Bright Hope for a New Year

Photo by Carf

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm pretty excited about American Assistance for Cambodia/Japan Relief for Cambodia.  AAfC was founded in 1993 by American journalist Bernie Krisher, former head of the Newsweek and Fortune Tokyo bureaus.  Yay for Americans living in Tokyo making a difference in the world of child sex trafficking!

AAfC is incredible for a number of reasons.  Here are just a few of the highlights detailing some of the program's major accomplishments so far:

• Helped construct more than 400 primary and lower secondary schools in rural Cambodia, equipped with optional value-added programs; solar panels, computers, Internet-access, English teachers, vegetables gardens, bookshelves of books, and nurses.
• Built the charity Shinanouk Hospital - Center of Hope, which provides free outpatient treatment for 300 patients a day and has two wards for hospitalized patients.
• Established the English/Computer training program at the Future Light Orphanage.
• Built and operated Cambodia's largest Free Media library, containing over 25,000 volumes.
• Equipped five IT training centers at Cambodia's top secondary schools.

But my favorite part of AAfC is something called "Girls be Ambitious."  The website says, "Among victims of trafficking, the group who are most vulnerable are illiterate girls who are enticed to migration and who are exploited en route and at their destination."  The Girls be Ambitious program is part of JRfC/AAFC's Cambodian School Project, which currently manages 310 elementary and middle schools in rural villages. The Cambodia School Project is in cooperation with the Cambodia Ministry of Education and follows their curriculum--but also boasts added components like Internet connections, computer and English-language lessons, and a farming program.  The program is also equipped with satellite dishes that provide internet connection to remote schools through something called a "Motoman system."

"The Internet Village Motoman system is an innovative way of providing e-mail connection to villages where internet infrastructure does not exist. Every morning, motorcycles equipped with a wifi modem on the back upload e-mails addressed to schools on the route from a satellite dish installed at a hub school. Each motorcycle travels to schools on their route, also equipped with a wifi modem which uploads and downloads e-mails. We have successfully implemented this system in eight villages, shortly to be increased to 15, increasing village accessibility to 80, soon 150 villages."

Pretty amazing, right?  But I think this part is the best idea of all: 

"The school project has been a success in terms of continual increase in student attendance and raising the level of education. Our surveys, however, show that attendance of girls remains low and as a result they stay illiterate. A further study showed that the main reason girls do not attend school is poverty and pressures upon them to help the family with work in the field, or to take care of younger siblings and stay home while the parents are farming in the fields. We identified and interviewed such girls and families in five villages and found that while they said they wanted to and promised to attend school, immediate economic pressures eventually prevented them from doing so. The Girls be Ambitious program provides an incentive for girls and their families to enable them to attend school by providing financial assistance of $10 a month, $120 a year for "perfect" attendance. Every month, the home room teacher will e-mail us an Excel attendance sheet for each sponsored girl. Our accountant will authorize immediate payment of $10 to the family if the girl had "perfect" attendance. If the girl does not have perfect attendance, she will not be paid that month and we will look into reasons why. If it is an illness, there will be a reduction in the stipend but other absences will be judged more severely.

At the start of the program, we will ask the participating families to sign an agreement to refund the money if the participant drops out within six months of the program's launch. We may not get all the funds back but feel this pressure will provide an incentive to fulfill the requirement of the program."

English language skill lessons, vocational training and education on trafficking round out the program.  This is such a clear example of a realistic way to address not only the direct issue of trafficking, but the underlying cultural circumstances that can play a role in paving the road toward easy exploitation.

Hats off, Mr. Krisher.  A very happy New Year to you, and everyone reading this post.  I'm so excited for what 2009 might bring.

The Greatest Weapon, The Sharpest Sword

Yesterday, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times made an announcement that really got me thinking.

Kristof and his family shared that they have built and launched a school in Cambodia. The premise is actually quite simple: Kristof has been a longtime whistleblower around issues of sex trafficking and exploitation, and he saw education as a fundamental way to combat the problem. Kristof also details a program called American Assistance for Cambodia, which he describes as "the brainchild of Bernie Krisher, a former news magazine correspondent who in 1993 started it as an aid group to support Cambodia. He has built 400 schools around the country, as well as health programs and projects to fight sex trafficking. He also publishes the Cambodia Daily, an English-language paper, and even persuaded J.K. Rowling to donate Khmer-language rights to 'Harry Potter,' so that cheap Harry Potter books could encourage Cambodian children to start reading."

