rescuing the world, one person at a time

cambodia!

2010-06-11T17:54:00.001-07:00

vomit and then doing something

2010-06-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

watch this and after you vomit up whatever you just ate get involved.

Atlanta Child Prostituion {Human Trafficking}

2010-05-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

Atlanta Still a Hub for Child Prostitution

By Steve Visser

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cherry learned as a young girl that her body could function similarly to an ATM. She had no idea there would be more of a cost than payout.

“Cherry,” 22, ran away from home — and into prostitution — at 13, but eventually left that life. Her family did not abandon her, which is an advantage many teen prostitutes don’t have.

She ran away from her DeKalb County home at 13, looking for excitement and love. She felt unappreciated and lonely at home. Her dad was away for weeks on construction jobs and her mom was too busy or tired to appreciate Cherry’s fondness for the violin. She made it all an excuse to rebel and look on the street for men — “manly men,” as she called them — who valued her.

She met a 20-something man at Five Points and moved in with him. “He seemed very nice,” said Cherry, now 22. “Later, he said, ‘I know a guy who is willing to pay for sex. Would you be interested?’ I said, ‘How much?’ I didn’t really want to do it, but I got gussied up and that’s how I started.”

This was her life for four years, earning up to $1,000 per night. She left the first guy, for whom she peddled sex on Metropolitan Parkway, after he allegedly beat another hooker to death for disloyalty. She found another pimp near Decatur and yet another in Capitol View. She loved some of these men, and thought they loved her. She respected them. She feared others. “We call them daddies,” she said. “I got addicted to the money.”

Federal law enforcement considers Atlanta a hub for child prostitution even after more than a decade of efforts to stamp it out. Advocates contend at least 400 minors prostitute themselves in Georgia, mostly in metro Atlanta, with many turning to this lifestyle at 14 or younger. Pimps circumvent legal tactics by making the girls too loyal or too afraid to testify. Officials debate whether these girls are victims of sexual exploitation or perpetrators.

Some of the girls, now women, agreed to speak to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution if only their first names or nicknames were used in this story to protect their identities.

Targeting child prostitution is an Atlanta police priority, said Sgt. Ernest Britton, head of the child exploitation unit. Social workers have heard this before. In 2001, there was public and political outrage after the AJC reported pimps were using girls as young as 11 to sell sex with minimal legal intervention because the offense was a misdemeanor.

Laws were changed, task forces created and meetings held. Yet enthusiasm for combating this problem has waned. Not much has changed outside of technological advances moving many of the child prostitutes online and off the street.

“The big money is in kids; you can use them over and over again,” said Alesia Adams, Salvation Army territorial coordinator against human and sexual trafficking. “Who is easier to manipulate than a child?”

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has prosecuted more pimps of children than anyone else in Georgia, indicting 15 since 2003, but acknowledges that overall efforts have fallen short. Only 35 pimps have served time in Georgia prisons for child prostitution since 2001, according to state records. Federal authorities have brought seven cases since 2001.

“It is a big problem,” Howard said in an interview earlier this year. “You can’t have a great city when you have a blight of child prostitution.”

Most girls, such as Cherry, which is a nickname, are lured into the trade, often coming from broken homes and foster care.

Savannah was 16 when she moved to Atlanta from Pittsburgh and started slipping out at night to party with two new friends at an English Avenue neighborhood bar. She met Alice, 15, at their high school. Alice introduced her to Bunny, 22. One night, after indulging in alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, they introduced her to a man, who invited her to join everyone on Metropolitan Parkway, with prostitution implied.

Bunny and Alice brought work clothes: skirts, tight shirts and heels. Savannah, in jeans and sneakers, pretended to stroll, telling the pimp that no customers stopped. She did that a second time.

At a motel, she told Bunny and Alice that the idea of selling her body made her uncomfortable. She soon learned the price of resistance. The pimp entered the room and wanted to know what the problem was. She replied she didn’t feel safe.

“He said, ‘Well maybe I’ll try you and you’ll feel safe,’” said Savannah, 24. “That is when he pushed me on the bed and raped me.”

