It started out as a challenge, more of a joke. Let's just BIKE through Southeast Asia. And somehow, it's turned into a real event. That's happening in April. To us.
We are two 30-something year old women who love to travel. Upon recent visits to Thailand, India and China, the horrors that face children in these parts of the world became dreadfully evident. Child sex tourism and trafficking are rampant abuses all over Asia and the problem needs to be brought to light and eradicated. As human beings, it was not only painful to witness these crimes, but as Westerners, we were ashamed that it was our fellow countrymen who appeared to be the primary perpetrators of these atrocities. According to ECPAT, about 25% of the sex tourists who abuse children while traveling abroad are from North America. At first we felt only outrage and helplessness, but we were determined to find a way that we could help contribute to the solution. On April 15th we are leaving on a 3 month bicycle ride through Southeast Asia to raise money for ECPAT International, a global network of organizations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes (http://www.ecpat.net/EI/index.asp). In addition to the funds we will raise, we aim to raise awareness about the sexual exploitation of children in Asia and around the world.
