Research was done by three International Mission Board (IMB) journalists and the following article was published. We were also interviewed for this exposé at the time. What prompted us to share this once more what we are experiencing with Mboty and Florette right at this moment. One of the reasons for the high incidence of sexual abuse in the family circle, is the attitude to prostitution and for that fact, child trafficking. It is not a moral issue and money trumps every objection that might remain. Dries felt strongly that people need to be made aware of this situation once again. What we have experienced in twenty-six of ministry is that the Gospel preached in the school milieu and the nurturing of children in all aspects of their lives, is how teenage pregnancy, prostitution and child abuse can be prevented and overcome. People will know how to pray once they know the reality of what happens in Madagascar and for that matter in most other countries in the world.
Paradise Lost: A beautiful island with dirty secrets
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar – Something’s gone wrong in paradise – terribly wrong.
Considered a gem of the Indian Ocean, the island has it all – turquoise-colored waters, white sand beaches, crimson sunsets, listing palm trees and exotic sail boats. Tropical fruits are in abundance, and markets overflow with the island’s aromatic spices: vanilla, clove, cinnamon, anise, black pepper and more.
Besides its romantic beaches and world-class tourist resorts, the island boasts of pristine rainforests, national parks that feature the unique baobab tree, the world’s only natural habitat of the lemur, hardwoods made into treasured artifacts, varied marine life and coral reefs, and a cuisine built on French and Malagasy traditions with a seafood lover’s mix thrown in.
Ninety percent of Madagascar’s plant and animal life is indigenous only to the island.
Beneath the surface of it all, however, an evil lurks, permeating the very heart of society.
On a small island off the coast of northern Madagascar, a boat pulls ashore. Those aboard seek to purchase local children, especially girls, who will later be trafficked. Down in the southern part of the country, women are put on the auction block and sold to the highest bidder. All night orgies ensue. Elsewhere dozens of young women nightly parade themselves in front of foreign men who gather with the intention of hiring girls for the night. Deals are negotiated and struck, and couples go off into the dark.
All across the island, young children wield sledge hammers, crushing stone sold for construction purposes. In a major tourist district of Madagascar, households designate which baby girls will grow up to be “their” prostitutes, earning money for the families. Nearby, two foreigners are lynched, suspected of harvesting organs from a young child.
Some acts are openly visible, while others are quietly whispered. Some can be proved, and others can be only suspected and speculated.
According to locals, it all started when the French colonized Madagascar in the late 1800s. Following the arrival of the colonists, prostitution evolved, and over the years this illicit sex trade grew into something much more sinister than mere street corner prostitution. Today sex tourism, human trafficking, exploited labor and, some claim, even organ harvesting abound.
What’s going on is shocking and appalling, many say, but little embarrassment or shame seems to settle on those who live here. For them, this is life; it’s how they live and survive.
On an interior wall of an abandoned and dilapidated hotel in northern Madagascar, a graffiti artist depicts the hopes and aspirations of a young woman. She sits dreaming of things beyond her grasp at the moment – money, travel, fashion. The artwork drastically contrasts its surroundings, the here and now.
In the airport of the nation’s capital, a poster pleads with new arrivals, “Stop Sex Tourism.” Such messages are also needed on the island’s beaches, in its hotels and bars, on its streets at night, and in its city parks – in the places people are commonly exploited.
Those who minister and serve among Christians across the island see what’s going on, but little is being done to reach out to those caught up in a dark world where humans are commodities – bought, sold and used, often for ridiculously low prices.
Local Christians agree on one thing, though: discipleship is the solution. They agree on something else as well. They want help – help in reaching out to those being exploited, help in training others to reach out, help in evangelism, help in discipleship, and help in educating and mentoring.
Three International Mission Board (IMB) journalists went to Madagascar to hear from those who are being exploited and those who could do something about it. They talked with pastors, prostitutes and missionaries from various organizations.
The Ugly, Evil . . . Raw Truth!
Charles Braddix is a writer for IMB based in London (International Mission Board)
Three International Mission Board (IMB) journalists went to Madagascar to hear from those who are being exploited and those who could do something about it. They talked with pastors, prostitutes and missionaries from various organizations.
Darkness falls on the beauty of Madagascar as sex tourism is on the rise.
Easy street:
In Madagascar, dusk transforms parks and town squares into marketplaces where women are sold to the highest bidder and then ushered into the darkness.
ANTSIRANANA, Madagascar — The women are young and local. The men are old and foreign. Each day at dusk, dozens of them come together at the city’s Joffre Square to choose partners and negotiate terms and prices. They then saunter off to nearby bars and hotels.
