The Management Board of Crime Stoppers International invited Airline Ambassadors to deliver a presentation at the 38th Annual Crime Stoppers International Conference which took place will be held at the Hilton Panama, Panama City, Panama on October 15th – 18th 2017.
Under the theme “Taking action against transnational crime”, the primary goal of the conference was to determine strategies that can be implemented to counter intellectual property crime and illicit trade as well as related crime areas such as organized crime, money laundering and corruption. The topics to be covered are as follows:
- Crime Stoppers International (CSI) is a global non-profit organization that supports the efforts of law enforcement to help stop, solve and prevent crime. As the umbrella body of Crime Stoppers programmes worldwide, our mission is “to mobilize the world to report crime anonymously”. To accomplish this mission, we provide communities with a platform to report information (tips) on crime along with a guarantee that the identity of the individual who is submitting the tip will never be known. Since the inception of the Crime Stoppers concept in 1976 to date, law enforcement agencies around the world have cumulatively been able to arrest near to 1 million criminals, and seize close to US$9 billion worth of illicit drugs as a result of information provided to Crime Stoppers. It should be noted that CSI maintains a co- operation agreement with INTERPOL and a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC).
AAI’s president gave an overview on The Transport Sector is key in combatting human trafficking
Dave Rivard presented for Airline Ambassadors at the Interpol Conference on Trafficking in Human Beings in Doha, Qatar on Dec. 7 2017, reporting on the global reporting tool….the TIP Line App and CTIP Reporting. See abstract below:
INTERPOL PROJECT TO SUPPORT COUNTER MIGRANT SMUGGLING CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMS
Dave also presented to the Regional Working Group Meeting on Private Sector Cooperation in October as part of a group composed of members of the INTERPOL Specialized Operational Network against People Smuggling (ISON) from countries in the Balkans region (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia), as well as 
presenters from private companies, regional law enforcement bodies and international organizations and institutions. DHS gave guidance, along with chiefs from various Balkan police departments and INTERPOL. AAI, along with these Balkan Representatives, conceived a plan to provide counter human trafficking training in several countries, to commence in early 2018. These countries harbor the major migration route for trafficked Middle Eastern and African refugees into Europe and even the UBER announced that they would like to partner with AAI with our other C-TIP training efforts around the world.
C-TIP Reporting/Data Collection app – Success and Challenge Abstract
Airline Ambassadors International (AAI) has led global airline industry awareness for Trafficking in Persons (TIP) since 2009 and has developed the first industry specific training. AAI provides for vulnerable communities by leveraging partnerships with the airline industry and is comprised of over 16,000 airline employees who “travel to make a difference”.
AAI is still the only organization conducting Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Training at airports. To date, AAI has conducted 65 C-TIP Trainings that now link over 6,000 front line professionals with law enforcement. As each flight attendant interacts 
with a minimum of 500 passengers per week, AAI C-TIP trainees are, so far, capable of monitoring over 156,000,000 passengers per year! If all 200,000 Members from the U.S. based Association of Professional Flight Attendants alone were trained, they would be capable of monitoring over 5.2 billion passengers. According to ICAO, 3.7 billion passengers flew in 2016.
AAI’s program is a seeming success, however, the key goal of training is reporting – and data sharing to understand how effective the C-TIP training is. AAI Trainees have complained that National TIP Hotlines are largely ineffective in reporting this crime, and reporting incidences are not shared with NGO or public programs, whose assistance law enforcement calls for. Additionally, no national TIP hotline today has time critical situation functionality.
To make its trainings effective, AAI originally developed the “TIP Line” app. Now, it’s successor, “C-TIP”, swiftly communicates to users, featuring end-to-end, peer-to-peer encrypted communication capabilities with data rich information – that all national tip hotlines are unable
to receive. Also, although trained and employed professionals can contribute high quality threat information, the attribute of volume as measured against positive alerts is difficult to assess when agencies will not share whether or not a report was positively identified.
This presentation discusses both challenges and opportunities of developing citizen networks that can assist law enforcement.
