Diaspora Diaries
Cheryl Perera - fighting to protect children with the nerve of a well trained cop
As 17-year-old Cheryl Perera sat on the patio of a Colombo restaurant in Sri Lanka, waiting for the man she had prepared for more than a month to meet, she thought something could go wrong. "At the back of my mind I was thinking, what if he pulls out a gun. But I knew police officers in civilian clothing were stationed around," says Perera. I had confidence in our team. I knew I was safe."
Perera was well trained to play the role of Shani, a 15-year-old child prostitute. "The idea was for me to meet this man and if he liked the way I looked, we would go to a hotel. They nabbed him while we were having that initial meeting," says Perera, who was part of a sting operation designed to catch the pedophile, organized in 2005 by Sri Lanka's National Child Protection Authority.
After months of trying to get someone to take her seriously, Perera finally found an organization willing to let her learn first hand about the child sex trade. She cracked open a door of opportunity in Sri Lanka, the country where her parents were born.
"I wanted a personal story I could share with kids here, so they could understand the issue. Before I would give speeches and the kids would ask, well have you ever met any of these children? What gives you the authority to speak on their behalf?" says Perera. She decided she would get that legitimacy.
Cheryl in workshop
Perera's evolution as an activist began after she read Canadian child rights advocate Craig Kielberger's book Free the Children, while taking a civics class at Thronhill's St Robert's Catholic High School. "Never did I dream children were being exploited in this way around the world. I thought here is this 12 year-old boy who has done all this work, I'm 16, I can do something too. So I joined Free the Children," says Perera. Soon after Perera was speaking to schools, universities, and any group that would listen in Canada, the US, Macedonia, and Sri Lanka.
After playing her role in Sri Lanka, Perera decided to take on another challenge, this time as founder and head of OneChild, a non-profit organization empowering children and youth to take a stand against child sex slavery around the globe.
While statistics are scarce on the number of children preyed upon by foreigners who travel mostly to developing countries to sexually exploit children, an estimated 2 million children worldwide are involved in prostitution, 40,000 in Sri Lanka alone.
These pimps operate through web sites and on the ground, preying upon children who either live on the street or come from fractured and poverty-stricken homes, says Perera.
"Take the story of Mary Anne. She was 13 when she fell into prostitution. She came from a broken home. Her father killed himself. Her mother's boyfriend, who moved in after her father's suicide, started abusing her. After fleeing to her aunt, she began feeling like a burden, so she ran away to the streets where a pimp picked her up. He brought her to a club called the G Spot in the Philippines' Angeles City," says Perera.
Mary Anne thought she was going to be a waitress.
"Instead the mamasan handed her a bikini and told her to dance on stage. She couldn't remember the nationality of these tourists, but they had various accents she said. These men could pay to take Mary Anne out, get her drunk, take her anywhere and do whatever they wanted," says Perera.
Mary Anne was lucky. The People's Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistant Foundation or PREDA, a OneChild partner in the Philippines, rescued her. Today she is president of her student council, a children's rights activist and part of a theatre group spreading the word about child sex exploitation.
Many are not so lucky, says Perera. Rosario, a 12 year-old Pilipino girl died after a brutal sex attack by what local authorities believe was either an American soldier or an Australian tourist.
Perera says while meeting with abused children she never approached them as a Westerner who had the solutions. "I wanted to hear from their own mouths, to hear what young people could do, what I could do to help. When I asked, the answers were always the same, tell everybody about what is happening to us," says Perera
Cheryl with team and Louis Fortin
With OneChild, Perera is telling their stores and more.
"First we try to stop Canadians from going over and abusing children," says Perera, whose organization is partnering with the travel industry.
In her first year at the University of Toronto, she and a group of teenage volunteers created a video on child sex tourism, now shown on Air Canada flights at home and abroad.
"It raises awareness about the issue, acts as a deterrent and calls the public to action. Even those who are not traveling with the intention of abusing children, after seeing this video will know to alert the authorities if they see suspicious activity involving a child and an adult," says Perera.
She is now taking the concept to American Airlines and other airline companies that travel to child sex trade hot spots in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean.
OneChild is also collaborating with PREDA to build a new centre. "The current facility provides support to children rescued from prostitution and sexual abuse at home, but a centre that specifically addresses the needs of children exploited in the sex trade is badly needed."
In May 2007 when PREDA's director Father Shay Cullen visited Canada, Perera presented him a cheque for $40,000, a start for the centre.
"We support PREDA because it provides a home for abused children, helps re-build their lives and reintegrates them into society, so they become functioning adults, able to contribute to the community," says Perera.
Most of One Child's fundraising in done by children in Canada and the US. Fund raising initiatives include every thing from fashion shows to bake sales.
"OneChild is an organization created by young people and run by young people. A lot of people weren't too happy with the idea of getting young people involved in this issue. Sexuality is so taboo; some people felt children should be shielded from this."
But this is happening to children and children can be empowered to protect themselves and their interests," says Perera. "Moreover, as young Canadians, we have a stake in this issue because our own citizens are perpetrators of sex crimes against foreign children."
Cheryl with children
Perpetrators of child sex crimes come from all walks of life. "The man I met in Sri Lanka looked like a regular person. He was the assistant general manager of the finance department of a multinational organization."
Perera plans to forge more partnerships to draw attention to the issue of child sex tourism.
She hopes to build the organization by developing projects in a number of countries. Says Perera, "We want young people to be the ones who lead and those affected to stand together and say this is what is happening to us. It must stop."