I looked into the Assistance for Cambodia program and started to write about it here, but I think it is SO cool that I'm going to give it its own blog post. Stay tuned for more info tomorrow (if all goes according to plan!)

It's one of those weeks where it seems like a common thread runs through a lot of things I'm coming across. I happened to pick up Three Cups of Tea this week, which is on a similar theme. The book chronicles the amazing accomplishments of an American named Greg Mortenson who has built more than 80 schools and educated more than 30,000 children in Pakistan and Afghanistan--most of whom are girls. The idea behind the schools is that the opportunity for education is one of the best tools to combat some of the world's greatest evils, like trafficking and terrorism. There is also currently a young adult and children’s version of the book, so that regardless of age, you can learn. I'm not quite halfway through yet, but I'd recommend adding this one to your reading list when you get a chance.

Finally, there's Diana Scimone’s Born2Fly project. Her idea is to create a wordless book that can be used to teach children about the dangers of trafficking--and therefore hopefully save them from it. The project is described as follows:

Most kids are lured into sex slavery because they don’t know the deceptive tactics of traffickers. Wherever awareness training takes place, the rate of trafficking plummets. There’s just not enough, nor is it available in the languages of most at-risk kids. The Born to Fly Project is a strategic 4-stage plan to educate kids, parents, and teachers about the dangers of child trafficking—with the ultimate goal of ending it.

It's interesting to me how far-reaching, effective, and similar the answer to the problem is. I talk a lot about education and awareness for those of us learning about this issue safely out of trafficker's reach--that the most important thing we can do is to educate ourselves and spread the word. And the very same is true for those across the world from us, regardless of age, language, or position in life. Knowledge is power, yes--and in this case, it is often the deciding factor between a life smothered in darkness, and innocence kept.

Photo by Kennymatic.

Just Courage

I'm back home again after a wonderful Christmas with my family. We spent a total of 5.5 days in the car, so I was completely disconnected from the computer--but I had plenty of time to do some reading. One that I wholly recommend is a newer book called "Just Courage" by IJM's President Gary Haugen. Haugen looks at Jesus' commands to His followers and why so many American Christians often feel restless in their faith. We're very comfortable, and we're very far removed from the front lines of fighting injustice--where Haugen argues that God would be, and is today. However, Haugen's style isn't bashing and doesn't aim to load on the guilt for our lack of action--he acknowledges the despair that can accompany tackling a problem of this size. Instead he presents the issue as an opportunity for this generation to change the course of history: if we can commit to love justice, take the openings God gives us to play a hand, and have courage.

You may remember a few posts where I've talked about IJM and Haugen's work to rescue children in the sex trade, even going so far as to be a part of police raids on brothels. IJM often does most of the undercover investigative work toward building a powerful legal case against injustice and slavery all over the world. His latest book is so inspiring and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in fighting injustice.

Haugen talks about how sometimes the best way God works is when the IJM team is faced with absolute desperation for His hand in a miracle. He writes, "In concrete terms, what does that desperation look like? For me, it means being confronted with a videotape of hundreds of young girls in Cambodia being put on open sale to be raped and abused by sex tourists and foreign pedophiles. It means going into a brothel in Cambodia as part of an undercover investigation and being presented with a dozen girls between the ages of five and ten who are being forced to provide sex to strangers. It means being told by everyone who should know that there is nothing that can be done about it. It means facing death threats for my investigative colleagues, high-level police corruption, desperately inadequate aftercare capacities for victims and a hopelessly corrupt court system. It means going to God in honest argument and saying, 'Father, we cannot solve this,' and hearing him say, 'Do what you know best to do and watch me with the rest.' In the end it means taking that risky bargain and seeing God do more than I could have hoped or imagined--setting girls free, providing high-quality aftercare, bringing the perpetrators to justice, shutting down the whole nasty operation, training the Cambodian authorities to do this work themselves and seeing the U.S. government be willing to pay for it."