This spring, Airline Ambassadors provided a letter of support of to To Representative Ann Wagner, to hold the Internet liable for selling children – etc: and recently lent our voice to the internet video in support of this important legislation: Here is a link to a new PSA encouraging Congressional action to amend Section 230. https://vimeo.com/236160293 and below our original letter of support from AAI for Ann Wagner’s bill.
To whom it may concern:
Airline Ambassadors International (AAI) applauds the effort of Congresswoman Ann Wagner in strengthening Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, empowering state law enforcement agencies to stop websites and social media sites (like Backpage) from advertising and selling young victims. The proposed language would allow victims to exercise their private right of action against the websites that knowingly advertise them.
As a leading advocate for awareness in the airline industry, we at AAI know that traffickers often use the speed and convenience or commercial air travel to move their victims from state to state. Law enforcement agencies must cooperate and states must be able to enforce sex trafficking laws. Courts have interpreted section 230 to circumvent that right and give immunity to online criminal enterprises. This is an issue linked to drugs, arms and terrorism and the internet is the newest battleground.
Internet service providers like Backpage.com have greatly profited from “adult services” sections that are used to solicit sex trafficking. Unfortunately, these exploitative marketplaces have been allowed to flourish with impunity. This is because—despite the fact that the U.S. criminal system gives states authority to prosecute crimes within their bounds— but courts have interpreted section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to prevent enforcement of criminal and civil law.
Representative Wagner’s new bill, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, will clarify that online marketplaces that advertise victims of trafficking are not immune from criminal and civil liability. Each state has a responsibility to protect children within its borders. Internet service providers who are running online marketplaces should comply with state tax laws and with state criminal laws relating to sex trafficking and child sex exploitation.
In Ann’s words : “ Advertising sex trafficking victims is not a civil right.” And we proudly add our support to her important efforts.
Very Sincerely,
Nancy Rivard
President
Here is a link to watch the briefing: https://www.facebook.com/centeronexploitation/.
BREAKING NEWS: Erik Bauer, Mike Pfau and the Seattle legal team for JS just this morning announced a ground-breaking settlement with Backpage, bringing the 7-year old case to a close. https://pcva.law/pcva_news/backpage-lawsuit-and-settlement/
- Call your Senator/Representative to amend #CDA230 #IamJaneDoe WATCH: http://bit.ly/2xeak0Y @cindymccain @repannwagner @repmaloney @repbeatty @missingkids
- Congress must pass #SESTA to amend #CDA230. WATCH: http://bit.ly/2xeak0Y @CATWIntl @rights4girls @ecpatusa @ECPAT
- Amend #CDA230 WATCH: http://bit.ly/2xeak0Y #IamJaneDoe @McCainInstitute @ECPAT @LearyOnLaw
- Thank you @IBMpolicy for speaking out in support of #SESTA and amending #CDA230. Tweet link: http://bit.ly/2xeGNnT #IAmJaneDoe
- Tech companies must be held #accountable for their #role in #enabling #sex #trafficking. #AmendCDA230 WATCH: http://bit.ly/2xeak0Y
IBM: IBM is the newest company to publicly support SESTA. (See tweet above).
JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Today there was a Judiciary Committee Hearing on the House bill: https://judiciary.house.gov/hearing/online-sex-trafficking-communications-decency-act/
Thank you all for your work on behalf of sex trafficking survivors and for your continued support of this project.
September 25 was an auspicious and very special day at the Eco Home for Orphans in Nepal. The long awaited opening of the Happy Shepherd’s Cottage was celebrated with fun and festivities. Built in loving memory of Anonie Skaper by her daughter, AAI volunteer and AA flight attendant, Romy Skaper, the Happy Shepherd’s Home is 
just steps away from the orphans residence. With three bedrooms, full bathrooms, a living/dining area and kitchenette, it is a perfect place for our volunteer teams. The beautiful views of the valley are a bonus. We can comfortably house six or more volunteers on AAI missions! Enjoy this video of the opening ceremonies.
Together we spent hours and hours shopping in the crowded stores of KTM to furnish the Happy Shepherd’s Cottage. It was a fun…and exhausting! The Happy Shepherd’s Cottage is now waiting to welcome AI volunteers who hopefully will enjoy it as they enhance the lives of the EcoHome children for many years to come Join us in 2018!
Kate Jewell, Nepal Mission Coordinator.
