Riverkids September 08 report!

The full report at our website - but here was one incident that was kept off the blog until it was sorted out:

Trafficking is an awful reality that is close to the lives of many Riverkids’s families. And in mid-September one of our children was involved in a situation that sounded suspiciously like an attempt at trafficking. Taken to a hotel room by a foreigner, this child was given a bath and then handed new clothes, flip flops and three dollars—which Riverkids staff noticed when the child came to school the next day. Apparently this was “all” that happened, but Riverkids is taking no chances and are working with another NGO to investigate this incident.

Please, please do not do this when you're travelling, even with the best of intentions. Because the lesson you are teaching vulnerable children is that friendly strangers will give you money for affection.

It also has very little long-term benefit for the child - they're clean and fed for one day only.

Instead, ask your hotel for a recommendation, make a cash donation to a well-reviewed NGO, or (best of all), next trip, make a plan and contact an NGO ahead of the trip to do something useful.

And those cute streetkids? Talk to them. Treat them with kindness and dignity. Pay for a healthy fruit drink or a bowl of noodles at a local restaurant in public. Tiny packs of crayons and pencils or whistles to giveaway are pretty cool too =)