The book also acknowledges the differences in addressing the problem of violence as opposed to other causes like fighting hunger or sickness or providing clean water. Haugen points out that one of the largest differences is that violence is intentional, and it fights back. Another difference is the extent that perpetrators go to keep their inflicted suffering in the dark. But Haugen reports that in his experience with IJM, the organization has truly seen that perpetrators are afraid of jail time. He says,

"We have seen it happen. It takes a steady commitment over many years, but in northern Thailand, after working for six years to rescue kids and send traffickers to jail, we have seen the victimization of children in the sex trade reduced by more than 90 percent in three targeted cities. That's good news for the girls whom we have been able to rescue--but it is even better news for the thousands of other children who will never have to face what those children feared."

Haugen points to the life of a woman named Donaldina Cameron who singlehandedly tackled the problems of the sex trade early in our country's history. The forced commercial sex industry was a huge part of Chinatown in San Francisco at the turn of the century, where girls were shipped from China and the teenagers were sold into prostitution. Most died within 5 years. At the age of 25, Donaldina found herself at the helm of a rescue mission and over the next 45, she rescued and restored more than 3,000 girls through night-time raids in which she accompanied policemen by personally wielding an ax and sledgehammer. That's the kind of courage I want to have.

Here's the call to action:

IJM's goal is one advocate for every slave. Haugen encourages us to educate ourselves and spread that education to everyone around us. There are 27 million slaves in the world today. If 10 percent of the U.S. population were concerned about the abolition of modern-day slavery, there would be one advocate for every person enslaved. Haugen encourages us to imagine what would happen if 27 million of us were committed to the abolition of slavery. He says, "It would change the course of history."

I know that this starts with me--and with you. Want to make one of your New Years Resolutions to get on board?

Holly

I'm going to be traveling a lot over the next week so I'm not sure how many posts I'll be able to put up during that time.  With this in mind, I wanted to give you a lot to think about--and since it's almost Christmastime, I thought a good theme for this post would be to look at the film "Holly."  

I haven't seen this movie yet, but I am hoping to get the opportunity to soon.  Remember Office Space?  Then the lead actor, Ron Livingston, will look familiar.  Instead of TPS reports, though, he's getting worked up over child sex trafficking in Cambodia.  The preview is below:  

The movie is fiction, and is meant to spread awareness.   I also found a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film--some of the thoughts, concerns and frustrations that arose as the director and producers looked to make the movie.  I've watched it twice now, and it's given me a lot to think about.  Warning, it's not terribly safe for work as there are a few F-bombs scattered throughout.

"Hopefully, if we can expose the problem, the world will try to do something about it.  That's my hope. That's why I'm doing this."

Time to think.  

Thanks for reading, I'm grateful to each and every one of you.

Give Someone Else's Money Away

Image by Loungerie

That's easy enough, right? :) It will take two seconds of your time, and you'll be benefiting an amazing charity run by the often-mentioned Diana Scimone called Born2Fly. If you comment on PTLawMom's blog here, she will donate 25 cents to Born2Fly--up to $40 a day.

As PTLawMom says, "A little goes a long way and I may not have a lot to give but you all can help."

Born2Fly's purpose is to educate as the biggest step toward protection. The Born to Fly Project is described a strategic 4-stage plan to educate kids, parents, and teachers about the dangers of child trafficking—with the ultimate goal of ending it.

Stage 1: Write a children’s book called Born to Fly, an allegory about the world of child trafficking that teaches kids to make wise choices as they pursue their dreams.

Stage 2: Develop a wordless book based on the Born to Fly storyline and distribute it to kids worldwide. Why wordless? So we don’t have to translate it into hundreds of languages—saving thousands of hours and dollars.

Stage 3: Produce a companion curriculum to teach children the important concepts found in the wordless book, and distribute it to schools, community centers, and NGOs worldwide.

Stage 4: Create multimedia awareness materials including posters, fliers, DVDs, web-based games, etc. to supplement and expand on the B2F message. B2F says:

How much is a little girl worth? To a child trafficker—about $300. That’s what he’ll pay to buy her, knowing he’ll recoup his money and more (if she doesn’t die of AIDS first).

