Project Karma was established in 2015 and registered with the Australian Charity and Not-for-profit commission in March 2016. Based In Melbourne Australia, Project Karma’s focus is to combat child exploitation both within Australia and in key regions of South East Asia where the majority of these crimes occur.
Millions of children are trafficked globally each year with many for the purpose of child prostitution. This number is growing at an estimated 20% per year where these children, the majority living in East and South East Asia, face constant sexual and physical violence. Why does this happen? These children are from very poor families, have little or no health care, unsafe drinking water, inadequate nutrition and are unable to go to school.
Unregulated economic growth along with other factors ie: increased migration, tourism growth, natural disasters, increased use of the internet, and conflicts and violence all contribute to putting these children more at risk of becoming child sex slaves. Also vulnerability plays a big part in the commission of these offences. In these poor regions of the world people will do just about anything to gain money, sadly including selling their own children.
Enter Glen Hulley ..
Project Karma CEO and founder Glen Hulley was a private investigator and former Victorian Police Officer having spent 13 years in both uniformed and covert operations. His fierce determination and dedication was ignited to fight against child sexual exploitation and trafficking when on a holiday to Cambodia in 2013 he was offered a young child for sexual services.
This was to change Glen’s life. On his return to Australia, he made the decision to sell everything he owned, formed Project Kama and moved to southeast Asia to lend his skills at fighting child sex trafficking. Glen has worked with other NGO’s in Asia overseeing investigation teams in Jakarta, Batam, Lombok, Bali, Manila, Cebu, Philippines, Nepal and India and continues to consult with Australian and International law enforcement and government bodies, diplomats, consuls and ambassadors in addressing these horrendous crimes.
Project Karma Sentinel Project
Mission Statement “To rescue and rehabilitate all children from situations of sexual slavery and sexual abuse by investigating all reports of child sexual exploitation, then advocating for prosecution of offenders in conjunction with local and International law enforcement agencies throughout designated regions of South East Asia”.
The main focus is to disrupt Organized Crime networks that create and supply a market of children for sexual exploitation. Project Karma are currently developing and implementing strategic action plans to combat this issue. They aim to :
- Bring legal action action against sexual abusers of children
- Rescue and rehabilitate child victims and potential victims of these crimes
- Create and deliver awareness and education programs at all levels in SE Asia, Australia and beyond about sexual abuse and exploitation of children
- Lobby government for recognition and action to address key causes surrounding these crimes.
The only effective way to fight child sexual exploitation and abuse is to actively target all aspects of the ‘industry’ that this has become. Project Karma shall focus it’s work where it has the largest impact and where the biggest challenges exist.
Firstly, educate the local communities by raising awareness through training how to deal with suspicions and offences, build links between these communities and the local law enforcement, gather as much support as possible from governments and businesses and encourage the communities to confront child sexual abuse.
Secondly, partner with local law enforcement and train them on the most effective investigation methods, provide the best practice advice for the rescue of these abused children, provide temporary accommodation and assessment, provide counselling, psychological therapy and other support services and work on the legislation for sexually abused children. And thirdly, in predominantly rich countries where transnational sexual child abusers come from, work with governments to limit rights to child sex offenders by establishing a child sexual offenders register, restricting where offenders can live and work, ban overseas travel, report and monitor obligations and allow appropriate public access to register information.
Project Karma played an integral role in supporting Australian Senator Derryn Hinch in changing Australian legislation to prohibit child abusers travelling overseas and have been actively involved in many investigations and convictions, including those of several high profile paedophiles that have since been imprisoned. These efforts have saved countless children form further sexual abuse and exploitation.
How to supprt Project Karma
Project Karma relies on donations from individuals as it’s main source of funding and any amount big or small helps us to protect vulnerable children. Almost every dollar received from sponsors and supporters goes directly to support projects in the field actively involving fighting child sexual exploitation, including the Sentinel Pilot Projects in Bali and Cebu in the Phillipines.
For further information on supporting Project Karma please contact us at admin@projectkarma.org.au.
For further information on Project Karma and Glen Hulley please contact our website www.projectkarma.org.au and follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/project.karma.sentinel.