Pimps often use rape as a weapon, telling girls they’re now damaged and nobody wants them, said Nikki Marr, a former DeKalb County juvenile judge.

At the urging of juvenile court judges and social workers, Howard in 2001 adopted a creative strategy for prosecuting these particular pimps, using charges of child sexual molestation.

Next, the state Legislature made pimping minors a felony punishable by 20 years, federal authorities created a task force to target child pimps and human traffickers as organized criminals, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin introduced an initiative to tackle the problem.

Advocates were encouraged that solutions had been found to combat a problem ignored for decades. It was only a momentary reprieve. Marr, who chaired a DeKalb County task force on child prostitution, has watched that enthusiasm dim over the past decade: Thirty people representing law enforcement, schools, state social workers and nonprofit groups attended the first task force meeting; only three showed up for a recent gathering.

“Back then we were young and enthusiastic and were going to whip this problem, beat it into shape and run it out of town,” Marr said. “But when people come to the table, they want action. They are not patient and they want someone to come up with a solution.”

The punitive penalties and political spotlight barely slowed the child trade.

Girls such as Cherry often didn’t see themselves as victims and portrayed themselves as 18 when talking to clients, cops or the courts, and ended up in county jails under false names and ages. Pimps put fewer girls on the streets and chose to market them more on Internet sites such as Craigslist.

Camari Burroughs, currently serving 20 years for pimping a girl who was 16 and nicknamed “Baby,” ran his escort service over the Internet from his home in Lithia Springs. Two of his prostitutes met Baby when they were in Fulton County jail together and encouraged her to leave her pimp for Burroughs’ operation, according to court records.

“They are extremely difficult cases to put together,” Britton, the Atlanta police sergeant, said. “A lot of our victims aren’t your standard victim. They don’t trust law enforcement and they don’t trust any form of authority. The pimps will try to make them look older and give them stories. The clients aren’t necessarily looking for someone who is underage; they are looking for someone who is young.”

Britton’s unit has identified about 40 pimps and receives roughly two reports per week on different minors suspected of prostitution.

Making monitoring difficult, pimps move girls from neighborhood to neighborhood and state to state. Girls are taken to big sporting events such as the NBA All-Star Game and work out of hotel rooms or they’re advertised on the Internet as a new commodity in town who won’t be staying long.

Patrina, at 16, met a pimp at Underground Atlanta who took her and a group of women to Miami, and she made a few thousand dollars stripping at parties the man hosted in motels. Soon she was part of a group of prostitutes living and working in a house near Lovejoy High School, court records showed.

Last week, federal authorities prosecuted four men in Atlanta for their involvement in sex trafficking that involved Mexican women and girls brought to the city, handing out sentences ranging from two to 16 years in prison.

Atlanta has strip clubs that allow full nudity and massage parlors and spas that are fronts for prostitution, and seem to operate with impunity. Craigs-list adult service postings display hundreds of call-girl listings on any given day — a number dwarfing that in most cities.

A city unable or unwilling to deal with prostitution inevitably draws more teens into it, the Salvation Army’s Adams said.

Many girls view pimps as boyfriends or protectors and refuse to cooperate against them. “In my career, I’ve only had five girls who have been willing to turn them in,” said Linda Watson, a probation officer.

Pimps view these girls as their personal property. Tiffany was 14 and a runaway when she met Kenton Travaris Ballard, 30. Ballard charmed her initially, but later severely beat her after taking Tiffany to live with his sister in west Atlanta. Tiffany was sold on the street from August 2005 to September 2006, and told by Ballard she could leave him if she made $1,000 per night, Amanda McClure, Ballard’s sister, told investigators. When that didn’t happen, Tiffany tried to escape and Ballard found her hiding in an apartment, pistol-whipped her and put her back into service.

Cherry said she watched her first pimp beat a girl so badly she wasn’t moving when they left her on the street within sight of the Salvation Army on Metropolitan Parkway. The pimp told her that he killed the girl because she had run off and worked as an independent.

“She was a renegade and she made that fateful mistake of coming back,” Cherry said during an interview at her parents’ house in Riverdale. “I remember him beating her like she was a football, kicking her repeatedly in the face. Did I try and help her? No. I wanted to spare myself a beating.”