Comment here, check out Born2Fly here, and special thanks to PTLawMom for this offer to include us in her generosity.

To Write Love On Her Arms

Image by SarahWynne

I found this last night and I love it: a movement called To Write Love On Her Arms. TWLOHA is not a charity directly associated with child sex trafficking, but I see similarities in their missions. Both are hoping to reach and rescue those who are desperately hurting.

To Write Love on Her Arms is described as a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. The sad crossover to the world of this blog is that many exploited and trafficked children fight deep depression from the horrors of their experience. I've seen so many pictures of trafficking victims, arms marked up and down with the scars of trying to show their pain.

I read the below as part of the story behind To Write Love On Her Arms and thought it said it all, about both of these causes, so perfectly.

"Don Miller says we're called to hold our hands against the wounds of a broken world, to stop the bleeding. I agree so greatly.

We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead. Tell her something true when all she's known are lies. Tell her God loves her. Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to dance in white dresses. All these things are true.

We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don't get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won't solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we're called home."

My New Hero Rides a Bicycle

We had a great Love146 Boston Taskforce meeting last night, which was encouraging after my last (pretty disheartening) post. During these meetings we've learned that time and time again, one of the biggest weapons traffickers use to perpetuate their horrific trade is that of deception and trickery.

For example, one of the women that was present at the meeting last night used to work for Love146, and she described instances where traffickers come to villages and befriend the leaders there, staying long enough to win their trust and friendship. The traffickers then say that they are starting a cafe in another country, and that they would be happy to give jobs to the young women in the village, and even send back money every month to help sustain the village itself.

Then the village leaders are actually the ones who offer the jobs to their people, who of course, fully trust them--and neither party has any idea that the "waitressing" jobs are actually child trafficking that usually result in being bought and sold as commodities in prostitution. Then the children are never seen again.

The story has a silver lining, though. There's a man that has actually been riding around on his bicycle to thousands of villages, sitting down with the chiefs and leaders and telling them about this issue. He educates them on what traffickers say, what they really do, and how the leaders can protect their people against the destructive lies and deception.

One man, with a bicycle--and he has probably single-handedly "saved" the lives of countless children. What can we do here, with so many more resources at our fingertips? Make it a point to talk about this issue today. Sit down with someone. Send them an email. Tweet about it (and use the hash tag #STOP)! Ignorance is dangerous--you have the power to educate.

Also, check out some of the great Christmas and Hanukkah cards available to send to friends and family with a small donation to Love146. To send an E-card, go here.

The Present

Think you have to travel far to see trafficking and child sexual exploitation?  

I did.  But we're wrong.

Two videos.  In the U.S.

In 2008.

If you haven't cared much 'til now, it's time to start.  This is in our backyard.

UPDATE: Sorry guys, this is just going to have to be a sad, disgusting post.  Saw on the news today that 170 people have been arrested in a global child pornography investigation.  CNN says that 61 of those were right here in the good ole' US of A.  So far the investigation has rescued 11 girls, ages 3 to 13, in the United States, who appeared in the videos.  

An official said ringleaders primarily targeted prepubscent female victims to satisfy their customers, but noted that other groups produced photos and videos of boys and girls of all ages--or even infants.  "For this subset, that's what turns them on," the official said.  

Quick Looks

A few quick looks from Osocio, a website dedicated to social advertising and non-profit campaigns. It’s called "the place where marketing and activism collide." Here are a few quick glances for campaigns around the globe:

Stop the Traffik. www.stopthetraffik.org


Human trafficking is a serious crime: South-African Salvation Army

Agency:
Leo Burnett, Johannesburg, South Africa

Singapore department of Unifem, the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

And for your last--most important--quick look of the day, check out the following links for the news that the US Congress successfully reauthorized the Trafficking Victims Protection Act this week.

• Congratulations to YOU
• International Justice Mission Justice Campaigns
  
• Ms. Magazine: Congress Passes Strong Anti-Trafficking Law
  

Time for celebration--that's good news for everyone.

Gooooaaaalllll!

Okay sports fans, this one's for you.

Let's take a moment to look 18 months into the future--to the kickoff of the 2010 World Cup. I'm not the biggest soccer fan in the world, but I think my husband might be. We'll both be turning anxious eyes to South Africa, though, because of the information I'm discovering about how large of a role child trafficking plays in big, global sports events like these.

