When I was ten, my biggest fear was falling off my bike in front of my crush.  For Cat, a ten-year-old Thai girl, her biggest fear is being sold into prostitution.  Child sex trafficking is a hidden evil exploiting 2 million children worldwide, and Rachel Sparks and Rachel Goble of The SOLD Project are dedicated to eradicating it.

The SOLD Project is a grassroots movement that seeks to expose the truth behind child sex trafficking by telling the victim’s stories and inspiring individuals to make a change.  Originally conceived as a documentary, The SOLD Project has expanded into a nonprofit organization that educates and provides avenues for people to get involved.  I recently sat down with the two Rachels to learn more about Thailand’s red light districts.

IATG: When did you learn about child sex trafficking?  What made you get involved?

RG: When I was pursuing my Masters, one of my first classes was a “Children at Risk” course, and human trafficking was one of the topics.  I spent a lot of time researching the issue, and I found that it was not only something that broke my heart, but there was a part of me that said, “I can’t not act on this; I can’t not do something.”

RS: My pastor in New York did a sermon on the different injustices in the world, and child sex trafficking was the one that stopped me in my tracks.  The more I started researching, the more I felt that this was it – this is my calling, this is my purpose, to do something with children who are stuck in sex trafficking.

IATG: How did The SOLD Project begin?

RS: As an educated woman, I had every reason to know about this issue, but I didn’t.  So, if I didn’t know about this issue, I’m sure there are a lot of people my age who don’t.  My dad is in the film industry, so I grew up with the mentality that to create awareness, you make a documentary.  I called him up in September 2006, got some advice and contacts, and started filming.

RG: I came on board after filming already began to man the nonprofit.  In the film, we look at three main reasons that children are sexually exploited in Thailand.  The first is poverty – what do the impoverished villages look like and why are girls trafficked into cities to work?  The second is street kids – kids who are vulnerable because they don’t have a home structure.  And, the third is undocumented children, most of whom are Burmese.  In regards to these, we want to create a structure where audiences can respond in a tangible way.  We just launched our scholarship program, which is our response to the poor villages.  It’s a dollar a day to sponsor a kid, and it puts them through school for a year.  For street kids and undocumented children, we have partner organizations in Thailand that we help.

IATG: For the documentary, you traveled to Thailand to capture the victims’ stories.  Why Thailand?

RS: There are three types of countries – source countries, transit countries, and destination countries.  Source countries are where these kids are coming from, transit countries are where the kids travel through, and destination countries are where they end up.  Thailand is all three.  Sex tourism is also the third greatest form of income there.  Alongside, Thailand is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and you would never expect this evil to lie underneath.  I wanted to see the faces behind the statistics and tell these kids’ stories.

IATG: In order to get your stories directly from the victims, you had to enter the brothels.  Do you have any stories that especially touched you?

RG: Oftentimes, there is a strange man who comes to the Burmese villages and offers a factory job in Bangkok to the girls, and these girls are ecstatic because they have no money and they want to support their family.  But what happens is they end up in brothels across the border without any rights because they don’t have citizenship.  This is a classic trafficking story.  One of the days we were filming, we went into the brothels to interview the girls and it was just story after story of these girls being deceived.  They feel that they have no option but to stay since they can’t go to Thailand to work without citizenship and they can’t go back to Burma because they won’t have any money for their families.  Halfway through the interviews, these girls would burst into tears, and Rachel and I would hold their hands and tell them, “We’re sisters, we love you, and we’re going to do everything we can to get you out.”

RS: In the red light districts, we would buy girls out for the evening and just talk to them about life.  They were all sending money back home to their villages and all kinds of cultural stuff play into why they felt like they had to keep working, so I wanted to go to the villages and see what that life was like.  There, I met Cat, a young girl who had all signs pointing to the fact that she was at risk for being trafficked – her father is dead, her mom is scraping by, and all the money she makes goes to Cat’s education.  Her mom is a former sex worker who knows that Cat would be safe if she just gets through middle school.  And so for me, Cat became “that one” – if you’re helping one person, then it’s all worth it.

IATG: After seeing what you’ve seen, how do you emerge with the hope to fight?

RG: I had to allow myself to simplify. I knew that if I could prevent one kid from being forced into this, that’s enough. So the question is, “How do you help the one?” The fact is that there is this evil, and I work in a world where we’re not going to get rid of it.  But we can be humanitarians, and we can help.