Child advocates encourage legislators and police to view children in prostitution as victims who need therapy rather than as criminals who should be arrested and locked up.

Kaffie McCullough, who heads A Future Not a Past, a nonprofit group that comes to the aid of young prostitutes, educates police departments about the state’s 2007 human- trafficking law. A prostitution conviction in Georgia, which is a misdemeanor offense, is punishable by a year of incarceration and/or a $1,000 fine; a child prostitute typically receives probation.

Two years ago Atlanta Police formed a unit to focus on the sexual exploitation of children, which treats the girls as victims, and last year the governor’s office formed an Office for Sexually Exploited Children to coordinate state efforts to combat child prostitution. So far more than 63 girls have been referred to it from the state, said Dale Alton, who heads up this effort.

Angela’s House was created in 1999 to provide a safe house and counseling for girls 11-17 who have been sexually exploited. The court refers them to the program to help them deal with psychological issues and wean them from the lifestyle, but it has limited beds and generally serves 18 clients annually. More than 125 girls have gone through the program, according to Angela’s House.

Legislative support remains lukewarm. State Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, introduced a bill in the Legislature to treat prostitutes under 16 as victims rather than criminals and send them to therapy, with the hope they would be more cooperative in the prosecution of their pimps. The bill failed to get out of the Senate.

“They are not always soft and cuddly victims and a lot of the public holds the view that they are out there by choice,” McCullough said.

Scars from child prostitution are hard to overcome. Girls suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome from rape or beatings. Others adopt the lifestyle.

“Most of the young ladies I have got into a therapeutic group home has taken a court order and, when they get there, they run; they run back to the lifestyle,” Watson said. “They are one of the most difficult groups of children to work with and the success rate is not going to be very high unless you have a long-term program for change.”

To better identify the problem, the Juvenile Justice Fund in Fulton County two years ago commissioned a study on child prostitutes. Alex Trouteaud, who heads this effort, put researchers in observation posts in major hotels and had them patrol known prostitution corridors, scan online ads and call 500 escort services per month. They came up with an estimated 350 to 400 girls under 18 who work as prostitutes in the state.

Available numbers still don’t readily expose the child-prostitution problem. Of 858 people arrested last year by the Atlanta Police vice unit on prostitution charges, only five were minors. Trouteaud’s study suffers from the typical difficulties that hamper underworld research: the danger of gathering the data, the difficulty of observation and the dishonesty of the subjects. Yet everyone has acknowledged this is a situation that needs redress.

“There just isn’t a real good methodology out there, but [Trouteaud’s] numbers sort of bear out that it is a significant problem in the state,” said Kirsten Widner, a lawyer with the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic at Emory University. “They are only counting girls, and they are only counting main venues of exploitation, so I think that 400 is a dramatic undercount.”

Cherry’s life changed for the better when she was arrested at 17 for propositioning an undercover police officer. After her previous arrests, court officials offered help, and even sent her to California to enter “Children of the Night,” an intensive counseling program that claims a 60 percent success rate at getting teens out of prostitution. Cherry fell into the 40 percent.

Yet she was tired of the life, and in a lot of ways she was lucky and not typical. She had parents who loved her and didn’t give up on her. Her mother asked Fulton County jail to keep her in isolation so she couldn’t call her pimp to bail her out. Cherry, whose teen years had become a blur, decided working at a fast-food restaurant would be a welcome change.

“Kids survive if you don’t give up on them and she really had a strong support system,” said Watson, formerly Cherry’s probation officer.

Most street girls don’t have that family support. Cherry told of a girl, 12, who invited Cherry to work for her pimp years ago. The girl lived in Grady Homes with her mother, who suffered from depression.

“I saw her recently at Five Points,” Cherry said. “She had just turned 20. She is homeless, sleeping in the park.”

two little girls

2010-04-19T06:49:00.001-07:00

a short video depicting how easy it is for young innocent girls to be tricked into being sold into slavery.

Processing

2010-04-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

We are back from Cambodia and are still processing. Just in case you read this blog and not this one. Here is the latest post.

