Kintsugi Heroes
Paul Mergard · 56 min
A former accountant turned CEO of Destiny Rescue, Paul Mergard has spent two decades going undercover in the darkest corners of the world to free children from sexual exploitation — and he believes every Australian can be part of the solution.
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Paul Mergard was an accountant at KPMG when a film about slavery changed everything. In the early 2000s, he began learning about human trafficking and in 2006 travelled to Mumbai to meet women trapped in the sex trade. He met Anita, who had been forced into exploitation as a 9-year-old and spent 10 to 15 years in the red light district. On the flight home, Paul overheard two Australian women casually discussing their gratitude that prostitutes exist, and he sat next to one for 12 hours. That disconnect between what he had witnessed and what he was hearing at home struck him deeply. For the next decade, Paul worked in international aid and development, carrying his commitment to ending human trafficking through periods when doors seemed closed.
In 2019, Destiny Rescue asked Paul to join as second-in-command, with a view to becoming CEO. Since then, the organisation has rescued over 11,500 people from child sexual exploitation and human trafficking across 10 countries. Paul goes undercover in bars, brothels and massage parlours to identify children being exploited. He has met girls who believed exploitation was their only option, including a 17-year-old in Thailand who told him she was there because it was her destiny. That exact word had inspired the organisation's name decades earlier. Paul has also met a 14-year-old so frightened of what the night would bring that she could only say one word: afraid. She is now free.
Paul raises his two sons to understand that a life that counts is one spent thinking about other people. He believes every Australian can play a part in ending exploitation, whether by having hard conversations with people they know who visit places where trafficking happens, or by supporting organisations doing direct rescue work. The biggest thing limiting Destiny Rescue from doubling rescues tomorrow is not opportunity or victims to help, but funding to scale the work that already works.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au • 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au
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