RS: I knew that going to Thailand would be a struggle, physically and emotionally.  I was in a foreign country where everything familiar was stripped from me – I had barely any communication with friends and family, I was getting sick over the food and water, and I had to get used to the culture.  But when you’re serving and loving people in a place when you’re the most vulnerable, things start coming out of you that you never knew existed.  You’re being pushed to the limit but you’re loving people and seeing how you’re changing their lives forever.  I just have to do my small part and hopefully that will inspire other people to do theirs.

IATG: How does IATG’s message of redefining female beauty and that “smart is the new sexy” tie into this?

RS: The women who are victims have no ounce of hope left.  Prostitution strips you of your humanity and treats you as a commodity.  Even the girls who have a chance to get out go back because they have to learn that they are worth more than what they earn with their bodies.

RG: Sex is supposed to be beautiful and sexy is supposed to be beautiful.  It’s such a fine line between what makes it beautiful and what perverts it.  The message is about respecting sex and cherishing it.  Particularly with this issue, the good men in the world need to stand up and fight for the purity and innocence of women because women can fight for women, but it’s so much more powerful when men fight for women.

IATG: How can IATG readers get involved?

RG:  Educate yourself and talk about the issue.  I don’t feel like it’s an issue that one type of individual can do.  It’s not all lawyers and it’s not all psychologists.  It’s average people who are giving of their time and resources and who are using what they are passionate about to do something.  We need to realize how powerful our voice is in this world as young women.

RS: Our generation is at a place where we’re either in college or just out of college, trying to figure out what we want to do with our life.  We have the time and skill set to go out and serve.  Because of globalization and technology, our generation is one of the first to really grasp how our daily lives affect everything around us.  I’ve met tons of organizations started by people in their 20s and 30s all focusing on wanting to leave the world a better place.  There are some amazing things that are happening right now and to be a blurb in the midst of this movement is amazing.  Everyone just needs to hold on tight.

Learn more about The Sold Project at www.thesoldproject.com

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Comic-Con International 2008 kicked off Thursday, July 24th and ran through Sunday, July 27th, bringing a record number of fans to downtown San Diego.  Beginning in the early 1970’s, Comic-Con started as a small gathering of graphic novel aficionados devoid of press coverage and movie stars.  Since then, Comic-Con has grown into a huge platform for the entertainment industry to launch films, television shows, and video games to potential fans and bloggers.  Studios screen never-before-seen footage and invite celebrities and filmmakers to participate in panel discussions with hopes of generating positive buzz for upcoming projects.  This year, for the first time since its humble beginnings, the event sold out its 125,000 passes well in advance of its start date and no tickets were offered at the door.  It was nothing short of entertainment to watch the worlds of Hollywood and Comics collide in the San Diego Convention Center and while it is close to impossible to discuss all the happenings of the four day event, here are a few of the highlights.

While the actual convention began on Thursday, doors were opened to four day pass-holders for a special preview night on Wednesday. Crowds of people packed into exclusive premiere screenings of the pilot episode of Fringe, the highly anticipated new series from J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost.  Thursday was expected to be a strong day with Fox previewing X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Max Payne, but the real surprise was the crowd of 6,500 teenage girls and their moms who waited in line for hours to watch the panel for Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of the Stephanie Meyer vampire novel series, Twilight.  Comic-Con has historically been a fan-boy event, but this massive fan-girl turnout shocked exhibitors and opened doors for the ‘Con to reach an even larger female audience next year.

A counter to Thursday’s unexpected female influence, Friday was deemed Star Wars Day in anticipation of the upcoming Warner Bros.’ release Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  While there were many popular panels, WB stole the day in general with a panel for one of next year’s most anticipated superhero films, Watchmen.  Saturday offered presentations for a number of popular TV series including Chuck and Pushing Daisies, but the highlight of the day was the Sony panel for Pineapple Express.  Judd Apatow moderated a Q&A with Seth Rogen, James Franco and the rest of his creative team which proved to be one of the funniest moments of the weekend.  Sunday was a much slower day as many opted to head out early and beat the traffic, but for those who stayed, the day was coined “Kid’s Day,” with a number of special programs aimed at children.  The convention wrapped Sunday afternoon with a hysterical screening of Buffy the Musical.

This year was my first trip to Comic-Con and, although I was completely “Conned-out” by the end, it was definitely a worthwhile and unforgettable experience.  While it may sound like a mecca for geeks (and in many ways it is,) the opportunity to see celebs and attend guest-only Hollywood parties has helped Comic-Con evolve into a mecca of pop culture.  This is an event where there is truly something for everyone and with this year’s newfound female presence; I can only hope more women will join me at the ‘Con next summer.

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