Elsewhere in the city, one-to-one transactions take place along the city’s major boulevards, in front of its central hotels and inside its seedy bars and discotheques. Seeking a quick liaison, scantily clad solicitant’s ranging from teenaged girls to middle-aged women openly approach foreign men.
Prostitution in this northern city, formerly known as Diego Suarez, is open, rampant and apparently shameless. It’s all part of the country’s illicit but booming sex trade.
“Prostitution is a large part of the culture here,” said Michael Allen, who, along with his wife, Michelle, served in Antsiranana with IMB. The Allen’s recently returned to the United States where Michael now serves as a pastor.
“It seems that even though many women aren’t professional prostitutes, most would be willing to do anything to get money and help from a visiting foreigner,” Michael said.
The shame that goes along with prostitution in most cultures is not present in northern Madagascar, he said. Once, while sharing the gospel with an elderly woman and trying to help her understand that she was a sinner, Michael asked the woman if she had ever told a lie. She responded by telling about a time many years ago that she lied to a man when she served as a sex worker.
“She didn’t seem to have any shame associated with the fact that she had worked as a prostitute,” he said.
“Many of the people here in the north rejoice when they have a baby girl, because they know that a girl has the potential to bring a lot more money into the home through sex tourism,” Michael said.
Michelle added, “When I first heard that they rejoice, I thought, ‘Oh good, they love women!’ But then when I heard why they rejoice, that broke my heart.”
Pastor Michel Elysé of Biblical Baptist Church in Antsiranana said families prefer to have more daughters than sons, because ultimately their goal is either to send their daughters into prostitution or to marry them off to a foreigner. “They want quick money,” he said. “It’s just a job to improve their standard of living.”
Joffre Square has always been a favourite meeting place for those living in Antsiranana. It overlooks the bay and is next to a park filled with shade trees and exotic flowers. In recent times, however, the square has become more and more known as a marketplace for prostitution.
According to locals, elderly men — mostly tourists from France or Italy — frequent the square looking to easily pick up a prostitute. It’s not unusual, as well, for sailors from ships docking at the city’s port to show up seeking a partner for the night.
Georgette is a student who frequently comes here hoping to find a tourist to pair up with. She’s in it for the money, she said. Georgette doesn’t work under a pimp, but previously she did. “They can beat you and take most of your money,” she said. It has happened to her. Now she’s on her own and comes to the square only when she needs money.
Michelle went to Madagascar with the desire to minister to those like Georgette and others at Joffre Square. “I was burdened for these ladies that are caught up in this stronghold,” she said. What she discovered, however, was that she couldn’t always tell who was a prostitute and who was not.
Through witnessing and Bible studies, Michelle decided to reach out to women in general. In doing so, she was able to touch the lives of prostitutes with the Good News of a God who created them to be much more than who they were in prostitution.
While a few like Michelle make the effort to reach into the world of northern Madagascar’s illicit sex industry, the church in general is doing nothing, according to Elysé.
They need help, he said.
“We need to know how to go out and share, how to teach our people to share.” Elysé asks for volunteers to come to train them, and for prayer — that the Holy Spirit will give them courage and boldness to go out and minister to those who desperately need to hear the Good News.
Children for sale: Trafficking in Madagascar
MITSIO, Madagascar — In the Mitsio Archipelago, off the northern coast of Madagascar, the purchase price of a child is about $180. At least that’s what child traffickers offered local residents not too long ago. That is a fortune here, an amount almost unimaginable.
The archipelago hosts only a few thousand inhabitants, all living on one island – La Grande Mitsio. There is no electricity, no running water, no radio or cell phone coverage, and all housing consists of palm-thatched huts.
With its white sandy beaches, pristine waters, listing palm trees and beautiful sunsets, Mitsio is truly a tropical paradise.
One day a large catamaran anchored offshore while missionary Lori Willard watched. She lives on the island with her husband, son and missionary colleagues. They serve with Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
Lori saw a “white man” and several Malagasy men ride a small motorized craft to shore. “They then proceeded down the beach to the next village,” she said.
The catamaran remained anchored there overnight.
The next day Lori learned from neighbours that the men had gone to the school to shop for children there. “They were offering 600,000 ariary ($180) a child if anyone was willing to sell their children, especially girls,” she said.
‘Toliara never sleeps’ – The heartbreaking truth behind this city’s slogan
The men said they had permission from the Madagascan government to buy children. They showed village elders a document that supposedly authorized them to do so. On board the catamaran were two children, bought from Nosy Be, the men said. Nosy Be, meaning Big Island, is 40 miles away and well known for its sex tourism, as well as human trafficking.
“The local people assumed that the children would be killed and their organs sold,” Lori said, “so nobody here even entertained the thought of selling their children.”
Her husband, Adam, however, quickly added that if the locals thought the men were sex traffickers and not after the children’s organs, the story might have been different.
