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Who we are:
JOY
International was founded in 1981 by Dr. Jeff Brodsky as a non-profit organization and
immediately began devoting itself to meeting the needs of orphaned, abused, and
abandoned children. At JOY International we see the needs of children in every
dimension imaginable. Orphans, Homeless, Poverty, Neglect, Disease, Malnutrition,
Starvation, Abuse - - - We see it all. Our workers have held many of these
children in their arms.
As the years went by, Our Organization studied and researched the plight of needy children
across the globe. The more we researched, the more we realized how great the needs
were. How could we help them all? We realized it was just not
possible. We saw children suffer one-at-a-time, so we try to help them
one-at-a-time.
What we have Done:
JOY International has helped needy children in India,
Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Russia,
Romania, Mexico, Brazil,
Fiji
and Venezuela.
JOY International established Orphanages
and Children's Homes.
We also aided in the
design of a program where the Children’s Homes we established would be
self-sufficient within 5-7 years where-by the children were taught such things
as vegetable gardening and small animal husbandry skills. These skills could be
life-saving for them in their respective villages.
JOY International started the project "Children of JOY":
to assist with
International Adoptions by helping potential parents fulfill their desire to
adopt orphaned children internationally. Aid includes helping parents raise the
sometimes costly but necessary funds for the international adoptions.
JOY International sent teams and funds to build a children's home in Maracay,
Venezuela to aid in the rescue of children found living in a garbage dump. JOY
International also helped establish a new work in the Fiji Islands, which now
includes a home for women called Homes of Hope.
JOY International went to Beslan,
Russia to bring comfort and counsel to the victims in hospitals where terrorists
murdered and wounded hundreds of innocent children.
Where We are
Going:
Several years ago, during our research, We found articles about the plight of
children who were either sold or kidnapped and forced into prostitution. These
children did not choose this lifestyle. They are forced into becoming child
sex slaves. In our nearly 30 years of working with orphaned, abused and
abandoned children, we can say without hesitation and in our personal opinion
– this is unquestionably the worst atrocity
ever perpetrated against a child.
Many of these children are forced into this
life as young as 5 years old. Once they are considered used up, many will be
thrown into the streets and continue in a life of prostitution and crime. Most
will die of venereal diseases or HIV/AIDS by their teen years. Many will
commit suicide from the profound psychological effects.
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Just a sample of the many
statistics:
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·
1.2
million children are trafficked annually
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2 Children
per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation
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32 billion
dollars is generated from human trafficking each year
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·
Child
prostitution affects more than one million children throughout Asia
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200,000 to
250,000 children are involved in prostitution in Thailand alone
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Hundreds
of thousands of child prostitutes are exploited in Cambodia and Vietnam
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200,000 to
500,000 children are involved in prostitution in China
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500,000
child prostitutes exist in Brazil and thousands more across Latin America
All these statistics are just the tip of the iceberg.
SUPPLY and DEMAND
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WARNING: I’m about to share a graphic description of how these children are
indoctrinated:
The "demand" of this
multi-billion dollar global sex industry puts children throughout the world
at-risk of becoming the “supply.” Criminal gangs, pimps and pornographers
seek to profit from this demand by enslaving and abusing children, preying on
those made most vulnerable by poverty, lack of education, minority status,
gender bias and homelessness.
Most often, captors will threaten,
beat and starve new recruits to “condition” them for the fate that awaits: sex
with multiple customers every day. There are some captors who will take a small
child, tie them to a bed and gang rape them 10-15 times per day until the
“conditioning” is complete. The child comes to a place where they know that in
order to survive – they must comply. Eventually this abuse “breaks” the child.
They learn to survive by forcing a smile for the pedophiles, sex tourists and
others that frequent the brothels where these children are held captive.
How can
any modern society allow this to happen every minute of every day?
Through extensive
research, We have accumulated over 10,000 pages of information relating to the
horrors and dilemma of the Child Sex Trade Industry with many heart-breaking
stories from girls who were rescued or escaped and shared that many times it was
their own parents who sold them – usually unaware of the fate that awaited their
children.
