Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

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homes, or being employed as a domestic servant/companion to white Western men. In
both of these contexts O'Grady provides documented cases of white Western child
abusers relocating to Southeast Asia, and providing access to children and young
people to their friends who visit. Understandably these men have been dubbed 'new
colonialists' by activist groups within the countries concerned.
A 1986 study by Nongyao Naowarat and Acharn Malee Pruekpongsawalee (cited in
Basak, 1991) tracked how children in the Philippines enter the sex industry. They came
primarily from the rural northern regions, having left their villages to find work; 10-20%
of these children go directly into prostitution, with only 20% of this group being aware
that this is their destination. They talked in-depth to 20 girls; six worked 24 hours a day,
five 8-13 hours, and the rest 6-7 hours a day. On average they had three customers a
day, but the maximum was 12-15. Only one had a regular day off, the others only had
rest when they were menstruating. Most were very negative about their life, themselves
and their future.
Ron O'Grady (1992) argues that a turning point in the Philippines was the
documentation of what lead to Rosario Burgos Baluyot's death in May 1987. His account
is summarised below.
Rosario's mother died in 1980, leaving her and her four siblings in the care of their
drifter step-father. Between 6 and 8 Rosario and her siblings survived as best they
could. By age 9 RDsario was one of an estimated 1.2 million homeless children
surviving on the streets of Olongapo, one of the cities which has traditionally
provided R&R for American servicemen. Rosario stayed with a woman who provided
shelter for children in return for a share of their meagre earnings. In 1986, this
woman's common law husband took 10 year old Rosario and another girl to a vacant
lot and raped them. This was Rosario's entry into prostitution. Most of her customers
were American servicemen. From her accounts some of these men would insert
objects into her vagina, and on occasion drug her so she would have no memory of
what happened the next day. One encounter (with an Austrian man, but who Rosario
and the friend she was with thought was American) resulted in Rosario having an
object trapped in her vagina. After several days the pain was so intense she went to
a doctor. Rosario was so frightened that she left before the doctor could remove the
object. The man who had first raped her did so again, knowing that there was an
object trapped inside her. As a consequence it became attached to her uterus.
Rosario now walked bowlegged, was racked with pain which she coped with by
sniffing glue. Her deteriorating health and abject poverty meant she was increasingly
isolated from others. She was found on May 17 1987, in the street, writhing in pain,
and was taken to hospital. Rosario's pain was so intense that it was impossible to
operate immediately. Doctors removed a broken vibrator from her uterus, it had
been lodged in her body for five months.