Not forgotten

Its been a while since we blogged. Not surprised really, life happens and things just sort of move on. It isn't front and center in your life. Job, family, bills, etc. But I have not forgotten.

Those children are in my heart and my mind every day. I think about them, I miss them. I wonder what they are doing.

I wonder if they have eaten today? Did they get to sleep through the night without worrying about their safety. Have they been hugged today? Have they been told that someone loves them?

Every time I look around at the excess that my family has, the toys my daughter just leaves on the floor, not to be touched or even looked at for days, maybe even weeks, I think of the little girl I saw who was playing with the tape reel of an old broken cassette tape and the boy playing with sticks, in the midst of so much trash. Those images stick with me.

I think about the school at CHO, where orphans and trafficked children live. A woman I met while we were there said she would love for each child to have their own soft, stuffed toy. They don't. My child has dozens.

Today when my daughter was playing outside in the water hose and her pool, I think of the children I saw playing in dirty water.

When I don't finish all my food, I think of the waste and wonder if those kids have eaten even once today.

I miss them.

its time!!

2010-03-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

so i am almost on my way to cambodia. what a journey this past year as been to get me to this point. i will now be blogging over at this blog for the next month, so i can focus my efforts on where we are going and what God will have us do!

please put this blog in your reader or bookmark it so you can follow along and pray for us!

my life

2010-02-24T17:19:00.001-08:00

so i am writing to apologize for the lack of posting. my life has been insane the past few months. we hired an amazing woman to be my new boss and we are knocking projects out of the park BUT we have been busy busy busy!

the next little bit of my life looks like this:

training for my outside volunteers this coming weekend
assimilating those volunteers and the ones who trained last weekend onto teams
my bug is turning 3 in a couple of weeks
planning for and going to cambodia march 18-29
planning for good friday, easter AND strategic service sunday (the biggest sunday of the year) BEFORE i go to cambodia bc i get back from cambodia on march 29
strategic service sunday happens while i am OUT OF TOWN! UGH!! i LOVE strategic service!!
good friday is april 2; i dont think i need to do the math for you but that is only about 96 hours from when i get back. not too mention that i will still be in a fog from the time change
easter is april 4!
emailing and following up with the 150+ new volunteers we will get from strategic service
the amazing Drive conference is may 3-5

while i have all of these things going on that have dates attached to them i also have a marriage, a 3 year old, a house to keep clean, 3 blogs to keep up with here, here and here, i volunteer my time with redeemed (a ministry that helps women come out of the bondage of human trafficking) and we just recently went through a merger with wellspring living and i am the one making the schedule for march housing. i also work for a church and sunday is always coming!

so if i have been a bad friend or a bad blogger or a bad twitterer or a bad facebooker, hang in there with me and ill surface in mid may after i contact all of the amazing new volunteers that will want to join our teams!

things are so crazy i have TWO episodes of Lost on DVR and ONE Grays that i have not even thought about watching.

still love me?

ps. check back in about a week or so and i will have posted the link to our cambodia blog!

meeting andrew young!

2010-02-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

how appropriate to follow up my post about MLK with a post from ambassador andrew young! i had the pleasure of meeting him last week. what an honor and a joy. here is the link to the article that my boss wrote about 4 ways to change the world by andrew young! or you can just read it here:

Last Wednesday, our staff gathered for an extraordinary opportunity to learn from former Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. I have been a long-time admirer of Ambassador Young’s ever since my father asked me to read a book on the civil rights movement when I was a teen-ager.

{thats me on the right in the picture in the front standing RIGHT NEXT TO HIM, i have on the pink shirt!!}

As you know, Andy Young was a key aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and helped usher in America’s greatest change in social justice from the previous century. So, for 90 minutes, our staff had an opportunity to hear Ambassador Young speak and ask him questions. It was a day I will never forget. There are so many lessons to share, but here are the top four takeaways I learned on how to change the world.

1. Change Jericho Road.

I asked Ambassador Young to tell us what Dr. King was like. He said that Dr. King was a very funny person, when he wasn’t weighed down by the burden of the movement. He said Dr. King was a really good basketball player who could shoot with both hands. (I never knew that.) And then he told us something that will forever change how I view the story of the Good Samaritan. “Martin told me, “Andy, I admire the Good Samaritan but I don’t want to be the Good Samaritan. I want to change Jericho Road. I want to put streetlights on it and create a wonderful city so that people aren’t beaten up and taken advantage of. That’s what I want to do.”

