Part 4: The Grey Man
Saturday 10th July, 2010
The Grey Man is an Australian not for profit dedicated to rescuing children from the sex slave trade. Their mission is to eradicate the trafficking and exploitation of children and their activities are concentrated in south east Asia.
Initially their focus was rescuing children from traffickers but they soon realised that they needed to prevent children from entering the sex trade in the first place. As a result, alongside their rescue work they have developed a prevention program which supports projects in the villages where children are at the greatest risk.
Currently the organisation supports three villages in Thailand with various projects which have an emphasis on education and family assistance, linking this assistance to a child’s progress in school. For example, Grey Man provided seed money to build a trekking lodge in one of the Lahu villages of northern Thailand. Two years later the lodge and trekking venture provides a rotating income for 25 of the villagers who assist with the trekking as well as a percentage going to the community fund.
The Grey Man organisation was founded by an ex Australian commando who initially worked undercover, rescuing children from brothels. Now he, along with others who have joined the organisation, pose as pedophiles to infiltrate trafficking rings and rescue children before they are passed into the brothels. The operations also aim to capture the traffickers and hand them over to the authorities. There are now many others who are involved in these undercover campaigns and who work behind the scenes with organising, fund raising, etc.
The work of the organisation is endorsed by several international groups as well as the Thai authorities. The Grey Man adopted the name from the commando/spy world - as the infiltrator, or on ground person, has to blend into the background and is therefor known as the grey man.
It is cutting edge work and as a result over 2,000 children have been rescued to date.
For more information watch The Grey Man Charity or visit their website.