There is a good article in today's South African Independent Online sounding the alarm about the threat of pedophiles and child traffickers targeting South African children during the World Cup festivities. Specifically, the article calls into question the education board's decision to close all schools for 5 weeks during the event, stating that if children aren't in school they are at greater risk of being picked up and exploited by traffickers.

"Our counterparts from overseas have already alerted us to the fact that child abusers and sex offenders from their countries would be here to prey on our young children because these offenders think there won't be adequate policing," South African Childline National Co-ordinator Joan van Niekerk said.

You may remember the World Cup Germany television spot I posted here. South Africa will now face a similar goal toward mass education and awareness to protect their children.

But I don't want to be too down on sports--they play a big role in helping promote human rights issues in so many ways. One of them, as @AbigailHS has pointed out, is Reebok's Human Rights campaign, including their Human Rights Award:

Several past awardees include champions for the end of child sex trafficking, including Maili Lama and the previously mentioned Rachel Lloyd. Check out their pages to be encouraged.

Know of any other ways sports are making a difference in the fight against child trafficking? Let's hope and pray that South Africa (and the rest of us) actively address this issue and make protecting our children the most important "goal" for 2010.

Talking Vs. Doing

Happy Human Rights Day!

Over the past 24 hours I have attended two human rights-related events. While their goal of awareness/abolition is the same, they were two very different experiences. I aptly named this post "talking vs. doing," because the two events of the past day seem to fall well on either side of this spectrum.

I was excited to go to an anti-slavery talk at Harvard last night, and even convinced my wonderful coworker and favorite Irishman John (@John_SHIFT) to go with me (bribery through Felipe's burritos may have been involved). We took our seats and listened to a discussion panel between a well-known activist, researcher, and professor. I ended up taking a bit of an early absence because the talking seemed to me to be mostly just that: intellectualized discussions on things like the misappropriation of the word slavery; its correct labeling vs. the word trafficking; the appropriate way to edit a book that features former slaves' stories and voices. After so many meetings with Love146, where we discuss the facts of the issue and then get down to the business of actually making something happen, the conversation felt a bit too removed and passive. I found myself thinking--I doubt that someone who is in slavery right now cares what you call them, as long as you are actively DOING something to help get them out of their current situation.

To be fair, as I mentioned, I left about 3/4 of the way through the talk, but I was hopeful that the conversation would have been a little less intellectual and a little more practical. From what I saw, the discussion was pretty heavy on semantics and pretty light on real, meaningful action; which I felt was a shame because there was a captive, willing audience of people interested enough in the issue to want to make a difference. What I took away from this experience was the realization that awareness is crucial--it is, after all, this blog's goal--but that those in educating roles also need to arm their listeners with something to do, and give us resources to be a part of bringing about the change.

The second event I attended was this morning's Social Media Breakfast on Social Media for Social Change in Cambridge, MA's Inman Square area. This discussion was a gathering of people who want to actively use whatever they can bring to the table to make a difference. As opposed to the panel from the night before, these presenters talked about the various ways we (the attendees) can use social media to actually DO something. I compiled a list based on this discussion, and a few of my own ideas, for your consideration. Let Human Rights Day inspire you to take even just one action over the next 24 hours!

Ways to Use Social Media for Good (and, in this blog's case, things YOU can do today to fight trafficking):
- Join a Facebook group (like Love146, for example), or feature a cause support application on your profile. Or make your own!
- Tweet about it. According to the Social Media Breakfast (#SMB11), retweeting is what makes Twitter so incredibly powerful. There are so many great people on Twitter to follow (funnily enough, Diana Scimone just posted on this. Check out her list here.) Adding to that, you can follow @worldvision (World Vision), @kanter (Beth Kanter, one of the speakers at this morning's breakfast), @digiactive (Mary Joyce of http://www.digiactive.org) or even @tysonfoods, for issues related to hunger.
- Subscribe to the RSS feeds for, or start following, Season of Light! :) Also, if you click on any of the "what you can do" tags at the end of my posts, it will take you to a whole list of other ideas I've written about before.
- Create your own fundraising page on www.FirstGiving.com
- Set up Google alerts for issues you care about to keep informed (e.g., I currently have one set up for "child sex trafficking"). Diana Scimone also suggests a number of different issues that you can think about adding to your list and getting informed on.
- Check out Social Media for Social Change (SM4SC)
- Start your own blog!
- Post a video or image on Witness.org's HUB site, as mentioned in yesterday's post.
- Watch/make/share videos related to trafficking and awareness on YouTube
- Put your message or cause on a sign, take a picture of it, and share it on Flickr
- Check out www.Idealist.org or www.volunteermatch.org to find volunteer opportunities near to your geographical--and skill--area
- Look into The Give List for more ($$-free) ideas: http://thegivelist.org/