Think of the possibilities. At Buckhead Church, we should be about changing Jericho Road. Creating a world where marriages are healthy, families are whole, financial freedom is a reality and people love others. It’s called “The Kingdom of God.” And it’s how you change the world.

2. “People don’t change. They grow.”

If we’re going to change the world, it comes down to changing people. Ambassador Young went on to say, “People grow faster when we are patient with them, kind of like how God is patient and kind with us.” This is an extraordinary statement from a man who marched against hatred and injustice. Instead of getting mad, he looked for opportunities to help people grow. I asked him about this and his ability to not become bitter in the face of racial hatred, violence and injustice. “You don’t get mad at people who are sick. You help them. A dentist doesn’t get mad at a patient with a cavity. The dentist deals with the situation and helps the patient.”

You don’t change the world by getting mad at people. You change the world by dealing with the issues that are preventing their growth.

3. “Leave room for the Holy Spirit.”

This one might seem obvious but it hit me hard. I’m admittedly a rather self-disciplined person, and I think that can be good. But Ambassador Young reminded me of the danger of becoming too disciplined and self-reliant.

“Some people are so self-disciplined,” he said, “that they don’t leave any room for the Holy Spirit. I never really knew what was coming next in my life. I simply tried to follow where God was leading me.”

This requires that you pay attention. You listen. You reflect on the “fires in your bones” as he called it. In other words, ask the question, “What is setting me on fire these days? What am I passionate about? What do I want to change?”

Bill Hybels calls this a “Holy Discontent.” What is yours?

4. “To whom much is given, much is required.”

This is the defining verse in his life. Ambassador Young told the story of a childhood friend who didn’t get to go to college, and wasn’t given the opportunities like he was given. His friend told him, “You have the opportunity to do things that I’ll never have.” That statement propelled him forward. It left no room for idleness, excuses or self-pity, even if he did grow up in a country that prevented him from voting because of the color of his skin.

He became, as Andy Stanley said, “response – able.”

As a result, he helped change the world.

Finally, as our time came to a close, Ambassador Young said this about our staff. I share this with you just because I am so proud of the people I work with each day. Here are his words about your staff at Buckhead Church:

“I really like what I see here. There isn’t any pretension. You look like ordinary people. You’re not trying to hide behind religious titles. And yet, there is an energy and enthusiasm that is very refreshing. I want to encourage you that I like what I am seeing here today.”

And then he added, “What times are your services on Sunday?”

open letter to Martin Luther King

2010-01-30T22:36:00.000-08:00

This letter taken from the blog http://humantrafficking.change.org/ is a powerful reminder of how far we have to go and how little change we have actually made.

An Open Letter of Apology to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

from Change.org's End Human Trafficking Blog by Amanda Kloer

Dear Dr. King,

Every year on this day we celebrate your birthday. But we also manage to celebrate ourselves in a way. We take a few moments to pat ourselves on the backs and smile at the progress we've made so far. We publish heartfelt quotes from school children about how they strive to model their young lives on your short but powerful one. And we tell ourselves that while we have a long journey ahead, the worst is behind us. Well, Dr. King, I'd like to give you something a little different than the warm fuzzies this year for your birthday. I'd like to give you an apology.

I'm apologizing to you, Dr. King, because we have all oversimplified your message, and we have all missed your main point. Since your death, we have counted the meanest victories for freedom, justice, and equality as progress -- a black CEO, a black Supreme Court Justice, a black Senator, a black President. We have given ourselves credit for killing racism, when we can see it silently settling in public housing projects and public assistance offices around the country. We've told ourselves that the tragedy that befell you couldn't happen today, while we see our President's faith, birth, and integrity questioned because of the color of his skin. But our biggest failure has been our failure to understand that your message wasn't one of the polite and patient incremental progress of justice we have lived out -- it was one of revolution.