“If these people who visited our island were indeed purchasing children for sex trafficking — as I find likely, considering they were more interested in the girls — and if the locals realized it was for sex and not organ harvesting, I believe that, unfortunately, the local people would have been more receptive to the idea,” he said.
“Thankfully, fears of organ harvesting prevented the locals from considering the proposition at all,” Adam concluded.
Recently, stories of children being kidnapped or killed and their organs harvested have been circulating across northern Madagascar, including the smaller islands. On Nosy Be two foreigners were gruesomely attacked and killed by an angry mob after it was suspected they killed a child and took his organs.
Locals here know, however, how lucrative the sex trade can be with visiting tourists. According to Adam, those who prostitute themselves “are proud of the job and the good money.” Thus, like elsewhere across Madagascar, there is no shame or stigma attached to it. A child being used in the sex industry isn’t viewed as a bad thing.
Parents were relieved the traffickers offered to purchase their children rather than outright kidnap them. As a precaution, however, school was cancelled and children were carefully watched until the catamaran was gone.
“It really was a source of great fear in our local villages,” Adam said.
The traffickers had been to the island the year before, and locals suspect they will be back again. Next time, the Willard’s are prepared to alert authorities on the mainland with the hopes the traffickers can be apprehended.
The Willard’s lead a joint YWAM and Africa Inland Mission community development and church-planting team on the island. Their team is the first to take an incarnational gospel witness to the Antakarana people here. They are open to short-term teams and individuals assisting with outreach on the island.
A jungle in paradise
NOSY BE, Madagascar — Beware. It’s a jungle out there. Just a step away from this postcard-perfect paradise lurks the ugly world of human exploitation at its worst.
Tourism is big business here. This island off the northern coast of Madagascar hosts some of the world’s top-rated beach resorts, and visitors by the horde come daily to enjoy its beaches, water sports and marine life.
However, prostitution is so common it’s considered normal. Children are at risk of slave labour, sexual exploitation, kidnapping and even organ harvesting. Human trafficking seems matter-of-fact.
It’s all here, according to Jocelyn Menabe, a Baptist lay leader in northern Madagascar. He told of straight, gay and child prostitution. He told stories of young boys being kidnapped, their mutilated bodies later discovered with sex and internal organs missing. He knows of children sold to “tourists” and later trafficked, and of women sent to Europe for prostitution and slave labour.
“Everything you read is true,” Menabe said, referring to news accounts of the alarming situation here.
“I [heard about] some people that lost two guys, two children, maybe two weeks ago, and they are still not found,” he said. “Lots of women disappear … and their children, to be employed in Europe, but they don’t say what kind of job. They train the women like a machine of sex.”
Evidence of sex tourism in Nosy Be is everywhere. After checking in at hotels, guests often find young ladies at the doors of the guests’ rooms offering their services. Prostitutes by the hundreds walk the streets and beaches of coastal towns, openly soliciting tourists. Massage services abound.
One prostitute was overheard saying to a foreign man on the beach, “I need you. I love you. I be your wife for the night.” Others, under the pretense of selling fresh fruit, asked, “Bananas? Pineapple? Massage?”
Gilbertine is a prostitute here. She is 23 years old and has been prostituting herself since age 17. She makes the equivalent of $15 for a night with a client. The night could be for sex only, or it could include dinner and drinking followed by sex. “It depends on what the man needs,” she said.
She once got approximately $300 for being with a man for three months. She also got to travel with him, and she received “good souvenirs.” On the other hand, she once stayed with a man for a week and all she got was a beating.
Most of those who come to Nosy Be for sex tourism are French or Italian men aged between 65 and 70 years, Gilbertine said.
While Gilbertine enjoys going out, drinking, dancing and making money from sex, she admits it’s a “shameful job.”
She said, “We know that it’s forbidden by the Bible, but we don’t have a choice, so [we] just make our eyes blind … because it’s the only way that we can get money.”
The church is aware of the problem and sees it as a vicious social cycle that is hard to break.
“Nosy Be is known for sex tourism,” said Hery Malal, pastor of Biblical Baptist Church, located in the island’s largest town, Hell-Ville. “Why is that? Because of the lack of jobs. People don’t have jobs.” He said people believe there is easy money to be made through the sex industry.
He also said parents get extra income by forcing their young children into slave labour situations — crushing rocks from sunup to sunset. The crushed stone is used for construction purposes. The children are often physically and sexually abused, and girls are likely to go on to prostitution.
Malal said the church has yet to do anything about the human exploitation problem that is prevalent on the island. “Maybe they think about it,” he said, “but in truth they don’t [do] anything against [it].”
