Update on Drop in Center in Chiang Mai

So here we are in Chiang Mai with a million and one thoughts, emotions and feelings running through our veins. Who knew what this place could stir up? Yesterday we met with VCDF volunteers (the drop-in center) and hung out with many of the street kids. The issue of child prostititution is so complex and completely unfathomable, it is so much more heart breaking than we could have ever imagined. Kids are sold by family members for as little as 100 baht(roughly $3) and this is Reality.
Even as the logistics are explained, the fact is that many of these kids are undocumented Burmese coming from the border and are looked down upon by the Thai people (there are exceptions of course), living in the streets and slums and selling their bodies at the all ages, some 7 or 8 years old. Addiction is a huge issue, the main ones are meth and huffing glue. It is an endless cycle- selling themselves for sex to buy the drugs to escape from what they are doing and to feed the established addiction. These facts floated around like buoys but unwilling to take anchor- we know they are their but it took a while for them to even begin to anchor in our hearts.

We have leaped out of our comfort zones and have spent time in the areas where the kids will prostitute themselves out- mainly the gay bars and an area near one of the city gates. These gay bars are frequented by older, Western men and it broke our hearts to see many of the teenage street boys that we had hung out with earlier that day at the VCDF drop-in center with these men. This is when it began to sink in. There was no denial of reality when entering these bars, there was no shame, it was all out there. That was the craziest thing, is the boldness of these Western patrons as they made out with these boys and molested them, committing acts that would never be acceptable or stood for in the states (not that it doesn't happen, but it would never happen as blatantly and out in the open as it does here). It's hard. Hard to focus on the hope when being faced with the immense reality of the situation. However, we recognize how vital it is for our time here that we continually remember where that hope lies and that it is there. Hearing success stories and witnessing different aspects of the children's lives gives us hope. We see the good that work that the organizations that we are working with are doing, and there are some posters stating that child prostitution is illegal. What is being done does not seem nearly enough, and we can't help but wonder what we can do.