When, over 40 years ago, you announced to the world that you had a dream, it was not a dream of new individual accomplishments, but one of systemic community change. You dreamed of a world where the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners could sit down to the table of brotherhood together. Instead, we have given you a world where slavery still exists and has spread to enslave people of every race, religion, and country of origin. You dreamed of a world where little black boys and girls and little white boys and girls could join hands together. We've given you a world where girls, and especially black girls, are being sold into prostitution as children. You dreamed of a world where your children could be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. We've given you a world with a black man leading the most powerful country, yes, but where racism and the slavery which thrives on racism still pours through the thin levies we have put up against it. We have given you a few laudable individual accomplishments, but not the real change you asked for.

Last night, while the people of Haiti, descended from African slaves, starved and wailed and died, American celebrities held the Golden Globes award ceremony. In solidarity with Haiti, they wore ribbons. But if everyone in that room had made that ribbon their only piece of jewelry -- had taken off their diamonds and watches and put them in a collection plate for Haiti -- such wealth could feed thousands for months. But the Haitian people couldn't eat those ribbons, Dr. King, nor use them to rebuild their city. And no one seemed to get that. It was not just those celebrities last night who failed you, but all of us who have refused to give up something for the cause of justice. I'm sorry.

I hope you have not given up on us, Dr. King. I believe we can strive to model our lives on your philosophy, with more than just teens' quotes and individual victories and warm fuzzy feelings. I believe we can do the hard parts -- sacrifice, work hard, fight for justice. And I hope next year I have a better birthday gift to offer: the beginning of the end of modern-day slavery and the continued unfolding of your dream.

haiti and humantraffiking

2010-01-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

a friend of mind shared this with me today, in light of what is happening in haiti, lets pray for all of those sweet children who will now be even more vulnerable to traffickers.

How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours

One Reporter's Journey Reveals An Epidemic of Child Slavery in Haiti
By DAN HARRIS
July 8, 2008—

This deeply unsettling experiment starts on a typical Monday morning on Manhattan's leafy Upper West Side, where commuters stroll by Starbucks and Central Park.
At 7:10 a.m., I'm off to see how long it takes to buy a child slave.
It's 45 minutes to Kennedy Airport and an hour or so wait in the terminal, then a 3½-hour flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
A band greets the flight.
By the time my team and I have collected our luggage, gone through immigration and customs, and are loaded into our vehicles, it's about 3:15 p.m.
As we leave the airport, two things become immediately apparent: Port-au-Prince is an amazing, vivid place, and it's also extremely poor. The U.S. State Department warns Americans against visiting here. United Nations peacekeepers patrol the roads while we drive with our own security team: two armed Haitian men in SUVs.

I Would Like to Get a Child
By 4:45 p.m., I'm poolside at one of the city's few upscale hotels. I'm wearing a hidden camera built into the strap of a bike messenger-style bag that's around my neck. There's another hidden camera in a leather satchel on the table, right next to the fruit plate and Evian water. My colleagues are manning cameras in hotel rooms overlooking the pool.
Our security guards are sitting discretely nearby.
That's when the man with whom I've arranged a meeting shows up.
He says he's a former member of parliament and that he has connections. In broad daylight, with hotel waiters walking by, he doesn't even flinch when I make a horrific request.
"If I would like to get a child to live with me and take care of me," I ask. "Could you do that?"
"Yes," he says. "I can."
He's speaking in Creole, the most prevalent Haitian language. The man doing the translation, who has set up the meeting, works for us (unbeknownst to the slave trafficker).
The trafficker assures me he's done this sort of transaction many times before.
"A girl or a boy?" he asks.
"A girl probably," I say.
"How old?"
"Maybe 10 or 11."
"Not a problem."
He says he can get me an 11-year-old girl, although he suggests that a 15-year-old might be better, because she'd be more "developed."
I'm thinking: I can't believe I'm having this conversation.
"And this is OK?" I ask. "I won't have any trouble from their parents or anything like that?"
"No, you won't have any problems with their parents."
"Why not?"
"When I give you the child, I will train it for you."
I'm not exactly sure what that means.