The more we learned about this
atrocity the more appalled we became. JOY International had to do something to
try and rescue as many of these children as possible, from a life of degradation
that should make any human being livid that this travesty is still going on in
our society today.
As a result, several
years ago we began a project specifically for the purpose of both the rescue and
rehabilitation of these children. we call it The Safe Harbor Project. When a
ship is tossed through the seas, their number one desire is to reach a Safe
Harbor. We don’t understand why – but this has become one of the most difficult
projects we have ever tried to raise funds for.
 This
is a heart-breaking picture of a 6 or 7 year old Cambodian girl being “offered”
to a client. Something MUST be done to stop this from happening. One of the
greatest minds of modern history once said:
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
~ Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
 Pictured
here are just 4 of the 9 girls (aged 5-10) who were rescued from a brothel in
Svay Pak, Cambodia after a covert undercover operation.
“No man is worth his
salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to
risk his life, in a great cause.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
(1858-1919)
JOY International is one of just a few organizations with a desire to make
targeted investments in grassroots organizations that are working to eliminate
the commercial and sexual exploitation of children. With our far-reaching global
contact base we will (through extensive research) identify and invest in
innovative community-based educational programs for poor children around the
world. We recognize that some of the most creative projects operate on a small
scale, exist in marginal locations, and have very few contacts in philanthropic
networks. We will be seeking out existing non-formal Non Governmental
Organizations (NGO’s) currently offering educational programs that integrate
basic education with awareness building and training in reproductive health,
hygiene, vocational skills, environmental issues, micro-enterprise development,
human rights issues, computer skills and artistic expression.
With proper funding and ongoing resources, our commitment at JOY International
is to give children who have been rescued – a renewed hope with enhanced life
opportunities and a joy for living. For those children who have been abused for
an extended period this can be a daunting task. Many of these children will come
to us with HIV/AIDS. In these cases it is simply a matter of giving these
children something they have never experienced - - - dignity before their death.
At the current time, our main concentration will be to develop and support
projects in Cambodia, Thailand, The Philippines, India and Nepal. As funds
increase we would explore the feasibility of expanding our operations throughout
Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, Central and South America and Europe. This would
take exhaustive research, planning and development.
Proper funding would also give us the ability to implement the mobilization of
undercover and covert rescue operations with the help of the Justice Mission for
Children, ECPAT, local trusted government agencies and Interpol. These rescue
operations would be for the purpose of direct rescue of children being held
captive in brothels and various secret locations
 The Safe Harbor Project
Our Objectives
RESCUE
 Our main objective is for the rescue and rehabilitation of the youngest children
we can locate who have been either sold or kidnapped and forced into the child
sex trade industry throughout the world. As mentioned previously, the rescue
operations would (in most cases) be underground and covert.
We will only work directly with established local and international law
enforcement agencies such as Interpol and the International Justice Mission. To
ensure the integrity of our workers, at no time and under any circumstances
would any of our workers or employees enter any brothel alone during
investigative and rescue efforts.
REHABILITATION
After Care Programs are
vital in the lives of these children and will be a main priority!Along
with working with established children’s homes devoted to the development of
rescued children from the sex trade industry – the immediate plans of The Safe
Harbor Project is to design a prototype home to provide for the immediate and
long term needs of survivors of child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Currently recognized and established homes will be given consideration for
financial support and become part of The Safe Haven Home Network with a
regulated Safe Harbor Seal of
Approval.
After being liberated from a life of sexual slavery and abuse, one of the first
things a child needs is a place of safety. The Safe Harbor Project will be
committed to increasing the number of Safe Harbor Homes worldwide for these
survivors of child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
There will be
continuing research and development in the area of Psycho-Social treatment and
care to assist in the Rehabilitation, Restoration and Reintegration in helping
these children to become productive citizens in the communities they choose to
live.
A Safe Haven will make it possible
for these sexually exploited children to receive IMMEDIATE and LONG-TERM
PROTECTION in the following areas:
EMOTIONAL and PSYCHOLOGICAL
One
of the first goals will be to get these children to feel safe from any further
violence, exploitation and abuse. They need assurance that they are truly safe
and have not been relocated for further abuse. Due to years of abuse and
mistrust, this can sometimes take days, weeks or months. Sometimes - - - Never.
