Me (20 page)

The first thing we did was to form an alliance with Yamaha and FedEx to raise $1 million in musical instruments for the schools of Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, I couldn’t participate in the delivery of the instruments, but my brothers and my friend Mireille Bravo, who were in charge of the whole program, organized it so that all the boxes of instruments were placed in the middle of the basketball court. It was a huge success, because the students would show up and say “Wow!” when they saw all the boxes. Even the students who were not enrolled in music signed up so they could have the chance to use the new instruments. The teachers couldn’t believe it when they saw everything that arrived, and, on a personal level, I was happy to see that we were doing something for the future musicians of my island.

These were the first projects of the Ricky Martin Foundation, which since its inception has been an important part of my daily life. Today the foundation focuses on various fields—we can’t do it all, but we do what we can, both locally and around the globe. One of the projects we’re developing in Puerto Rico is a holistic youth center in Loiza, a town on the north coast of the island, where there are many gang-related problems. The idea is to build a place where we can keep these kids occupied and off the streets. The center will offer classrooms, but there will also be a place where we teach meditation, yoga, arts, and all kinds of other activities to keep them busy. I believe that one of the most serious problems faced by our society’s youth is idleness. When they have too much free time on their hands, they have more opportunity to get into trouble, so our goal is to create a place where they will always be busy, a place that will be like an amusement park for children of all ages, from zero to eighteen years old. We also want to offer support to pregnant girls so they can deliver their babies in a healthy environment. The idea is to start healing these wounds that have opened within society, and help the gang members who are killing one another begin to realize their so-called enemies are kids just like them. In June 2009, the RTL Foundation of Germany selected our proposal for the construction of the Loiza center as their international project (along with four other European projects) and will support us with funds raised through their renowned telethon. It is a long-term project that will take a long time to implement, but we are doing it with a great deal of love.

From the moment we created the foundation, it was as if I had sent out the message to the universe that I wanted to do something, and so many ways of helping suddenly began to appear before me. All you have to do is say, “I want to do something,” and
boom
, the opportunities start to crop up. It is really a question of selecting the causes that are most important to you personally or touch your heart in some way, because there is so much to do. I started with music and a rehabilitation center for kids with disabilities. Those covered the areas of health and education, two causes I consider very important. Social justice would come later on.

What I know is that giving back felt wonderful. Actually, it felt better than anything else I had done previously. And I know we could have done more at that time, but with the little we had done, I started to see very positive results, which filled me with joy. It was healing for the world, and healing for me to do it.

Even though I do devote as much of my time as possible to my foundation and we accomplish quite a lot, I still don’t feel it’s enough, and we’re always looking for a way to do more. But sometimes things happen; in my case, I got a call from a colleague in India that led me to discover the horrible reality of human trafficking. No matter what the cause is that draws you, or inspires you to educate yourself further, hopefully the knowledge that it is almost impossible to eradicate issues such as these will inspire us all to do as much as we can, and then just a little bit more.

WHEN WE BEGAN to work on the issue of human trafficking, one of the obstacles we had to face is that it’s such a colossal and brutal problem that it is often hard to get people to pay attention. It’s like looking directly at a battlefield. It is so painful that people are inclined to turn their gaze elsewhere. That’s what happened to me when I first saw it. I said, “What? There are people who buy and sell sex with a four-year-old child? This just can’t be.” But it is. And just because it is such a horrifying subject, we cannot cast it aside. It is instead the very reason why we should face it head-on, with our eyes wide-open, with the goal of bringing as much awareness to it as possible.

Like so many people, sometimes it happens that when I discover some of the atrocities that happen in the world, I feel like running in the opposite direction. I don’t want to know what it is that’s happening because I’m not ready to hear it. Like everyone, I also have my own problems, and it can be hard to think about what I can possibly do to help. But I have learned that the more I study, the more I know, and then I feel more prepared to face the reality of the situation and make my contribution toward finding a solution to the problem.

So, when I am seeking the support of others, I have learned that the best way to go about it is to ease them into the whole picture: I usually start by stating basic facts, gradually adding details, explaining, until they can finally grasp the full picture and ultimately understand it. Although on the one hand I am quite graphic in describing and explaining the issue, I have to be careful, because I don’t want to intimidate potential supporters. On the contrary: What I want is for everyone to take a real interest in the subject. I am not going to paint a rose-colored picture of the situation just so people pay attention, but I will present it in the best way possible so that they understand it and aren’t frightened away. I know I can’t chase down politicians and citizens of the world and force them to listen to me, so it is crucial for me to know how I can reach them so that they do listen, and to convince them that if we all join forces, we can actually make a difference.

I want the world to understand that exploitation exists, that there are men and women who sell sexual servitude, the sexual services of a child, and that there are also people willing to pay for such services. In Cambodia, I met a fourteen-year-old girl who had been sold and raped. She was a beautiful girl. Her abductors told her, “If you come with us, we’ll make you a model and the money you earn will be sent to your grandmother so that she will be able to get the medicine and therapies to treat her condition.” Given that option, it goes without saying that the girl didn’t hesitate to accept the offer. They were offering her an opportunity of a lifetime and, on top of that, a solution for her grandmother’s illness. How could she say no? But the reality was, of course, very different. They kidnapped her and put her in a brothel, where a disgusting man raped her, got her pregnant, and gave her HIV. Had she not been found and taken to an orphanage where she and her baby would receive care, what would have become of her?