A Successful Negotiation
"I'm a little nervous." I say. "I just want to make sure that this is OK, that I'm not going to get in trouble, that this will be smooth, that you've done this before."
"I guarantee my service," says the trafficker, grinning. "I can get you your girl as early as tomorrow."
And now, the negotiation begins.
"So how much will it cost me to get a child?" I ask.
"The last one I gave was $300."
Trying to test the value of human life, I push a little.
"I have a friend who got one for $50."
"No," he says.
"What about $100?"
"$150," he offers.
I accept.
And there it is. It's about 5 p.m. Roughly 10 hours after leaving my office in New York City, I have successfully negotiated to buy another human being -- an 11-year-old girl, whose value is set at just $150.
As we conclude our meeting, I want to make sure the trafficker does not act on my request. I ask him to wait a day before doing anything. I assure him I'll call him tomorrow with my final answer. He agrees.

Offering Fake Papers and a 'Pretty' Child
And then, to show that this grotesque sort of deal-making is not a fluke, I have a second meeting, with another trafficker -- a beefy guy with the air of a street thug.
This second trafficker is asking a much steeper price for an 11-year-old girl: $10,000.
"It's something definitive," explains our translator. "After the sale, he doesn't mind what happens to the kid."
"So for $10,000, I can have the child and do anything I want to do is what he's saying?" I ask.
"Yeah, definitely."
As further enticement, the trafficker says he can even get me fake papers that would allow me to take this child back to the U.S. with me. Both traffickers say they have experience providing children to Americans. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, officials have no idea how often this sort of transaction transpires. As the slightly menacing slave trafficker describes this girl he's promising to provide, I hear him use the French word "belle." French, along with Creole, is one of Haiti's official languages.
"Did he use the word 'belle'? Like, pretty girl?" I ask the translator.
"Yeah."
"So he's saying this would be a pretty child?"
"Yeah."
"Do you think he's hinting that the child would be a partner of some sort?"
"Yeah, it's up to you because that kid is yours."
Once again, I can't believe I'm having this conversation -- sitting in the sunshine so casually transacting such diabolical business. Just to make sure I fully understand the offer on the table, I ask, "If I pay $10,000 I essentially own this child?"
"Yeah, it's yours. You do whatever you want."
I've heard enough. I conclude the meeting, once again making sure the trafficker doesn't actually act on my request.
But now comes the craziest part of this wildly disturbing day.
Two waiters sitting nearby call me over. They say they've heard my conversations. At first I think they're going to yell at me or something. I'm bracing for shame. Instead, the waiters offer to sell me a child.
"So you're saying if I want to get a child to live with me, you can help me?" I ask. "Yes," says one of the waiters. "I give you my telephone also."
"About what age?" asks the other watier.
"Maybe 10, 11 years old."
"10 or 11?"
"Yeah," I say. "A girl."
"Ok," says the first waiter, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Ok. I'll help you."

The 'Restaveks'
Having illustrated how horrendously easy it is to buy a child slave in Haiti, let's consider something exponentially more awful: the real scandal here in Haiti is that children are usually just given away.
There are an estimated 300,000 child slaves in Haiti according to UNICEF. This staggering statistic is discussed in E. Benjamin Skinner's "A Crime So Monstrous," a new book about the enormous and often underreported problem of modern day slavery. Skinner has come to Haiti with us. He was the one who gave us the idea to see how long it would take to leave New York City and buy a child slave.
They're called "restaveks" -- a Creole term that means "stay-with." But these children often do more than just "stay with" families; they are usually forced to work from dawn until dusk, and are often underfed, beaten and sexually abused.
To meet some of these restaveks, my team and I traveled into the claustrophobic back alleys of one of Haiti's worst slums, Solino.
Here we find Onise, an achingly beautiful 8-year-old with haunted eyes. Her parents, who live in the countryside, are so poor they simply gave Onise away to a slightly less poor family in Port-au-Prince.
Her owners promised her parents they would pay for Onise's education. But every day, when the other children in the tiny, one-room hovel where the owners live head off to school, Onise stays behind to do housework and run errands.
When we get her alone, she reluctantly tells us about her life.
"When was the last time you talked to your parents?" I ask.
"No," she says. Our translator expands: "She never talks to them."
"Do you miss your parents?"
"Yes," she says, in a nearly inaudible voice.
This child seems dead inside. The insides of her forearms are covered in scars.
"Do they hit you a lot?"
"Yes," she says.
"When you dream, when you think about the things you want to do with your life -- your hopes -- what do you think about?"
"I want to drive a car," she says.