Here is a letter from Romy Skaper
Hello Team Nepal;
It is my first morning back home, and I did not want a day to pass before thanking each and every one of you for the tremendous effort in bringing the dream of the Happy Shepherd’s Cottage to reality!
It was much more than I could have ever imagined, and it exceeded my expectations on every level. I had engaged in several fundraising effort’s before leaving the States in order to purchase furnishings and supplies for the cottage. Kate, Abhaya and I shopped with vengeance and were able to accomplish quite a bit at a reasonable value. We had planned on another round of shopping once we saw the cottage and could determine more accurately what was needed. However, many of the shops were closed due to the holiday so I left the remaining funds with Kate as well as a corresponding list of needed items. She will do a bit more shopping when the shops re-open and if there are any funds remaining, she wil
l hand those over to Bibhu with a list of remaining purchases to be made.
Additionally, I had a brief meeting with Bibhu where I pledged $1000 a year for the next five years for the ongoing maintenance and operating costs of the cottage beginning in 2018. It is my desire that after five years our program of volunteers will be strong enough to make the cottage not only self-supporting, but produce additional funds to help support the Eco-Farm and the children.
We also experienced such a delightful time with the children and we are working on future programs to give them life skills. We held a class on hospitality which would serve them in the travel/trekking industry as well as airline, hotel and food service. The children were very re
ceptive and practiced their skills on us for the remaining days of our visit. We are also working on bringing in a volunteer British hairdresser who teaches a 4 to 5 day class and issues certifications to those students who successfully complete her course. While on site, I began to lay the groundwork by doing a brief hairstyling demonstration for the ladies, but the certification would be open to both ladies and gents:))
Again, I cannot express my sincere gratitude for all of the hard work and dedication to this project. I look forward to what the future brings and am truly blessed to have such strong leaders and mentors in my life.
Namaste and God Bless,
Romy
CONTACT INFO
Hello Team Nepal;
It is my first morning back home, and I did not want a day to pass before thanking each and every one of you for the tremendous effort in bringing the dream of the Happy Sheperd’s Cottage to reality!
It was much more than I could have ever imagined, and it exceeded my expectations on every level. I had engaged in several fundraising effort’s before leaving the States in order to purchase furnishings and supplies for the cottage. Kate, Abhaya and I shopped with vengeance and were able to accomplish quite a bit at a reasonable value. We had planned on another round of shopping once we saw the cottage and could determine more accurately what was needed. However, many of the shops were closed due to the holiday so I left the remaining funds with Kate as well as a corresponding list of needed items. She will do a bit more shopping when the shops re-open and if there are any funds remaining, she will hand those over to Bibhu with a list of remaining purchases to be made.
Additionally, I had a brief meeting with Bibhu where I pledged $1000 a year for the next five years for the ongoing maintenance and operating costs of the cottage beginning in 2018. It is my desire that after five years our program of volunteers will be strong enough to make the cottage not only self-supporting, but produce additional funds to help support the Eco-Farm and the children.
We also experienced such a delightful time with the children and we are working on future programs to give them life skills. We held a class on hospitality which would serve them in the travel/trekking industry as well as airline, hotel and food service. The children were very receptive and practiced their skills on us for the remaining days of our visit. We are also working on bringing in a volunteer British hairdresser who teaches a 4 to 5 day class and issues certifications to those students who successfully complete her course. While on site, I began to lay the groundwork by doing a brief hairstyling demonstration for the ladies, but the certification would be open to both ladies and gents:))
Again, I cannot express my sincere gratitude for all of the hard work and dedication to this project. I look forward to what the future brings and am truly blessed to have such strong leaders and mentors in my life.
Namaste and God Bless,
Romy
Thank you American Airlines management for your unconditional support!Thank you MIA AA Cargo you guys Rock!) Thank you Eulen for preparing and packing so carefully the pillows and blankets.
Thank you Airline Ambassadors for allowing me to serve for a great cause with all your support.
Thank you AA Mexico for welcoming me in your city with so much love!
