COLOMBIA: UNITED NATIONS AND COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT MAKE SOAP OPERA WARNING WOMEN ABOUT DANGERS OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

Record ID: 336850

  • Title: COLOMBIA: UNITED NATIONS AND COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT MAKE SOAP OPERA WARNING WOMEN ABOUT DANGERS OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
  • Date: 4th June 2005
  • Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) SLV BEHIND SCENES OF SOAP OPERA/ PROGRAMME BEING FILMED SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SARA CORRALES, ACTRESS FROM THE SOAP OPERA "EVERYONE WANTS MARILYN", SAYING: "This soap is a soap that a lot of people see and if it manages to transmit the message maybe, well how great, how great to warn so many people about the suffering. I only do one
  • Embargoed: 19th June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVANZY1ODVCLVENO06RQXZ3M37T
  • Story Text: The United Nations and Colombia join forces in
    warning women about the dangers of sexual exploitation with
    popular telenovela.




    The United Nations has sought the help of a
    kind-hearted prostitute to warn of the dangers of people
    trafficking in one of Colombia's most popular soap operas.

    The United Nations signed a deal for one of the
    country's highest-rating shows -- about a prostitute
    reformed by love -- to shoot scenes in its Bogota offices and plug its
    message against gangs sending women to
    brothels in Japan and Europe.

    The UN got in contact with the show's producers as part
    of a campaign to prevent young women being conned into
    becoming sex slaves abroad.

    Colombia, along with other developing nations with
    large poor populations, is a major target for human
    traffickers, law enforcement officials say. According to
    Sandro Calvani, the United Nations Office on Drugs and
    Crime's representative in Colombia, human trafficking must
    be combated.

    "People trading interests us now in concordance with
    the political will of the whole world. The UN is the
    depository of the United Nations convention against
    organised trans-national crime which is why the additional
    protocol is pertinent to the purpose of this conference to
    prevent, repress and sanction people trade, especially
    mothers and children," he said.

    In an upcoming episode of RCN TV's "Everyone wants
    Marilyn", the star, played by Venezuelan actress Scarlet
    Ortiz, asks a U.N. official how she can help women damaged
    by the sex trade.

    In a parallel plot development, another girl in the
    soap is lured to Japan with promises of work as a model but
    is forced into prostitute.

    For model Monica Grisales, the soap opera is a great
    way to reach young girls in danger of being lured into the
    sex industry.

    "The soap is getting a really good reception from
    people. People like watching it and I think it's a massive
    medium to reach a lot of people, above all, some young
    girls who suddenly, it's like they are not conscious of
    this problem and I think this is a good medium to spread
    that message," she said.

    Even those involved in the show, like Sara Corrales who
    plays the character of Catalina, have been touched by the
    message.

    "This soap is a soap that a lot of people see and if it
    manages to transmit the message maybe, well how great, how
    great to warn so many people about the suffering. I only do
    one character and they don't know what I suffer with
    Catalina. I cry reading the notebooks, knowing all the
    terrible things that happen to them. So if this happens in
    real life, it is necessary to avoid it in whatever way,"
    said Corrales.

    But the show ends happily, at least for Marilyn.

    She is rescued from prostitution by a beau she meets
    when she wriggles out of cake dressed in shimmering red
    underwear.
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