Dan RatherIN A world full of poverty and human misery, there are scenes in this capital city that have the power to break even the most hardened heart. Here, where the total population is less than a million, hundreds of children live furtive, desperate lives on the streets. They are dirty, scared, hungry, and just about all of them - if surveys are a reliable guide - have been sexually abused in one way or another.
Begging and petty theft are matters of survival for these street kids, and so they often become the subject of brutal police beatings or end up in a squalid and dangerous criminal-justice system that, despite some limited rhetoric about rehabilitation and 'rebirth', amounts to nothing more than warehousing and punishment for lost, abandoned children.
REGARD THE PLIGHT
To regard the plight of these kids so small, and so vulnerable to all the wickedness that the world of adults can offer is to be saddened and sickened that such a thing is possible in a world where some of us have so much. But, one might also ask, aren't the slums of South and Central America (and of Africa and Asia, and of even our own continent and country) rife with such cases? Why should Americans demonstrate special care and compassion for these children?
The answer to the first question is, depressingly and obviously, yes. The problem of children living in horrific poverty is endemic in South and Central America. One estimate puts the number at about 40 million. As the charitable organisation Casa Alianza (the South American branch of the New York-based Covenant House) has pointed out, that's enough to constitute a country unto itself.
There are several answers to the question of why Americans should care. If basic human compassion and the history of U.S. involvement in this part of the world are not enough, know this: The hurts of these Honduran children, and of other children throughout South and Central America, are being compounded by North Americans, including United States citizens.
When one hears the words 'illicit trafficking' in combination with 'South and Central America', the illegal drug trade is what usually comes to mind. But there is another pipeline running through the Americas, one that supplies the trade in human beings.
Poor boys and girls from Tegucigalpa and other places like this are enticed with promises of education or of jobs in hotels or restaurants, and taken to places throughout the hemisphere where they are kept as sex slaves, for purposes of either forced prostitution or pornography or both. One major destination for these children is our nation's partner in NAFTA, Mexico, where underage brothels have become a fixture in the sex tourism business - which sees significant patronage from United States citizens. Other destinations are the United States itself and Canada - two nations where, it is gradually being recognised, the problem of foreign children being kept as sex slaves might be greater than anyone realised.
PEOPLE TRYING TO HELP
There are people who are trying to help these children and hold governments accountable for their own promises to do so. One of the people at the forefront of these efforts is Bruce Harris, an Englishman who is executive director of Latin American programmes for Covenant House. He has made a name for himself in the region as a tireless advocate for poor children, and he has made his share of enemies in the process. There are other individuals and groups who are also doing their best to help the helpless. But they, in turn, need our assistance. As Mr. Harris often asks, "If it was your son or daughter living on the street, wouldn't you want people to help?"
Dan Rather is a veteran US broadcast journalist.