Best regards,
Alex Karl Restrepo
Emp 519050
MIA FA
American Airlines made a generous donation of 300 pillows and blankets which were hand delivered by our team with Alex Restrepo October 3rd. In Alex’s words “Thank you to everyone for all your help. With those 300 pillows and blankets, there will be 300 adults and children that will have a decent warm good night sleep, thanks to all of you!
Also thank you to Angels of Hope, that provided T shirts for kids in the earthquake communities hardest hit by the disaster….here is Alex’s thank you to Arnie at Angels of Hope:
Hello Arnie,
I want to thank you, once again, for your continuous support to our missions. The t-shirts were properly distributed in Mexico to children in need. I traveled 4 hours to the nearest city where the earthquake epicenter was and visited 4 refugee centers. When I arrived most of the children were in a tent Attending school, So I took pictures with those that were not in school at one refugee center.
As always, may God bless you and your beautiful organization that brings HOPE to those in need.
Best regards,
Alex Karl Restrepo
Mission Coordinator
Representative Barbara Comstock joined the HUman Trafficking Awareness Seminar at Madeira School on November 9, 2017. Thanks to support from Great Falls Rotary, and Madeira School. Skye Jannery-Barney, Miss Teen Virginia is a student at Madeira and recommended a training at her school whose goal is to launch women to change the world as a 21st Century leader in Girls Education. Nancy Rivard and survivor Alicia Kozakeiwicz presented from Airline Ambassadors training team as well as author, advocate and survivor Barbara Amaya & Investigator, Bill Woolf from Just Ask, who helped adapt the training for students and parents in the local community. Here is the story in McLean Connection and Here is a link to the FOX TV Coverage
MEDIA ALERT Date: November 1, 2017
Media contact: Nancy Rivard angels@airlineamb.org (415) 359-8006
CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA COMSTOCK KICKS OFF HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS SEMINAR AT THE MADEIRA SCHOOL
8328 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22102
Date/Time: Thursday, November 9th, 2017 7:00PM – 8:30 PM
Featured Speakers: Airline Ambassadors and Epic – sponsored by Great Falls Rotary
“Human trafficking is real and it is happening in Fairfax County,” reports Just Ask President and former Fairfax County Police Detective Bill Woolf, noting that, “Teen sex trafficking is the second fastest growing crime in Fairfax County.”
Congresswoman Barbara Comstock will kick off a Human Trafficking awareness seminar on November 9 at 7pm at The Madeira School that includes training from Woolf. Sponsored by the Great Falls Rotary and open to community members, Great Falls Rotary President Vishal Chawla shares, “We have invited several human trafficking awareness leaders to come together to help our community prevent and protect their families from human trafficking. Education is the best and most important tool.”
The evening includes personal stories from survivor Alicia Kozakeiwicz, and author, advocate, and survivor, Barbara Amaya, as well as information on how to recognize report potential human trafficking happening in Virginia.
Featured speaker Nancy Rivard, President of Airline Ambassadors shares, “Each young person, parent and community member interacts with hundreds of people in their daily lives, at school, at the mall, grocery store and sporting events and knowing how to recognize trafficking indicators can help stop trafficking before it begins.”
Recognizing the importance of highlighting teen sex trafficking locally, Madeira Head of School, Pilar Cabeza de Vaca, notes, “Madeira’s seminar on Human Trafficking awareness brings to light the scope of human trafficking, and empowers participants to act locally and play an important role in the prevention of modern day slavery.
Participants will be given resources for support including handouts, wallet cards and fact sheets to assist them in recognizing and reporting potential Human Trafficking.
To register for the free Human Trafficking Awareness Seminar at Madeira, go to madeira.org and register in the events section.
About Airline Ambassadors International (www.airlineamb.org) utilizes airline contacts to provide for vulnerable children worldwide. Members volunteer as medical escorts, hand-deliver humanitarian aid to orphanages, and educate and advocate for child protection and human trafficking awareness globally as a leading advocate for awareness in the transport industry.
About EPIC
EPIC Solutions, an affiliate of SeraphimGLOBAL (a 501(c)(3) organization), seeks to mobilize professionals and community leaders both domestically in the United States, as well as internationally, to adopt and implement effective policies and provide vital training to combat the social injustice of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation
###
HAPPY HALLOWEEN from the Children’s Medical Escort Program!
