One of our Tango Diva members, Florencia Lalor, told me about a very important organization committed to ending child sex trade and pornography. I promised that I would share this vital information with our members. Since we all travel and we need to label our luggage – why not do it with a tag that supports such a great cause.

ECPAT USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes).

Often when we hear the words sex slavery and trafficking, we think, “How horrible, but what can I do?” Now, with a TassaTag™, travelers can do something about it.

Tassa Tag is a project of ECPAT-USA. These beautiful luggage tags represent the beauty of those children who were and still are victims of child sex tourism. The tags are hand-made by a group of women at the Regina Center, in Nongkhai, Thailand. The production of the tags not only is a job opportunity for these women, but it also allows them to stay at their communities with their families, instead of being forced to move to the cities making them more vulnerable to the sex trade.

About ECPAT-USA:
“ECPAT-USA works to protect all children from commercial sexual exploitation. We aim to do this through education, advocacy and the passage and enforcement of strong laws. ECPAT-USA is a children’s rights organization. ECPAT-USA is part of the ECPAT global network of organizations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. We seek to end the sexual exploitation of children trafficked to the USA, American children trafficked within the USA, and children exploited by Americans traveling abroad.”

About Child Sex Tourism:
Child sex tourism, also known as the commercial sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism, is the sexual exploitation of a child by a person who engages in sexual activities with a child while traveling away from their own country or region. It usually involves some form of payment, either in cash or in kind. Perpetrators are often referred to as child sex tourists. While most people who sexually exploit children don’t travel to do so, they do it in their home country or region, the phenomenon of child sex tourism is constantly growing. The ease with which citizens of wealthy countries travel around the world to countries where there are many poor children, including street children and others in unstable family conditions, has contributed to a greater demand for children’s bodies.

Be a voice of these children:
By buying the luggage tags you will be not only help women at the Regina Center, you will also be supporting ECPAT’s cause and you will help promote awareness about this sadly large and terrible industry which is child sex tourism. For more information please click on: www.tassatag.org