In June Paul changed jobs and is now working for Compassion Australia, a holistic child development and child advocacy organisation, as well as one of the recipients of the proceeds of his book, ‘Looking for Hope.’ Paul’s new role is National Director of the Child Advocate Network and National Director Child Advocacy Campaigns and Education. Paul, Kirsten and Emmanuel have now moved from Brisbane to Newcastle, NSW to take up this role. ‘I’m incredibly excited about what’s ahead in this new season working at Compassion – pushing deeper into advocating for children around the globe who are living in extreme poverty.’

For more information about Compassion, log onto www.compassion.com.au

In December 2008 Paul went back to Mumbai to visit some of the Anti-Sex Traffiking projects that the book ‘Looking for Hope’ is helping to fund. He met some amazing people there, including Anita, who he met and interviewed in June 2008.

Jeevan Asha (Life Hope) is a Salvation Army run drop-in centre in Mumbai’s Red Light District, which has been funded by Australians and part of the proceeds from Looking for Hope also go towards this project. Its aim is to rescue minors and children from a life of possible prostitution, to help with the educational needs of children of prostitutes and to show them a life of hope and future. The Drop in Centre also provides counselling for women on issues such as self care, HIV/Aids education and to help women come out of the work they have been forced into. Since Jeevan Asha began in 2004, the team have come into contact with over 6,000 prostitutes, they have referred 42 children at risk onto other NGO’s in Mumbai, and have rescued 38 children from prostitution.

Anita was sold into sexual slavery in Mumbai from Nepal at the age of 10 for 40,000 rupees ($1,000). She was tortured mentally and physically by her brothel keeper and was forced into prostitution. For the next 18 years, she saw up to 25 men a day and had very little freedom or hope for a tomorrow. She came into contact with The Salvation Army’s anti-sex trafficking projects and has now been freed from a life of prostitution after being given vocational skills training and assistance to leave the work and find employment in other industries.

Her two children were also rescued from the area and have been given a future that Anita could never have thought possible. Anita is a woman who has been given life and hope!

One of the biggest problem in Mumbai’s Red Light District is that many of the women would love to leave the work if they could, but they don’t have many other options. Many of them were sold or forced into sex slavery at a young age and so don’t have an education or other vocational skills. They need help to see a future, to be retrained and supported to leave the work of prostitution. The Salvation Army is working towards this end.

Paul Mergard

Why not grab yourselves a copy or two of Looking for Hope – the ideal Christmas present. Not only will someone receive an awesome coffee table book, but you will also help fund the fight against human traffiking. Proceeds from the sale of Looking for Hope go towards The Salvation Army’s fight against Human Traffiking and Compassions fight against poverty.

Order now on the shop page and have an awesome Christmas.

Paul Mergard

On Thursday we did an interview of a Nepalese woman who was sold into sex slavery at the age of 11 (before that she was working as slave labour in a garment factory in Nepal from the age of 9) and her story was mind blowing. We were able to record on DVD most of her story, including how she was tricked into coming to Mumbai, about her first week in the Red Light District in Mumbai and what her life has been like for the past 15 years or so. It has been amazing to see where she is at now, thanks to the work of The Salvation Army who have given her vocational skills training and help set her on a path of hope and a future. We also met her Son – he is living in one of the Salvation Army’s houses and the love between him and his mum is amazing – such an amazing experience.

The past week has been mind blowing – because of the extent and size of the Red Light District, because of the people we have spoken to and had an insight into their lives and because you realise that there are some amazing organisations doing some amazing things to help restore life and hope where it has been taken away.

Paul Mergard

The Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking, which this week brought together 1,400 delegates from 116 countries to share knowledge and develop an international strategy to combat human trafficking, called for greater awareness, more resources and coordinated action in the fight against human trafficking.

At the Vienna Forum, the campaign Stop the Traffik, a global coalition of over 900 grassroots organizations, presented UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa and Ricky Martin with a petition signed by 1.5 million people calling for an end to human trafficking. The campaign aims to prevent the sale of people, prosecute the traffickers and protect the victims.

Thank you to all of you who signed postcards and petitions and were part of the 1.5 million!

Paul

Over the past 10 days, Paul has spent time in New York and Dallas, USA, raising awareness of human traffiking. In New York he was able to speak to over 130 of The Salvation Army’s leaders on the issue of Traffiking and especially the Chocolate Campaign. It was quite amazing to see people stirred up to do something about this modern day evil.

In Dallas Paul was able to speak at 3 different churches about Traffiking – once again the response was amazing and hundreds of people were mobilised to make a difference.

Now back in Australia, Paul continues is fight to mobilise people to get informed, change their buying habits with chocolate and strive to make children’s lives different!

Cote d’Ivoire is a country in the west of Africa which produces more than 40% of the world’s cocoa crop.

In 2001 reports confirmed widespread child labour on cocoa farms Cote d’ Ivoire and hundreds of children being trafficked from nearby Mali. The conditions these children were working in was characterised as dangerous and they were forced to work long hours. In 2002 it was discovered that 284,000 children were trapped in forced labour in the West African cocoa industry. The majority of these (200,000) were to be found in Cote d’Ivoire. Many of these child labourers were discovered to have been trafficked from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo.

