One hundred tuk-tuk and motorbike taxi drivers in Phnom Penh on Wednesday received diplomas from ChildSafe Cambodia, a Friends-International project in collaboration with Mith Samlanh and the Ministry of Tourism, recognizing their commitment to protect children.
The certificates followed a series of 20-minute sessions over a week or more where the drivers—along with 50 more in Siem Reap province—were trained on the streets to turn down requests to facilitate child prostitution and in some cases to inform the police or the NGO, said Marie Bizet-Pechoux, the ChildSafe coordinator at Friends.
“I am very happy to cooperate with ChildSafe,” motorbike taxi driver Van Pheap, 33, said before receiving his certificate.
“It is very important for helping the children in the city.”
Bizet-Pechoux said the project aims to tackle child sex tourism from a domestic angle.
“Many NGOs work on tracking down pedophiles, but this is not our area,” she said.
“Our idea is to work directly with the facilitators, the Cambodians rather than the foreigners. They can take the kids directly to the customers. They can offer every kind of prostitution service as a provider of information. The idea is to raise their awareness, to open their eyes and to protect the children of Cambodia.”
Some drivers said they know to report child exploitation to the police, or to refuse questionable clients.
In return for their cooperation, ChildSafe promotes drivers, both online and by distributing distinctive blue-and-orange shirts and hats that mark them as ChildSafe.
Tuk-tuk driver Hang Bun Nath, 40, says he wears his shirt often.
“When I wear this shirt, some foreigners say they want to help me, and they take my motorbike around town,” he said.
“Because I help the NGO, foreigners also want to help me.”
Minister of Tourism Lay Prohas issued his own warning to child abusers.
“I want to send a very strong message to would-be perpetrators and to places that facilitate this kind of problem—if they facilitate this, they will be shut down,” he said.
