Voyage of Discovery

Now that the voyage is over you may want to read about Wendy's adventure in chronological order from start to finish. To do this just click on the link

Back home now and I am converting my postings in the old style blog to this one. I will then take selected images from my Image Gallery to illustrate the stories

Christa Franko from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) arranged meetings and introductions for me to the FBI and LAPD in Los Angeles. NCMEC which was established in 1984 as a private, nonprofit organization to provide services nationwide for families and professionals in the prevention of abducted, endangered, and sexually exploited children works closely with the FBI,LAPD and other organisations in combatting child exploitation. They have facilities for the public to report an incident involving the possession, distribution, receipt, or production of child pornography, via a website www.cybertipline.com which then forwards all reports to law enforcement agencies.

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Children of the Night (COTN ) is a private, non-profit, organization founded in 1979 by Dr Louis Lee. Her team is dedicated to assisting children between the ages of 11 and 17 years who are exploited through prostitution. Since 1979 they have rescued girls and boys from prostitution and the domination of vicious pimps, their success rate is impressive: according to their annual follow-up studies, about 80 percent of children they have worked with remain off the streets.

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I met up with officers from the LAPD Sexually Exploited Child Unit today to discuss children and young people exploited through prostitution within the Los Angeles area. I have also including wider research findings from the University of Pennsylvania on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S, Canada and Mexico( Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, 2001)

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Hi everyone. Just to let you know I am now in Fiji for a few days before I head off to Los Angeles and meet up with several projects. The weather here is very pleasant (just a couple of thunder storms) and the island is an ideal stop over point on my way to America. I have however lost my luggage and am having to buy yet another bathing costume and other essentials to get me by. I am hoping it will be found or I will be forced to shop on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills for clothes LOL (Laugh Out Loud)
Seriously though I do need my suit case it's got all that I need in it so I keep ringing the airport and harassing them. I am also threatening with a sore throat and hope this does not turn into anything more problematic, so extra vitamin C for me in double dose. I was going to my room earlier today and passed a snake on the edge of the path which naturally made me jump. I asked one of the hotel guys to check it out and he said it was a sea snake and shooed it away.(one of the five most deadly venomous snakes in the world) As I nervously tiptoed by and watched it disappear into the rocks, I asked why was a sea snake in the garden? the guy said there was another much larger one further down the garden and they come up from the sea at certain times of the year, so I am now locking myself in the room until I set off to Los Angeles (well I might as well I have no clothes anyway) So I thought I'd let you know that I am fine and just because I am in exotic sunny Fiji whilst you are all suffering with snow, ice and winds not all is perfect.

Wishing you all a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year

I am now in Cairns for xmas and the web will be updated in early Jan 2005

I have spent the last week meeting with several organizations, Police, NGO

In a recent Australian country wide Police operation code named Operation Auxin (similar to the UK Operation Ore) more than 300 computers were seized containing over two million pornographic images involving children, including some showing a two year old in a bondage scene. Over 200 men were arrested for down loading child abuse images within Australia and a further 25 cases are still under investigation. A New South Wales Police Officer: Detective Superintendent Kim Mc Kay after the internet raids: quoted in a national newspaper:

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Tuesday, December 14, 2004

The Ted Noffs Foundation was founded by the great Australian humanitarian, Reverend Ted Noffs, over 30 years ago. During his remarkable career of pioneering initiatives for young people, Ted Noffs established Sydney

Youth Off The Streets supports chronically homeless and drug addicted young Australians as they work to turn their lives around.
It is their goal that these young people will leave care drug free, with a high school education, living skills and a full or part time job.
Based on the philosophy that every young person has greatness within, these programs are non-denominational and non-discriminatory.

I met with Kevin Ko from YOTS who manages residential services, he introduced me to a number of staff responsible for running several of YOTS residential establishments in Sydney, surrounding suburbs and their accomodation further South in Australia. In total YOTS have several programmes, one which works with young people who are sexually harmful towards others, to projects offering young people drug rehabilitation, education, supported accomodation and counselling for those who have suffered abuse.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

During Outreach Scott introduced me to a number of homeless young people, including some adults and very charismatic characters like the "twins'. Two guys in their early forties who have been homeless for a number of years in Sydney. They are a very knowledgeable pair and what they did not know about sport and every Olympics ever held was amazing and very entertaining.

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I met up with Scott the Youth off the Streets Outreach manager and donned my YOTS t-shirt before setting off with him to undertake Outreach. My first task was to meet up with another Outreach organisation called 'just enough faith' who provide food for the homeless population of Sydney.

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