Former Sex Slave Urges Australia for Help

Chan Sineth is one of the few fortunate ones to escape the child sex slavery that 1.8 million children are sold into across the world each year.Class 'push-0' just right-aligns the element so that the main content comes first.

Australian sex offenders are contributing to the growth of the trade and Neth (Neth) is in Australia to implore the government to do more to help stop more girls being enslaved like her.

"I want to appeal to the Australian government to help the poor children, especially the girls in Cambodia. The problem of trafficking of girls in Cambodia is getting increased," Neth told AAP.

Neth was sold by her mother when she was 14, spending a horrific year as a sex slave in Cambodia before being rescued in 2004 by American journalist Nicholas Kristof who bought her from her pimp for $150.

After graduating from a transition centre where she lived with 15 other former sex slaves, she set up a store which her family looted and is now successfully studying beauty therapy, anatomy and English and teaches yoga to disadvantaged children.

She is also determined to raise awareness of sex trafficking and help other girls who come from families like Neth's.

"I think there is no other option because of the poverty, so they have to sell their children for money like my own family," she said.

Neth has joined Australian child protection charity Childwise to launch its campaign in Melbourne on Tuesday to have Australians sign a petition to stop the sex slave trade.

It's not just about tackling poverty in countries like Cambodia where many families find their daughter's virginity is their best source of income.

And it's not just a foreign problem, says Childwise chief executive Bernadette McMenamin. Australian sex offenders feed the slave traders, making up 31 per cent of sex tourists prosecuted in Thailand.

The federal government and police don't do enough about it, Ms McMenamin says.

"There is this apathy in Australia and many Western countries that there is this inevitability," Ms McMenamin said.

"But we know there are a multitude of programs that need to be in place to keep children in school, to support families and provide families with alternatives to the sale of children.

"It can be done if the government turns their minds to this and works together and says that this is as important as global warming'.

"It's not just about poverty, it's about all the other factors combined, it's about organised crime, it's about sex tourism and we are one of, if not the biggest, offender in South-East Asia.

"The government do not take it seriously, we are demanding they take it seriously."

Ms McMenamin wants the federal government to increase its current level of aid 10-fold to help establish support programs and education in villages in countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.

She also wants the Australian Federal Police to be more proactive, for sex offenders to be reported when they travel overseas and to be brought back to Australia for prosecution.

Childwise is supported by a Monash University survey of 18,000 Australians in which 73 per cent of respondents said they wanted the government to do more to fight the crime.

Love Yourself and Love Others

When we think of the power of love we most often think of passion, happiness and all the pleasure that is possible. Yet we know we feel the power of love in the realest and most tangible way, when we are struggling through tough times. Taking the risk to love and seek love is more real in those times more than any other.

Love Conquers All is viewed as a cliché, a seemingly trite statement that is brought into the darkest of moments to bring a shred of light. When we contemplate the thought more deeply, we are able to see the truth of it.

When we speak of love what we are really speaking about is relationship. For love involves a heart. Yes, we say we love our homes, our passions, our belongings, yet actually we value them. We love people. We love other breathing entities that are full of life. Yes we love animals, because we are in relationship with them. There is an exchange of energy, and exchange of emotion…

In tough times it is hard to maintain relationships with our selves and others, hence a sense of love becomes elusive. The demands of trying times divert energy that is normally used to foster love, to solving problems, prioritizing resources and managing time. The tactical becomes more real and in turn our emotional needs are often the last priority, when in fact they should be the most important.

We focus out side of ourselves and allow our personal needs to be put to the side. The people around us are also in that same mode. It is easier to share a chore, cook a meal or give a ride, than to share, often times, painful feelings that go along with the hard times.

We look at the painful feelings as weakness, yet it is the honesty of these feelings that brings people closer together and strengthens the love between us.

Being able to share painful feelings requires a level of self love.

