HIV/AIDS and Child Sex Tourism Eradicating TOT Programme
(Colombo North)

Child Sex Tourism & HIV/AIDS:- 

Tourism is pitched as one of Sri Lanka's trust industries. Government concessions and incentives have gone into improving the tourism infrastructure in local resorts. After tea and garments, tourism is the country's biggest foreign exchange earner, ranking in something like US $ 300 million a year. But the same industry is often blamed for the growth in boy sex workers on the beaches of our country. Estimates of the numbers vary. The government's figures of 30,000 child prostitutes. Boys who engage in homosexual acts with foreign pedophiles for money are considered to be at very high-risk to HIV. Some of the abused children can be as young as nine.

There are no statistics for youth and children, much less, young male sex workers. Due to the nature of their operation - often as beach gangs, overlooked by pimps - they are also a difficult group to educate and reach out to. 

 Education and awareness building programmes should be implemented in schools down the coastal belt that runs southwards from Negombo. Programmes should be designed as to reaching out to Children aged 16 and above and give them an overview of sexuality, STDs and AIDS awareness. But many of the children who end up on the beach are school drop-outs of at a raw age - 10-12 years, and would probably not benefit from the school programmes. 

What is Child Sex Tourism (CST)? 

“The operational definition for the Study is that a child is considered to be any human being of the age of 18 years or less.”

“Child Sex Tourism is the use of children of the age of 18 years of less (whether be male or female) in sexual activities by tourists (either foreign tourists or local tourists who are alien to the specific community) in return for either a pecuniary advantage or gifts of kind to the child, a parent or guardian or relevant third person” 

 Where the CST & HIV/AIDS take place?
 

• Colombo
• Jaffna
• Gampaha
• Kaluthara
• Galle
• Mathara
• Hambanthota
• Rathnapura
• Anuradapura
• Trincomalee
• Polonnaruwa
• Monaragala
• Kandy
• Nuwara Eliya
• Badulla

A Training for Trainers (TOT) programme was held for Pastors commencing on 30^th of August, with a time of devotions and there were 43 participants from different denominations. All the participants were then, given a brief introduction about NCEASL, its vision and its work.

The first session commenced with an introduction regarding HIV/AIDS.  This session was conducted by the Project Coordinator of the HIV/AIDS Awareness project. While the session was in progress, few questions were raised by the participants regarding the Church response towards HIV/AIDS. Due to a lack of time within the first session the questions were taken up within the second session. This session was about the Christian response towards HIV/AIDS and it was conducted by representative of the Salvation Army Central Church in Colombo. Throughout the session he presented case studies and experiences which he faced during his ministry for the People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). His explanation about the biblical perspective and principals regarding HIV/AIDS provided the participants with a clear understanding about this unreached ministry within their community. Each of them was motivated to therefore go into their communities and speak out about HIV/AIDS related issues through their churches. 

The final session was based on Psychosocial Support which was conducted by a volunteer from Greece. This session helped the participants reflect on what their roles as psychosocial support providers and the skill they need to be effective. He did the following sessions to lead the participants to understand more about psychosocial support.

·         Understanding the Psychosocial Support.

·         Communication skills.

·         Active Listening skills.

·         Non – Verbal Communication.

·         Barriers to Communication

·         How to close and open a question.

The above mentioned themes were brought across to the participants by using to various illustrations and games. The first day came to a close with a few testimonies from some of the participants, each reflecting the fact that they are able to deeply understand the Church responsibility towards HIV/AIDS.

On the 31^st of October, the second day, the programme commenced with a usual Devotion time. After which the Senior Training Officer of the ESCAPE (Eradicating Sexual Child Abuse Prostitution and Exploitation) taught about the God given responsibility to Church regarding Children. She explained the biblical perspectives and the bible references regarding children and the participants were able to understand unaddressed issues in their ministries. The next session was about the situation of CSA in the church done by the Director of ESCAPE. With the proper understanding about the present vulnerabilities faced by children, participants wanted to know the correct way to handle the cases.

The training officer of ESCAPE educated the participants about how to respond to difficult situations pertaining to CST victims and to understand their situation. Participants were divided into four groups and given case studies to analyze by means a Group Discussion. After the group discussion each group hand a time to present about what they discussed.

Programme partners.
 

• Pastors Fellowship – Wattala
• Pastors Fellowship – Negombo
• ESCAPE

Achieved Targets:
 

1. Equipped the Christian Leaders working in the Costal belt from Colombo to Negombo, regarding HIV/AIDS and Child abuse.
2. Encouraged them to identify vulnerable issues of HIV/AIDS and Child Sex abuse in their regions.
3. Able to come to decision to create a network to identify abuse cases and to provide a better service.