And finally, in honor of today, you can read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights here.

Talking is important. But change will only really happen if the talking also inspires us to stop for a moment to think, and then start taking action.

Looking to Tomorrow

Pop quiz: what's special about tomorrow, Dec. 10?

Kudos to you if you knew the correct answer (without looking at the enormous, giveaway picture): it's Human Rights Day.

Not only that, it's the 60th anniversary of Human Rights Day. This year's campaign marking the significant anniversary has focused on the theme of "dignity and justice for all of us."

In honor of the 60th anniversary, Witness.org has launched a campaign that asks, "What image opened YOUR eyes to issues of human rights?"

It's an easy question for me. In my very first posting on this blog I talked about the lifechanging experience I had after seeing the history of Love146 video. You can see it embedded in that first post. Thanks to Lisa Biggs Crum, I also came across another Love146 video that I had never seen before, and really recommend. Watch it here:




How will you celebrate Human Rights Day? I'd love to hear, and participate with you! Leave your ideas in the comments, or tell Witness.org what image or article really opened your eyes.

UPDATE: You should also be sure to check out http://www.onedayforhumanrights.com/, and follow them on Twitter @humanrightsday. :)

Beloved.

After months of wanting to learn, I was finally taught how to use a sewing machine on Saturday! (As an aside, am I the only one who didn't have Home Ec in school?)

A woman at my church who belongs to the Love146 taskforce and loves to quilt is combining her two passions and invited anyone who was interested to join her in making quilts for rescued victims of child trafficking.

The quilts are lined with fleece and patchworked with all different kinds of fabric. Each one has the word "beloved" on it, like this one I was working on:

The quilting gathering is held once a month. We were there for about five hours and--best of all--the Cambridge Vineyard church choir was practicing their Christmas music while we sewed.

I don't know if there's anything better than actually getting to work toward finishing a physical, meaningful product. I love blogging and spreading the word, but getting to work on a quilt that might provide a little comfort to someone who has already experienced such sorrow and cruelty in her short life brought me so much unexpected joy. Trust me, some portions of my finished product were far from visually pleasing, but as one of the quilters reminded me--it was made with love.

If you're in the Boston/Cambridge area and would be interested in joining us, let me know. We'll be getting together again in mid-January. Eventually Vineyard will be hosting a gala/auction where you can bid on all of the finished quilts--not to purchase them, but to sponsor their journey toward reminding someone that they are beloved.

What a Picture is Worth

Wordle.net is a fun little application that can create a visual picture of what you've been talking about. The bigger the word, the more times it's appeared. Here's a Wordle shot of my blog. You can click on it to see the full-size version. Make your own at http://www.wordle.net.

The Human Rights Issue of the Millenium?

When I first started learning more about child sex trafficking, someone told me that it truly is everywhere--if you just open your eyes. I hadn't heard that much about the reality of a widespread phenomenon around sex trafficking, so I was slightly skeptical.

How sadly wrong I was. There is a neverending amount of material to showcase and blog about day after day. I might be the only blogger on the planet that will actually be thrilled when there is nothing left to say--well, me and the wonderful Diana Scimone, that is.

Below are two news clips from CNN, looking at the issue in Cambodia, and a Russian news report which calls human sex trafficking "the human rights issue of the millenium." Think this is an overstatement, or do you agree? Watch the clips and feel free to leave your thoughts below.

Celebrating the Season of Light

Christmas is only three weeks from today, and Hanukkah festivities start even sooner--December 21.  Done with all your shopping?  

