Addis Ababa

Three years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a group of colleagues that fight against human trafficking in Eastern Africa. My colleagues had more than 40 years of experience between them, through which they provided me with lots of new information.

While being there, our hostess told us that there are currently more than 100,000 women in prostitution in her city. When she started her work there more than 20 years ago, there were around 60,000, (which represents a 67% increase in that period of time). With this information we started analyzing these growing numbers more in-depth and all the indications were very interesting. 

As a side note to compare, we looked at the numbers in another country. In Germany, sex is purchased more than 1.2 million times daily, according to official data from establishments registered by the government; which means that approximately 1 in every 20 men buy sex every day in Germany. This numbers brought us to the following questions: What is happening here in Mexico City? What is causing this phenomenon? With so many men buying sex, can we consider the fact that we are experimenting a social epidemic?  What should our response be as a society?

My conclusion is that it is necessary to focus on prevention efforts. My colleague in Ethiopia has two centers for women that reach approximately 100 women each year and around 96% of them never return to prostitution, which is a very impressive success rate. But to be able to reach all of the 100,000 women in this situation nowadays, it would be necessary that there were 1,000 NGOs working with the same efficiency in Addis Ababa. 

Through prevention we can begin to change the heartbreaking reality we are experiencing here in Mexico. In 2015 there were more than 70,000 underage children registered in child prostitution, and two years later this number grew to 102,000, a 45% increase. Now is the time to wake up. It is time to protect the innocence of our children and secure the future of our beloved Mexico.

Benny Yu

Founder at El Pozo de Vida

benny.yu@elpozodevida.org.mx

This Month

Recently we signed a historic agreement to carry a collaborative awareness campaign with SEGOB, Consejo Ciudadano, A21, El Pozo de Vida and other mexican NGOs.

Dreams 5th Anniversary

On June 2nd we celebrated the 5th anniversary of our Dreams, Stories that Transform project; a ministry that has generated great transformation within the migrants and in every person that has been involved. We sincerely thank all our volunteers and our collaborators for making our work possible during this last 5 years.

La Vida Son Sueños (Life is Dreams)

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