Some of the Counseling will be towards Psychological development, trauma
counseling, social skills and healing the deep emotional scars from years of
abuse and neglect.
PHYSICAL
Here is a brief list of the immediate physical needs to be taken care of:
·
Housing,
·
Food
·
Clean Water
·
Clothing
·
Medical Care
·
Hygiene
Training
·
Recreation
EDUCATION and the ARTS
·
 Basic
Elementary and Continuing Education
·
Vocational
Training
·
Music
·
Art
·
Music
Therapy
·
Cultural
Understanding and Social Skills
·
Life
planning
·
Reintegration to Society.
Each child will be given every opportunity to begin or continue their education
through every level including graduate work when applicable. There will also be
every opportunity made available for vocational training in Administrative and
Computer Technology.
SPIRITUAL
At JOY
International, we believe that faith and a healthy spiritual life greatly
contributes to the recovery of children who are victims of sexual exploitation.
We will always strive to communicate in a loving but not forceful way to each
child, that they are a precious child of God and that His love for them is
unconditional with complete forgiveness of anything that has happened in the
past. We will never deny or give any preferential treatment to any child
regardless of their faith.
WORKERS RESPONSIBILITY
ALL workers in The
Safe Harbor Homes will go through an intense interview process with the most
extensive investigations available. They will be monitored and evaluated on a
regular basis. Each worker will go through a training program at various levels
to help them develop the knowledge and skills necessary to adequately meet the
diverse needs of victims of child sexual exploitation. No worker will be allowed
to work with these children until they are staff certified.
 The Safe Harbor – Havens
Our main goal is to establish Safe Harbor Havens for girls rescued from the
child sex trade industry. Each House would encompass the following:
LAND
– Whenever possible, each home would be built on land no less than 5 acres. We
would always look outside the city for privacy, protection and healing. The
land could then be used for the following:
LODGING – The
homes would be designed for 2-4 girls per room with a maximum of 50 girls per
home. Depending on the country, facilities, amount of land and trained
personnel, a home could be designed to house up to 100 children.
EDUCATION
– In most countries where we will be working, these children are ostracized
from society. In many cases, these girls will be infected with HIV/AIDS. As a
result, they will not be welcome in the public school system (where
available). Each home would include educational facilities and would use
curriculum already available. Each child will have every possible opportunity
to go as far as possible in their education and chosen vocation. The
following would be part of the education facility.
Arts
– this is vital in the healing process
Drama
Music
Art
FOOD
– The food will come from 2 sources. Purchase when necessary and grown or made
on the property. Using our already proven and successful models in India and
Venezuela each property would have as part of the program, the planting of
vegetable gardens to teach small farm skills (very necessary in some
countries). Again, depending on the country, facilities and personnel, there
would be the potential of the following:
Planting of local fruit trees for both food and to bring to the market.
Raising chickens for both eggs and marketing
Several cows, sheep or goats
Bread Making
Small fish pond
PLAYGROUND
– The facility would include complete playground activities conducive to the
country. Play is an integral part of the healing process.
MEDICAL
– A vital part of each facility. Depending on the size, each home would
have a small clinic as well as build a relationship with a local Dr and
Medical Facility. Many of these girls will be infected with HIV/AIDS. Their
treatment and care would be a major priority.
Rehabilitation
– These
children have deep emotional scars. Some that will never heal. Each facility
will have trained professionals to help the child in the psycho and
bio-social rehabilitation with the goal of them becoming productive citizens
in their society.
SPIRITUAL –
A “Hiding Place” where the child
can go for a time of prayer & spiritual healing
A comprehensive
study would be prepared in each location to determine exact costs. We would also
be traveling to various nations to meet with local officials and NGO Directors
to determine future locations for Safe Harbor Havens, as well as already
established homes we can support and work with.
How you can help:
This is a picture of a
rescued
8 year old child prostitute in Cambodia.
It’s
because of children like this that we do what we do.
 If you do want to make a (tax-deductible) donation, it is very simple.
Just
click on the PayPal Donate button
Please email us at safeharbor@joy.org
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