Didn't think so. ;)  Back in October I offered a few suggestions for great physical gifts to give that benefit organizations dedicated to ending child trafficking and exploitation.   But sometimes the best way to help is the old-fashioned way--a straight-up donation.   Know anyone who already has everything, or who would be honored by a gift in their name?  Below are several ways that you can put money directly into the hands of the people who will use it best, to help those that need it most.

First off is a really cool idea that I just found out about.  Full disclosure, this company is a PR client of my place of employment, but under a separate team--and very worth checking out.  It's called Razoo, and it's a centralized online platform for charitable giving.   Razoo aggregates and rates 1.6 million US-based nonprofits in a single search engine; lets donors track all of their donations in one place; and features articles spotlighting different causes.  It caught my eye this month because it's currently highlighting the issue of slavery in its article section.  The Slavery Giving Guide showcases five worthy charities--3 of which have made appearances on this blog (Somaly Mam Foundation, Shared Hope International and International Justice Mission), and 2 that I will be checking out ASAP (CAST and the US Association for International Migration).  Finally, Razoo absorbs any and all transaction fees typically associated with online donations (that can sometimes take up to 10% away from your donation) as part of their commitment to making sure that every cent makes it to the right place.  This is a great place to start if you're into charitable giving--or just beginning to be. :)

A few other good places to check out:

World Vision's Hope for Sexually Exploited Girls.  The "recommended" giving amount is just $25, but you can fill in the box for anywhere from $5 to $2500.  This gift offers rescued girls medical care, food, education, training, and counseling.  The donation is part of World Vision's gift catalog, so you can choose to let someone know of your gift in their name through a snail mail card, e-card, or printable note.  

My Born into Brothels DVD came in the mail from Amazon and we finally got to sit down and watch it last night.  If you're familiar with the movie and want to see what the kids are doing now, you can find an update from April 2008 here.  Amazingly, a safe home for children is going to be built in Calcutta to offer hope and opportunities for children currently living in the red light district.  Best of all, Avijit has been accepted to the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU! To donate to either the Hope House safe home or to Avijit's scholarship fund, visit this Kids with Cameras page.  

Because really--can you think of any better way to celebrate the season of light than by helping to give it?

Photo by miss_blackbutterfly

Stop. Think.

Today's post focuses on two different approaches for attacking the problem of trafficking. The first is to shift focus to the demand side. The second is to try to educate potential victims of trafficking before it happens while raising general public awareness of trafficking through TV spots throughout Europe. The approaches are different but the goal is the same: to get everyone to stop for a moment, and think.

As mentioned yesterday, here's some more on Shared Hope International's Demand campaign. The gist of it is that we often focus exclusively on the child traffickers and victims in the scenario, and don't spend as much time on the johns/buyers themselves. Shared Hope reports that the average age for entering prostitution in the U.S. is 12--yet the girls themselves are often the only ones who end up in jail on prostitution charges.

What we should be doing is following the money. Shared Hope takes a step back and says that really, it's quite simple: if there were no buyers, there would be no sellers. Cut off the demand and you end the problem. Find out more at www.enddemand.org.

The second approach is by none other than MTV. MTV put together an awareness campaign called MTV Exit (End Exploitation and Trafficking). The campaign launched across Europe in 2004 and was expanded across Asia and the Pacific through a partnership with USAID in 2007.

Good old MTV, always edgy and looking to shock you. But instead of Britney and Madonna kissing at the VMAs or sixteen year olds with over-the-top birthday parties, this time pushing the envelope actually means something.

And it works.

Check out this commercial that aired on televisions for a European audience:

This one was geared toward the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Full warning, this one contains some nudity so might be NSFW, and in my opinion is super disturbing. I could barely sleep last night after I saw it.

It made me stop and think. So I guess it did its job.

The Things I Didn't Want to Learn

Shibuya. Photo by Guwashi999.

This one makes me sad because it hits close to home. Well--what used to be home, anyway.

I came across a bunch of information provided by Shared Hope International that takes a look at the massive human (and child) trafficking problem in Japan. Japan was one of the only developed countries that was put on the "watch" list in the trafficking report. In 2008 it's been "upgraded" to a tier 2--but Japan still has a long way to go.