Teresa Garza and Tammy Meade share about our program at DFW Health & Safety Fair
Photo at left is Ana Perkins and Mary Rhoden Lobban, both AE flight attendants as they swap out escorting Baby Mark from BZE to MIA to STL. He was born with dislocated hips and club feet and will be treated at Shriners in STL.
On the right is Isabel Moss, an AE F/A and one of our long time escorts bringing 5 year old Aydin from GUA to MIA. He will go on with Shenae Johnson to EWR for his facial surgery.
Special thanks also to the incredible escorts who volunteer for the Paris trips….these can be really complicated…see this example of report from a trip this month:
“On Oct. 25, Gael Yanogo, age 4 was returning home to Burkina Faso following urological surgery in CMH. His routing was CMH/ORD/CDG on AA. Diane Rigsby, an AA Res agent in DFW flew from DFW to CMH to meet him and accompany him on to ORD where they would meet Debbie Baird, another DFWAA Res agent who was taking a flight from DFW to ORD. From there, Deb and Gael were to continue on to CDG where they would meet the ASF (Air France) escort who would take him home to Burkina Faso.
But before Diane even arrived in CMH, Connie Lowry, our trip coordinator, received word that Debbie’s flight from DFW to ORD had a mechanical. Then by the time Diane landed in CMH the delay had gone into more of a “creeping” delay with a real possibility that Debbie would miss her flight from ORD to CDG. She had one backup flight to ORD but it was completely full and, being a Res agent, Debbie could not take a jump seat. Diane landed in CMH and immediately it was decided that she should take Gael and go right back to DFW, have Debbie wait for them there, then take the DFW to CDG nonstop. Problem was, we had less than 30 minutes to get all of this arranged. Gael’s ticket had to be changed, Diane’s A12 had to be changed, and finally, Debbie’s A12 had to be changed.
Yet somehow, all this was accomplished and both the CDG police and the ASF escort were notified of the new arrival. Now, in case anyone is wondering why we didn’t route Gael through DFW in the first place, this is just another thing that must be considered, especially on the CDG trips. Had we done this, Diane would have had no backup at all and if the CMH/DFW flight had been delayed, they would have misconnected to the CDG trip which had a minimal connecting time anyway. Then the entire trip would have been scrapped, including the final leg on Air France. There is so much that can go wrong with these CDG trips and they can suddenly turn into real nightmares for all concerned but especially for our trip coordinators. We were lucky with this one”.
Here is an update on Wushuang Yang, who we brought several years ago as an 11 year old critically burned girl from PEK to CVG Shriners. Wu is now 20 and a sophomore at Marian University in IND. She is still a Shriners patient, having undergone almost 30 surgeries so far. She is the most courageous young woman I have ever known and amazes all who know her as she continues her college education. Last year she was able to obtain a full scholarship to Marian, which is what enabled her to even attend college and she was a straight A student while she also held down two part time jobs. Donations from some of our caring AAI members helped to make this possible. This year she has a partial scholarship so donations will once again be a huge help to her. If you’d like to help this deserving young woman, the AAI Children’s Medical Escort Program can send checks directly to Marian University in her name again this year and it will be a tax deduction.
I am back in college now. Our school started on the 21st of August, but I had surgery the 22nd, so I was not back until later in the week. My current major is Biology Pre-med and Biomedical Engineering. I added a major last semester because I wanted to explore more options for myself rather than just medical school. It was definitely a crazy idea of doing this. I don’t regret it but I definitely don’t have enough time everyday anymore between classes, lab, homework and work. I barely get enough sleep this year during the week, which is so different compared to my first year. First year was so easy compared to now and future… So far I am enjoying my classes even though it is a lot of work. This semester I’m enrolled in 19 credit hours: internship( the internship I did in the summer could count for credits,) Cell Biology (with lab), Organic Chemistry (with lab), Calculus I (5 times/week), intro to Engineering profession, and a engineer class at IUPUI(we are learning about how to use a software to build models). I take classes at IUPUI because of the new major that I added last semester. It is a dual degree and is a program that Marian offers with IUPUI. 