Self love you ask?? Yes, Being able to expose our vulnerabilities requires a level of self love that goes unrecognized as such. Being able to open your self up and allow yourself to be seen is an act of self love. It is an expression of the need to be loved. In all actuality, that expression can only come from self love.

How many times have we heard, “I do not love myself.” We have all said it. As a coach, I hear it from clients all the time. It is a strange thing. Yet here they are, investing in them selves and seeking support, this in it self is an act of self love as well.

Selflove is the most under valued version of love. We know all about “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We generally focus on the first half, forgetting that the first half is predicated on the skill of the second half.

The love of self becomes evident when we are able to reach out beyond our selves and seek the love and support of others. For without self love, we are often unable to see the value of going out of ourselves for what we need.

Worthiness comes into play as we begin to explore the concept of self-love and self respect. We look at our past experiences in order to gauge our worthiness. We naturally ask ourselves, “Did this person love us?” “Did that person support us?”, “Have I received what I deserved?” So many elements come into play as we look at our own worthiness, no less the worthiness of others.

In giving and receiving love, worthiness is a factor that we as humans have a hard time conceiving. Of course we say to ourselves, “Everyone is worthy of love!” Aren’t they??

Here is the challenge! How do we look at ourselves as worthy of love, and how do we see others as worthy of love. For healthy and balanced relationships to happen, our sense of self love MUST be in the mix! Our ability to ask for help, love, and acceptance is the beginning of love flowing to others. As we reach out to ask, we give others permission to give to us, as well as tell them we love them because we trust them enough to ask for it.

Giving and receiving, in the right proportions is the cycle of love. Both people must love themselves enough to receive as well as to give.

The Dali Lama expresses it well, “When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness.”

Make Time for Your Relationship

"We don’t have to wait till Valentine's Day to think about relationships, whether we're in one or would like to be. Most people would agree that romance is the key element beneath the relationship pot.

Be it a steamy, sizzling wok or a warm, steady slow-cooker, romance is the flame that generally gets-and keeps-the heat of love alive. But what exactly is "romance"?

When my wife and I were dating, we were ultra-romantic in the usual sense of the word. There were roses, love letters, surprise gifts, spontaneous adventures, and hours upon hours of talking and... you know, that other stuff.

To be honest, though, some of the initial romantic heat has cooled off a bit. Like couples everywhere, we find ourselves pressured by the demands of daily life: work, children, finances, household chores and commitments to extended family.

Yet, through all our years together, we have somehow found a way to balance these things.

And while our definition of romance has changed somewhat according to our altered circumstances, we still manage to keep our relationship fresh and exciting. White-hot all-consuming passion has melted into love, consideration and affection.

But most of all, romance for us has become a way of making the ""everyday"" exciting. It doesn't take a lot of money or effort - just a commitment to making our relationship special by paying attention to it and a willingness to make.

Remember that only romance keeps the spark alive.

It keeps a relationship vital and interesting. And... it takes time!

Nurturing your relationship, enhancing it, and keeping it flourishing takes time, which is all too precious for many couples.

But by establishing priorities and setting goals, by making better use of the time you have, and by creating time you thought you didn't have, you CAN find more time for each other.

The first thing to do is prioritize!

You can spend your time in one of four ways, doing things that are:

• Important and urgent (such as caring for your child that has fallen down and is bleeding);
• Important but not urgent (sitting together sharing about your day);
• Not important but urgent (taking your suit for dry cleaning, before tomorrow's meeting);
• Not important and not urgent (switching on the TV and zapping between the channels).

When you look at all your time-consuming tasks, let go of any task that is not important.

By focusing most of your time on doing what is important but not urgent, you can eliminate a lot of the crises (important and urgent) as well as the unimportant things. Your perspective on what

constitutes ""urgent"" will also change. Here are a few important, but not urgent, activities to put high on your priority list:

1. Have a regular daily chat.

Turn off the TV and the cell phone and sit together for a short time, uninterrupted and face-to-face, every day to share your thoughts and feelings. Tell each other the little details as well as the big news. Focusing on each other for as little as fifteen minutes can make a huge difference. You will both feel appreciated and heard.

