AAI partnered with UNODC to provide training in Cartagena Colombia law enforcement and airport personnel at Cartagena’s Airport on July 21, 2017

This training was made possible with support of the Girls Rights Foundation. Training team includes Carlos Perez of UNODC, survivor Marcella Loaiza and Andrea Bravo of the Marcella Loaiza Foundation, Alma Valadez and Jose Redondo. The team visited with local NGO identified by SACSA to see programs for children most vulnerable to child exploitation.

Cartagena is known as a sex tourism destination in the America’s – We applaud the efforts of our colleague Operation Underground Railroad for staging a dangerous rescue here in 2014.

We continued to visit the projects of SASCA supporting the girls and boys vulnerable to sexual Exploitation…See this THANK YOU from the kids and see pics below

Read this report from Insight Crime:

RawFeed: Child Prostitution in Cartagena

With an estimated 35,000 sexually exploited minors in Colombia, child prostitution is a widespread and lucrative industry. And, as symbolized by the sentencing last year of an Italian pedophile, the first such conviction in Colombia, “sex tourism” involving children has grown alongside the licit tourist industry in popular destinations like Cartagena.

In a three-part video series, “Children of the Wall,” El Espectador takes a look at the prostitution of children in Cartagena. The colonial city is best known as a stopover for Caribbean cruises, attracting between 400,000 and 700,000 tourists a year. But not all visitors come with good intentions.

Last year Cartagena officially registered 400 cases related to the sexual exploitation of minors, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office. The number of unreported cases is likely to be many, many more.

El Espectador identified three common business models for child prostitution rings in the city. The first is brothels, where young girls either live or are contracted out by day. Some sex dens are sophisticated enough to provide girls with fake IDs once they begin work, but not all brothels are as organized. As observed by General Ricardo Restrepo, chief of police for Cartagena, there have been some cases of mothers hiring out their daughters for 15,000 pesos (about $8), which includes payment for using a room in their own house.

Another common form of child prostitution is known colloquially as ‘pre-pagos,’ or escort services, which involve minors working with pre-arranged clients, sometimes organized through marriage or dating websites. Girls may also be deployed by pimps to bars and clubs, in an attempt to target wealthy, often foreign, potential clients.

The third is perhaps the most informal form of prostitution: girls from broken homes in working class neighborhoods who are coerced by neighbors or acquaintances into selling sexual favors, for fees as low as 2,000 or 5,000 pesos (between US$1.70 and US$2.70).

Our team was so moved by these projects we made a decision to return to help the local children and support the human trafficking awareness in the airline community…We are planning another visit on December 15 when American Airlines inaugurates a new route Miami – Cartagena on December 15, 2017.  See this video at one of the projects and pics below of the soccer program.  Projects were identified with the support of SACSA – the Sociedad Aeroportuaria de la Costa SA

Cartagena is a beautiful and historic city and we had some fun too – traveling to make a difference!