Jane Marquis with bags and totes made by women rescued from trafficking in Cambodia. 84029 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS
LIA BICHEL
CHILDREN as young as three are being sold into the sex trade overseas, but one local woman is trying to make it stop.
Narre Warren North resident Jane Marquis launched STOPstart Global after embarking on a trip to Cambodia in 2008.
After her return, Ms Marquis read an article which prompted her to start the not-for-profit organisation to support and empower trafficked women and children around the world.
“I read about human trafficking in Cambodia, in particular, how girls were being put into brothels at a young age,” she said.
“It devastated me to know that was going on. I felt like it was a huge problem and I couldn’t do anything. But then I challenged myself to do something about it, and it just snowballed from there.”
According to Ms Marquis, human trafficking is the second largest transnational crime, with an estimated 27 million men, women and children sold into slavery around the globe.
Ms Marquis hopes STOPstart will raise awareness and funds in Australia to help women get jobs and sustain an income and to stop trafficking before it begins.
“A lot of people in Cambodia are poor and they are in a situation where they sell their children because they have no other way of bringing into money to the family,” Ms Marquis said.
“Sometimes they are aware of what they are selling their children into and sometimes they get told a different story, like they are being sold into domestic help – but quite often that doesn’t happen.”
Ms Marquis said that in many cases woman and children were kept in tiny rooms at brothels, locked up and treated very poorly. They were often drugged so they didn’t put up a fight.
Ms Marquis said many of the men wanted virgins, so younger children were often sought after.
“It’s very horrible stuff,” she said.
“I just want to help out.”
Since launching the organisation, Ms Marquis has been to Cambodia about eight times on self-funded trips to speak to women who have been rescued from the sex trade and are now working in a manufacturing plant, creating bags which can be bought in Australia on the STOPstart website.
“A lot of women don’t like to recall what’s happened to them but I have heard a few stories,” she said.
“They were in situations where the felt they had no control- they were in a position where all their rights and freedom were taken from them.”
She has received a lot of support from her husband Hugh and his IT company Network Neighborhood. In September 2011 a group of the company’s staff and partners visited Cambodia to see first-hand what their commitment as enabled STOPstart to do.
Ms Marqis has also received a lot of support from members in the community.
She first told of her organisation at a conference for her church, Stairway Church Whitehorse and was overwhelmed with positive feedback. Since then, several other people have come on board including the Casey Fields Cricket Club who will wear the words STOPstart on their back to promote the campaign and a friend of Ms Marquis who is looking into getting a clutch handbag designed, with proceeds to go to the STOPStart.
Anyone wanting to learn more about STOPstart can visit the website www.stopstart.com.au. Proceeds of products sold on the STOPstart website support projects that work with victims of human trafficking, as well as organisations working towards prevention.