“I do not know of any ministry in Nosy Be to reach out to victims or participants,” said Rosina Ferdinand, a missionary serving on the island with Africa Inland Mission. Her greatest concern is for the children, who are at high risk. “They are exposed to drugs, alcohol and sex tourism at a very young age,” she said, adding that children are also trafficked. “A lot of children end up missing and are never found.”
“Only the Gospel can bring light to this dark life,” said Ferdinand.
An independent South African missionary couple on Nosy Be runs a Christian school that has 165 students. It’s the only Christian school there. While serving on Nosy Be,
The de Jagers use the school to reach into the community. “We have 160-something kids in our school, and we have them for five days a week, and we reach out to the parents in this way,” Lynette said.
At the school the de Jagers see a lot of physically and sexually abused children. Lynette said her and her husband’s desire is “to put God’s Word” into the hearts of both the children and their parents, hopefully making a difference in the lives of these families.
“Most homes have a girl set aside for prostitution,” Dries added. “For them it’s not a moral issue.”
“It’s just so sad,” he said, “and I think sometimes for us spiritually it’s also devastating. You sit here and think, “how much can you really take”, but then tomorrow you carry on, and you just go on and on and on.” It’s never about ambition but all about God’s mission.
In addition to the school, the de Jager’s run children’s camps, a scouting program (Royal Rangers) and a church-planting ministry using a large catamaran to get to hard-to-reach places along the coast.
It is said . . . “according to locals, it all started when the French colonized Madagascar in the late 1800’s”. Dries says; Man does not own up to the wrong done, someone else needs to be blamed. Dries was born in Northern Rhodesia (present day Zambia) and has worked with many different cultures. He also says that in his lifetime he has never come across a more materialistic nation. No conversation will end without talking extensively about money. He makes a joke by saying that they will sell their grandmother just to get money. It very well may be a curse on the nation as a whole, if one could put it that way.
They plead for short – and long-term volunteers to help with all their ministries. Email: driesdej@gmail.com
Malal also has a heart for the children, saying it is his number one concern. “Pray for them,” he said. He is head of the local forum of pastors, with a vision and goal to change the way things are regarding human exploitation in general and children at risk specifically. “We need to change Nosy Be and Madagascar,” he said.
TOLIARA, Madagascar — “Toliara never sleeps,” the town boasts in one of its slogans used to attract tourists. For those aware of the town’s illicit sex trade, however, the slogan has a double meaning.
What goes on here is certainly not secret, but it is not openly discussed either. To do so could be dangerous. “You and your family could be harmed if word gets out you are working with journalists,” said one Christian worker to a missionary friend. “This is a very touchy subject on the island.”
The worker, American Linda Patrick, went to Toliara to fight human trafficking. She has since left Madagascar under a death threat. According to Patrick, a contract was put out on her after she rescued 12 Malagasy women trafficked for the Middle East and routed through the airport.
She said the last woman who was at the airport trying to prevent girls from being trafficked to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait was killed.
Toliara is a hot, dusty town on the southwest coast of Madagascar. Offshore lies the Toliara Barrier Reef, the third largest coral reef system in the world. Because of the underwater diversity, the town is a hub for national and international marine biologists, students and volunteers.
It appears, however, the town is a hub for something else as well.
Patrick tells of an event held annually at the town’s park located near the beach. All day long girls are sold there. “As soon as it gets dark,” she said, there is “a huge orgy where the girls or women will have up to 40 men in that night.”
She reports that Toliara’s sex trade is not just an annual event, though; it goes on day after day all year long.
“The biggest offenders are the Malagasy people themselves,” Patrick said, including many Christians. “[A Malagasy man] will have his girlfriend or wife sell herself to these old men from other countries coming in as tourists. She will take him for as much as she can.”
Patrick said the Malagasy will also sell their children or other family members, “just to eat.” She continued, “One of my girls was taken by her aunt and sold to a quarry after I left. This little girl was made to break rock into gravel, and we’re pretty sure was used by the men as well.”
According to Patrick, there is one sector of the established Church in Toliara that seems to condone what’s going on. She said a local bishop told her pastor he didn’t want Patrick to return to Madagascar. “He is the one who had the government official close me down,” she said.
Patrick told of another bishop on the island who stepped down because trafficking was rampant in his church and the congregation wouldn’t listen to his pleas to do something to stop it.
In spite of all the difficulties, God is being glorified as He speaks to the hearts of thousands of women in Toliara who are involved in human trafficking and child exploitation. Patrick said as the women hear the anti-trafficking message from the Christian perspective, God is challenging them to change their ways.
E-posadres: lynettedj@gmail.com
Bank: ABSA, Lynette de Jager, Rekeningnr: 1410142909, Takkode: 632005