In late 2005, President of 3I, Aaron C. Caldwell, inadvertently discovered a case of international child-trafficking and dedicated two years of his life to locate the victim. This journey mirrors the breadth and depth of Mavericking and Changemaking at 3I.

Project Need: A Call to Action

Unwanted Miracle: Child-trafficking and the Case of Vietnamese Rosa is a real life narrative and direct action campaign to locate a child potentially sold into a life of modern-day slavery – social justice in its purest form.

Aaron learned of a young Vietnamese girl, aged 15-16 that had been uprooted from her country and sold like property. There is a “legitimate agency” in Vietnam that brokers a “better life” for young girls whose families are submersed in desperation due to poverty. The Vietnamese agency tells poor families in Vietnam that Taiwanese clients are seeking a caretaker or wife for a crippled family member. The poor family in Vietnam receives $US1000 for their child. The young girl is then shipped off to her “better life.” Research conducted by Unicef and other child protection agencies reveal that girls often end up as domestic slaves, abused repeatedly, raped or even worse they end up as lifetime sex slaves in brothels.

Project Rationale: Connecting the Social Justice Dots

Before learning of Vietnamese Rosa from his hair dresser in the USA, Aaron taught English in Taiwan for 12 months. During that time he bore witness to the cracks foreign women fall between –the cracks feeding the locals’ demand for commercial sexual exploitation of women. On almost every street corner in urban and rural Taiwan, brothels are evident. And, the sex workers are usually foreign (even though prostitution is illegal under Taiwan law).

Project Innovation: The Best Interest of the Child

After interviews with key stakeholders, consultations (and lack of responses) from local and international authorities and nongovernmental organisations, Vietnamese Rosa was located.  The research findings of Aaron’s inquiry reveal alarming results about how the child’s life was de-valued in terms of the pursuit of her location. He has presented results on the case at venues such as World Leadership Day in Sydney and has incorporated the theme of the results to build another unique social justice, counter trafficking based initiative, Good Deeds International. Good Deeds seeks to educate and empower survivors of trafficking to become Mavericks and Changemakers in their own neighborhoods.

Project Hypothesis: Be the Change

Most of us are confronted with choices to create change in our own lives and those of our local and international neighbors. It is when we rise to those challenges that the world and our life becomes what it was intended to be –peaceful, beautiful and meaningful.