the first friend we never found the second friend we found that not in the state we wished she was pregnant and dead in the back of a dump truck that was one of the first stories I ever heard the first survivor story that moved me so much that's how to maffei came to be an NGO that helps children who are trafficked into prostitution sex trafficking and a lot of people ask why is that so important why did I as a young child feel the need for an actual NGO it's that Roma Fey is one of the only fully Indonesian nongovernmental organizations that help children who are trafficked into sex sex trafficking in all three programs prevention rescue and rehabilitation we're Indonesian and a lot of people ask why prevention why not just rescue and rehabilitation like a lot of other NGOs because you see this is a cycle that is already happening in Indonesia its cycle that keeps going and going and most of us don't even realize it it's not about getting girls out of this cycle it's about stopping this cycle completely it's about giving opportunities to people who don't have any not just educational opportunities with so vocational opportunities you see under prevention it's teaching people their rights it's telling people that you have rights and you have to stand up for them how many people have to here have children yes how many people here know the four basic rights that the children that your children have under Indonesian law and can cite it see like one person you see under Indonesian law we have four basic rights not only that that's not our only right it's that Indonesia is one of the countries that signed the United Nation rights of the child which has over 50 rights for children that can be applied and this is the first right that can be applied for anybody under 18 years old and this isn't even all of it how many rights do you think are violated right now in our country people come and they tell me that well is it really happening where does it happen are you sure it happens here because I've never seen it before I told you earlier that I was in disbelief of human trafficking because it had never touched me personally it was never in my community at least that's what I thought as I grew up as I worked in maffei I realized that actually it kind of did you see I told you earlier that Saturdays and Sundays were spent in orphanages and public housings where I would switch email with emails with the kids I wouldn't talk to them regularly but sometimes I would shoot off an email and say hi I'm coming this weekend I'll meet you there and they say yes but there are days when I'd come and they wouldn't be there and I would ask do you know where she is do you know where they went can can I contact her some way and they would don't look me in the eye they would say oh I don't know and I dropped it and now I know that a lot of these girls they left to find jobs and most of them had ended up selling their bodies and that is the one regret I've had for years that I dropped a lot of these conversations human trafficking happens in our communities earlier I told you about my friend Mel watt and I know for most of you when I sold when I told you about malwa you automatically thought of a place far far away from here yes it happens but not here that happens all the time and do you know where my what happened it happened within walking distance of this place it happens in your communities human trafficking child trafficking child prostitution happens in Indonesia and it's time we understand it's a problem it's time we understand that sex should not be a taboo sex education is important not only for children who have the means to education but also for children who have never dreamt of it we have to understand that's kids have rights that must be respected thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 41,513

Rating: 4.9271464 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, Indonesian, Humanities, Children, Crime, Movement, Trafficking

Id: O-N-c1StpJA

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 25 2017