Stop the Traffik is pushing the fight against this form of slavery – for more information and to download resources, log onto http://www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign/ and join in the fight against this evil trade.

Paul has been mobilising people in Australia and the USA over the past few months to get involved in the fight against slavery in the cocoa industry by petitioning the chocolate industry to give the traffik free pledge on their chocolate. We can make a difference to the lives of thousands of children in West Africa – get informed and make a difference. If we change our chocolate buying habits and buy fair trade chocolate, we can enjoy our treats with the knowledge that no slaves have been used to harvest the cocoa we are eating.

Together we can make a difference.

One of the recipients of the proceeds of Looking for Hope will The Salvation Army’s anti-slavery projects in India. Over the past year, The Salvation Army have been able to rescue 37 children from the Red Light District in one of India’s leading cities. The lives of these girls have been transformed because they have been rescued from a life of prostitution and abuse.

The whole aim of the book Looking for Hope is to generate awareness of the issue of human traffiking and to raise funds for The Salvation Army’s fight against Human Traffiking and the work of Compassion Child Sponsorship.

It is great to see that lives are being changed because of the work of these two organisations.

Is there someone you could buy a book for today?

Together, we can make a difference.

• In 1807 there were 4 million slaves. Today it is more like 12 million. (Unicef 2003)
• An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year (Unicef 2003)
• 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. (US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005)
• Approx 80% are women and girls (US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005)
• Human Trafficking is the third largest source of income in organised crime: second only to arms and drug trafficking (UN Office on Drugs and Crime)
• 50,000 people die every day because they are poor. (Reality of aid 2004)
• A child dies every three seconds of hunger and preventable diseases (World Health Organisation)
• The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world's poorest countries. (Christian Aid)

Last weekend I went to Vanuatu with my now Fiancee (we got engaged in Vanuatu) and apart from the excitement of getting engaged, on Sunday we did a tour around the island and had the opportunity to meet one of the amazing faces behind one of my favourite photos.

I first saw Gabriel 2 years ago when in Vanuatu on holidays. We were doing an island tour and while sitting in the bus, I looked over and saw Gabriel, with both fingers up his nose! It was one of the moments. That image has brought lots of laughter, and on Sunday it was amazing to be able to laugh with Gabriel and his family. I had a copy of the photo with me, and was able to show it to him, and also to get a new photo with him.

Also, a few weeks ago I was in South Africa with some of our team launching Hotel Chaplaincy South Africa - an outreach to Schoolies (or Matric as they call them) in Plettenberg Bay on the south east cost of South Africa.

After our time in Plett, Paul Kurth headed back to Phuthaditjhaba where I have spent a bit of time and have taken photos there which appear in 'Looking for Hope'. Paul took one of my books with him to give to the pastors there, and also then had the opportunity to photograph one of the girls who also appears in Looking for Hope!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy Christmas and may 2007 be a year that sees an incredible difference made in our world in the fight against human traffiking and poverty. We can make a difference, we can shine light in the darkness.

Thanks for all your support in 2006 - it is greately appreciated.

Paul Mergard

Are you wondering what you are going to do about Christmas presents this year? Why not buy your family and friends a copy of Looking for Hope. Not only will you be able to give them an amazing Christmas present, but you will also be able to invest in the lives of children living in extreme poverty and also women and children from around the world who are being trafficked.

And to make this even better, we are now offering a 10% discount on all orders of five or more books.

Check out the shop here.

The United Nations defines trafficking like this:

'Trafficking in persons' shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

Source: Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (Palmero Protocol)

Put more simply trafficking can be defined like this:

Trafficking in people is the illegal movement of people, within national or across international borders, for the purposes of exploitation in the form of commercial sex, domestic service or manual labour.

Put even more simply:

It is slavery and exploitation of human life.

Proceeds from the sale of 'Looking for Hope' will go towards the fight against Human Trafficking.

On 25 August 2006 at the Brisbane Unlimited Conference, Darlene Zschech launched Looking for Hope. Darlene shared her passion for young children and her support of the book. She said the she doesn't endorse many things, but felt that this book was significant because of the difference it was trying to make in the lives of children all around the world.

Feature article in Pipeline Magazine, August 2006 by Anna Thompson

Every now and then a book lands in your hand with the power to change your life, or at least your outlook. This month, Salvationist Paul Mergard will release a book of photographs that is sure to provoke a response from those who peruse its pages — a deep response to the tragedy of human trafficking and poverty.

[more...]

On Saturday 19th August 2006, Paul Mergard's first coffee table book will be launched at The Salvation Army's Unlimited Conference in Sydney.

The 64 page book is full of images of children from all around the world, and highlights the work of Compassion and the issue of Human Trafficking.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to The Salvation Army's fight against Human Trafficking and the work of Compassion.

The book will retail for $29.95 (AUD)