I will get two degrees one from Marian (biology)and one from IUPUI (engineering) in five years. Currently I’m still exploring if I like engineering more or still the medical field. Depending on that, I might apply for medical school, or MD/PhD or just work as engineer. I’m not sure at this time because I don’t know enough about engineering to decide yet. I did work in the summer and was a summer intern, along with a couple surgeries. The intern was at Margaret Mary Health, I was able to help out at many different departments and learned a lot about how hospital as a whole works and what each department is like.
Here are some recent escort stories send my our Children’s Medical Escort Director – Margaret Whitehead:
Pictured to left is Laetitia Alger Schley, our escort, who is an AA flight attendant and from France with the kids she accompanied back toParis recently after their donated medical care was completed. On this trip she was able to present the Charles DeGaulle Border Police with two nice award plaques that we had made to thank them for their assistance each time we have kids in/out of Paris. One award is for their office in Terminal 2A, the AA terminal, and the other for Terminal 2E, the AF terminal. The police always meet our escort and child at the airplane door when we are taking a child to Paris, and then help us to meet up with the ASF escort who will accompany him onward, usually to Burkina Faso. Without their help we would be unable to continue this part of our program.
To the right is a picture of
Tammy Meade and Yi Shan Lu, both DFWAA flight attendants with Baby
Wenqi as they swap escorts in DFW. Yi Shan brought the baby from PEK to DFW where they were met by Tammy who took her on to MEM where she is scheduled to have open heart surgery. The little almost 2 year old cried for the first 3 hours of the flight, then finally settled down and slept but refused to eat. She only wanted her bottle. The poor baby was so exhausted by the time they arrived in DFW that she fell asleep in Tammy’s arms. She’ll be in all our thoughts as she undergoes this delicate surgery to repair her heart.
Bunny Doi (pictured at left) also recently accompanied Eldaa, a 15 year old girl back to CDG. The interesting part is that the girl’s father remembered that Bunny had brought her back to Burkina Faso from Paris when she was a baby after a cleft lip repair, and when our escorts went all the way to that African country. That was before we knew about ASF, the Air France escort group. The girl had to return to Columbus, Ohio for additional medical care after all these years. Bunny didn’t remember her initially but did remember the all night celebration they held for her the night they arrived in Ouagadougou. There was lots of singing, dancing, speeches were made in their native language, and much rejoicing that Baby Eldaa had been returned home all healthy and happy.
We have several more trips coming up in the next couple of weeks –On 30 Sep DFW flight attendant Tamara Bessette will accompany 10 year old Cristhofer from GUA to DFW where they will meet DFW Res Agt. Joy Heflin who will continue with him to CVG where he will have donated eye surgery.On 02Oct, Mary Rhoden Lobban and Ana Perkins, both Envoy flight attendants will combine to take Baby Mark from BZE to MIA to STL for donated orthopedic surgery.On 03Oct, Envoy flight attendant Isabel Moss will bring 5 year old Aydin from GUA to MIA and hand him over to DFWAA Res Agt Shenae Johnson for the rest of his journey to EWR where he will undergo surgery for a frontal encephlocele.Finally, on 11Oct there will be another CMH to CDG trip to take Hamado, age 2 years and Anaja, age 7 as they return to their families in Burkina Faso. DFWAA Res Agt Debbie Baird and PHX Flight Attendant Tracie Springer will meet Maria Malon, ORDAA Flight Attendant and the kids in ORD as they arrive from CMH to start their long journey home.
Following our human trafficking awareness training at Cartagena International Airport in 2017 we were introduced to the projects of SACSA – the Sociedad Aeroportuaria de la Costa SA to support the vulnerable children in Barrio San Francisco (near the airport) so vulnerable to sex trafficking. Our team was moved by these projects we promised to return to help the local children.
March 8-11, 2018 our AAI team returned to spend an unforgettable weekend mission in the beautiful Colonial city of Cartagena. We distributed T Shirts from Angels of Hope, school supplies and hygiene amenities and Youth for Human Rights curriculum for children of the SACSA program. Jose Redondo, as team leader also led a class on human trafficking awareness which was very well received. The following day we delivered more supplies and challenged the kids to a game of soccer. SACSA provided lunch for all the kids.
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 much 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 o
bserved 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 roomin 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).