2. Spend one evening together each week.

Plan a specific night each week for your special date. Get a babysitter or trade childcare time with a friend. Once scheduled, treat the commitment as if it were written in stone. Don't break the date!

Take turns planning the activity (and occasionally surprise each other). Take in a movie, go for a bike ride, have a bubble bath, dancein your kitchen. Whether it's a dress-up home-cooked meal or a picnic dinner on the living room floor, make it special. It doesn't have to be expensive, just generous.

3. Spend some "day" time together.

Get up earlier than normal and have breakfast together at a coffee shop. Commute together if at all possible. Meet at lunchtime for a quiet meal or a "stolen moment".

Rendezvous after work for a drink and an appetizer before dinner. Meet at a park for a walk in the fresh air.

You'll be surprised how lively conversation can become when you're meeting in the middle of the day, away from the household chores.

The anticipation of a planned evening or activity can be fun and exciting, even if (especially if!) you've been together for a long time.

By making a date, you'll set aside the special time your relationship deserves and rediscover the romance that started it all."

Healing a Broken Heart

So, you're nursing a broken heart? What you have to remember is that you can get through it. Ask around and you'll find that loads of people you know have had their hearts broken. Most of them are OK now. And one day you'll be OK too. Better than that you'll be fine. But right now, it's hard to believe that.

First love
Getting over your first love is incredibly difficult. This is because we all think our first, real, wonderful, romantic love will last forever. Funnily enough, we don't look at our friends and their early relationships and think that they will last forever. And we know statistically that most people do not fall in love at 17 or thereabouts and stay with that person for life. But knowing these things does not seem to stop us from feeling that our particular first love is golden and timeless and unlike any other. So when it ends it's shattering.

The only comfort is that this romance has shown you how much love you have to give. And people with love to give are attractive individuals that others are drawn to. One day, you'll look back at your first love and realise that it was a great dress rehearsal for subsequent relationships. But you're unlikely to feel that right now.

Treat yourself gently
You can feel so 'knocked' after your heart is broken that you feel seriously ill, or as if you've been in a car crash. So, treat yourself as if you are recovering from a bad illness or a road traffic accident. Let other people care for you, too. Get as much sleep as possible. Eat lovely foods. Convalesce. And allow yourself to cry - even if you're a bloke. It's horrible at the time, but you'll feel better afterwards. All in all, take life gently - you've had a shock, and your mind and body need time to get over it.

Pep up your social life
Your friends will help you get over it. Soon, they'll be asking you to come out in a group to the cinema or the pub or whatever. At first you won't be in the mood, but soon you'll realize that there are some bonuses to being single again. In fact, you'll find that this is a good time to do stuff that you didn't do with your ex. So now you can go to the sorts of films that you like, or you can listen to your type of music, or go on your type of holiday.

Look back to look forwards
Once you're over the stage of feeling shocked and ill, try to look back at your relationship as it really was, not through the rose-tinted spectacles you've worn for so long.
Write a list of the things that you don't miss about your ex. At first you'll be thinking that you loved everything about this person, but you didn't. What about those awful jokes, the rows, how you always had to make the arrangements if anything was to get done, the times when your ex put you down or made you feel stupid or how they didn't like your best mate? There are always elements to our past loves that weren't right, and this is a good time to focus on them.

Starting again
Sometimes when our hearts are broken we want to find someone new to love us as soon as possible. This is natural - but unwise. Your best bet is to embrace your single life wholeheartedly for six months or so. Obviously you may end up having sex with other people - but do make sure it's safe sex.

However, your emotions are not going to settle for quite a while, so have fun, but don't go looking for anything else serious until you're happy without your ex. You'll know you're getting over your heartache when you can get through a whole day without thinking about them.