On its website, Shared Hope International notes that "Japan is a destination country for a large number of women and children trafficked from Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. They are brought in to service the massive Japanese commercial sex industry. " We lived in Shibuya, Tokyo for 3.5 years, and while Tokyo is one of the safest major cities in the world, my dear mother often worried about the areas more known for their promotion of commercial sex--I found out later that one of the most popular places for us high school students to hang out, Roppongi, had a reputation for making child porn. While those areas were less advertised, others weren't: when I was thirteen or fourteen I made it my personal vendetta to rip down the free porn post-its that wallpapered the inside of most public telephone booths. I often came face-to-face with graphic manga casually read by old men while riding on the JR line, or advertising pictures and billboards outside of strip clubs that didn't leave much to the imagination. It's an interesting juxtaposition: while PDAs like hand holding and kissing aren't a common sight in Japan, the blatant availability and seeming acceptance of commercial sex is far from hidden.

The question might be, so what? First of all, commercial sexual acceptance is now extending to include younger and younger "participants." Unicef recently released a press release on the growth of child pornography in the popular electronics district called Akihabara, and materials depicting underage girls called "Junior Idols" in suggestive poses and situations. Combine with this the lack of attention and resources given to the reality of trafficking within Japanese society. A comprehensive report that Shared Hope put together on demand in Japan says that the country has the largest market for commercial sex in the world among developed nations--but that it is the least likely to have read or heard reports about women or children being trafficked into the sex industry. This report is fascinating, and horrifying. You can view it here. An actual picture of the telephone booth photos I mentioned is featured on page 120. If you read the report you'll notice how often Shibuya and Roppongi pop up as major areas for trafficking, and just how many storefront operations legally exist that publically promote commerical sex. Law enforcement reportedly often turns a blind eye; no one wants to directly address the issue of trafficking because of the large role the yakuza (Japanese mafia) plays in it. But if awareness continues and pressure mounts for law enforcement to crack down, trafficking could become a (dark) part of Japan's past. A quote from the Demand in Japan report says,

"I think, ultimately, [prosecuting] the store-front, on-site operations will make trafficking foreign women too expensive and not profitable enough for the people involved. When that happens, trafficking ends."
— Detective X, Tokyo, May 2006

On its website, Shared Hope reports that "services available for trafficked persons in Japan are severely underdeveloped, with almost no full-time staff, a lack of understanding of trafficking victims' needs, and less than 25 beds available nationwide in trafficking shelters." One of the organizations lending a helping hand in this area is the Polaris Project: Japan. The Tokyo office has around 10-15 workers at any given time. I'm tied to my current area for the next few years, but I'd love nothing more than to someday return to Tokyo and add whatever I could in this area. There are so many things that I love about Japan, and as my eyes are opened, my heart is heavy.

More details coming soon on Shared Hope International's End Demand campaign.

A Blueprint for Change

Photo by 3blindmice

Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! I took a little hiatus from blogging to cook, eat, and go get a Christmas tree, but I'm officially back to work today.

On Friday, as I was vegging and eating Thanksgiving leftovers with my husband and sister-in-law, some really important work was going on in Brazil: the World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents was wrapping up its conference with some definitive future plans. One-hundred-thirty-seven governments met in Rio de Janiero to hammer out a blueprint for action called the Rio Declaration and Action Plan to Prevent and Stop the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents.

The Rio Action Plan details a comprehensive approach to ending child trafficking, noting that a "set of laws, policies, regulations and services is needed from across all social sectors — especially social welfare, education, health, security and justice — to support prevention and respond to risks." The report also shows a need to address and change social attitudes allowing the exploitation of children, including child marriage.

This was the first World Congress where young people were active participants and contributors. Nearly 300 adolescents from 96 countries gathered in Brazil to speak on panels and add their voices to policymaking.

Unicef created a website called www.stopx.org that allowed young people to collaborate and discuss the issue of ending child trafficking from their home countries before coming together for the Congress.

For more information, check out Friday's Unicef press release.

In addition, this is a very well-done photo essay that Unicef has put together called "Silence is Acceptance." You can see it here:

Photo essay: 'Silence is acceptance'