The worst part is that she is not the only one. There are millions of children with similar stories. I met a girl who had been sold to traffickers by her own father, to be able to feed the rest of his children; she was already infected with the AIDS virus and was the mother of a three-month-old baby. When I met her, she didn’t know if the baby was also infected, because back then it took a few months to be able to tell if a baby was born with HIV or not.

I’ve heard hundreds of similar stories. The government tries to fight back, but it’s like trying to stop the waves of the ocean from breaking. The demand is just too great. There are too many men in the world who enjoy forcing children into sexual slavery.

Once I went to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on a fact-finding mission for my foundation. There is a promenade where tourists go, and there you can find dozens of perverts seducing young children. Many of the bars have second floors where beds are kept. There I saw men paying to sleep with eight-year-old girls or six-year-old boys, and my stomach turned. I see that this continues to happen and I say to myself: “What can I do? I’m working like crazy for this cause, and it’s as if I haven’t done a thing.”

It infuriates me to no end. Rage blinds me when I see a man pay $300 to have sex with an eight-year-old girl. It’s something I just can’t comprehend and I simply cannot accept. Any man who is capable of doing this is a criminal and should be buried alive to be consumed by the worms. And why does it make me so angry? Not because I have lived through it, but simply because it is inhuman, and I’ve witnessed this inhumanity with my own eyes. I’ve also seen the degradation of these children caught on camera; I have seen a video of five-year-old girls, terror in their eyes, being asked, “Do you do pum pum? Or ñum ñum?”

Horrified, they respond, “Ñum ñum, yes. No pum pum.”

Ñum ñum refers to oral sex, and pum pum is everything else. On the video you can hear the criminal, who is showing the little girls as if they are merchandise. He says, “Here are the most expensive ones . . . the virgins.” And when he opens the door, you see five girls, holding hands and trembling. Then a grotesque man appears licking his lips, and says, “Maybe that one, the third one....”

The girls generally come from very poor families. One day a trafficker shows up at their home and tells the parents that if they give their girls up, $1,000 will be sent to them monthly. How can they possibly say no? A thousand dollars is the equivalent of five years of work. The parents see it as an opportunity to buy food and medicine, and tell their daughter that it is time to go to work.

And that’s how the whole thing starts.

There are the traffickers who come with stories about being from a modeling agency. And this, of course, excites the girls and their mothers. What little girl hasn’t dreamed of one day becoming a model? So they tell them that there is a European agency in the capital that’s looking for girls who have eyes and hair just like hers, and that she will be featured on television and in fashion shows. Both the mothers and daughters eagerly accept. But the moment the girls are taken from their homes they are thrown into a brothel.

Every time I think I’ve heard it all, that there couldn’t possibly be a more horrible story than the one I just heard, an even worse one appears. I attend conferences all over the world—in New York, Vienna, wherever the issue of human trafficking exists—and always find out about new cases that have been brought to light. And the most startling thing about it is realizing that I really know nothing about human malice. I have always wanted to believe that human beings are naturally good, but when I hear these stories I realize this is not the case: Just like there are individuals in the world who are incredibly good and generous, there are also people who are disgustingly evil. So harrowing are the atrocities that the moment always comes when I feel I should just give up and go home because no matter what I do, human trafficking is a tough battle. It’s a massive and powerful monster.

It doesn’t matter how many laws and regulations are in place to control human trafficking; there are too many countries in which laws are simply not obeyed. In other countries, the laws are outdated. For example, there are some very powerful countries in Latin America where prostitution is tolerated, and the constitution says that a boy becomes a man at eighteen, while a girl becomes an adult at twelve. Therefore, if you see a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road selling her body, well, technically—and according to that country’s law—she is considered to be an adult and has every right to be a prostitute. Is it immoral? I think anyone would agree that it is. However, is it illegal? No. And therein lies the tragedy.

That really frustrates me. I have to ask myself, when the very governments of certain countries are allowing this to happen, if they don’t realize they are exploiting their own girls, their own citizens, then what is it that I am actually doing? Am I trying to abolish slavery in the twenty-first century?

But deep down I know it does not matter how hard it is or how impossible it may seem; I have to continue with my struggle. It is one of those tests in life we must all face. The most important things are never easy to accomplish, and the more important the cause, the more we have to struggle for it. Climbing to the top of a mountain doesn’t happen in one jump.

One of the things that helped me to forge ahead was meeting a Scottish activist when I was in Cambodia. I told him that sometimes I want to abandon the cause because the reality of the struggle consistently brings me so much disappointment. It seems that it doesn’t matter what I do or with whom I speak, because each day I hear about more young prostitutes or more children who are victims of rape. It’s as if I take one step forward and twenty steps backward.

He listened to me attentively and then said something I will never forget: “Focus on the people you have helped. Each life that you save is nothing more and nothing less than a life. It is one less life that is enslaved. Don’t focus on what you have not been able to accomplish, or on what is yet to be done. Focus on what you
have
been able to accomplish. You rescued three girls off the street. And tomorrow you may have the opportunity to save another one. That’s something to celebrate.”

He’s right. To continue with this fight, like in any battle, it is crucial to focus on what has been accomplished, and the results yielded. To not give in to disappointment about the goals that must still be reached. Each individual life saved is a victory in this never-ending battle.

There’s a story I love that perfectly illustrates the point this Scottish activist was trying to make. There was once a man who was walking along the seashore, and he came upon a place where there were thousands of fish thrown on the sand, suffocating without water. The man began to toss the fish into the sea. Another man who was strolling by saw this and asked: “What are you doing? You know you won’t be able to save them all.”