Over the past few years, there have been a number of issues that have come across the wires that have shocked us in China. There was SARS, labor scandals, environmental catastrophes, and so on. Many of these issues are ones that developing nations in general must deal with (only SARS is a China specific issue), but for many in the international world there are few topics more sensitive than those related to children. Last week when I attended a UNICEF presentation that was very enlighting, and over the next week I continually ran into the same issues that their people presented. the abuse and trafficking of children. According to official statistics (which I have learned only become official after a police report has been filed), there are roughly 30,000 cases of kidnapping a year in China, and there are two primary markets for kidnapped children/ teens: (1) marriage and (2) sex industry Where the presentation and the reports were so enlightening is that it appears that the action of selling girls into marrage finds is roots in a combination of culture (boys are heirs) and the one child policy, and has a long history, the development of the sex industry is relatvely a new phenomenon… but is growing faster than kidnapping for marriage. At this point, all the data appears to point towards China’s labor markets as the current place for kidnappers to find their victims, and unlike in the west, many of the women kidnapped are in the 16-22 age range. They are from Yunnan, Sichuan, and other parts of the southwest were poverty levels are higher, education rates are lower, and there are large number of women going to the job markets to find jobs in the big city. See this report from Australian Institute of Criminology  From what I have been able to dig up, the only two programs I have been able to find are those with UNICEF and another with the International Labor Organization . the ILO in fact has a number of publications available online about the problem and what their programs are. For me, this is a problem that could be largely solved with the right resources and campaign. At the heart of the problem is that the markets themselves are inefficient and there is little transparency for these women. UNICEF and the ILO have both put in place programs that look to arm these young women knowledge and tools so tht they are not duped, but even with up to 100,000 women trained, there is still a long way to go. Companies have an opportunity here to have a huge impact, and fast. Partnerships with either of these groups is a start, but also taking their programs into your areas via your employee volunteers is another way you can assist. for more on this, I highly recommend viewing the award winning documentary China’s Lost Children. It is available on Youtube, and through this video you will see several stories of children lost, of parents searching, and snake heads in action. Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

PArt 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9