The Promise of School
It is a bleak irony that Haiti is crawling with child slaves. This, after all, is the only nation in modern history to be founded as the result of a slave revolt, in 1804.
It's also a place where parents clearly take great pride in their children's appearance, dolling them up in elaborate school uniforms every weekday morning. Parents here also make massive economic sacrifices to send kids to school, in this country where, for the most part, there are no public schools.
Slave traffickers use Haiti's poverty and lack of opportunity to their advantage.
"They dangle like a diamond necklace the promise of school," says Skinner. As he explains, Haiti's system of child slavery began generations ago. Poor families from the countryside would give their children to wealthy families in the city. The children would do domestic work, but they would also be fed, clothed and educated. It was a sort of social compact.
Even though the system has now morphed into something grotesque, traffickers exploit the false, residual glow of altruism.
"You talk to the traffickers about this," says Skinner, "and they'll often say, 'Well, I'm doing a service to the family that's giving up this child.'"
This bogus sheen of charity is perhaps why we are able to get slave owners to talk to us on camera. (Perhaps it's also because having a slave is so commonplace as to be almost entirely uncontroversial here.)
We meet Onita Aristide in a shantytown precariously perched over a ravine filled with trash and also wild pigs and goats. Aristide is a mother of two who sells sandals in the local market. For four months she's owned a "restavek" nicknamed Ti Soeur (Creole for "little sister.") As usual, Ti Soeur comes from a poor family in the country and spends her days here in the city doing forced labor. She sleeps on the floor of Onita Aristide's tiny home.
"Do you think she has a better life with you than she would have with her parents?" I ask Aristide.
"Yes," she says.
"Why?"
"Because her family is poor and cannot afford to support her."
There are a bunch of hard questions I want to ask this woman, for example, why doesn't she send the girl to school? But the scars on Ti Soeur's arms suggest I should tread lightly.
Knowing Aristide doesn't speak any English, I broach the topic with our translator. "I don't want to push her so hard that she gets angry and takes it out on the kid. Do you think I'm correct?"
"You're correct," he says.

Ti Souer's Hope
We follow Ti Soeur as she goes to fetch water from the communal well. This gives us a chance to ask her questions without her owners hearing.
She's a bright-eyed 11-year-old with short hair. When I ask her questions about the marks on her arm, she says, "The lady did it to me with an electric wire."
As I later learn, this appears to be a standard punishment -- whipping restaveks with the sort of electric cord you might you use to plug in a toaster or a laptop.
"Why would she do that to you?" I ask.
"Because one of the kids in the neighborhood came to see [her] in the house," the translator says.
"So you're not allowed to have any friends?"
"No."
"Do you have any time during the day where you can play, like a normal kid?"
"No. We don't play."
The translator explains, "If she doesn't go and pick up the water, they beat her up. If she doesn't sweep, beat her up."
By the time we visit Ti Soeur at 10 a.m., she's already cooked, cleaned, prepared the family children for school.
"Do you think the situation you're in right now is unfair?" I ask.
"Yes."
"Do you think you'll ever get out of this situation?"
"Yes."
"Do you have hope?"
"Yes."
"Good," I say.
After meeting Ti Souer, we decided to go find her parents, to get a sense of why they would give their child away.

'My Husband Forced Me'
Following a lead, we drive out of the throbbing, chaotic city, hours away, into the lush countryside. It's beautiful out here. We see clouds resting lazily in green valleys. We see women on their way to market, carrying impossibly large loads of goods on their heads.
But you can't miss the deprivation: It's everywhere. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere -- the result of decades of bad, brutal, kleptocratic leadership, and also, many believe, negative interference from outside powers, including the United States.
Haiti's poverty is on full display as we pull up to the house where Ti Soeur's mother lives. It's a shack, housing three families. Nine children live here, including one who we see using a condom as a toy balloon.
Ti Soeur's mother is named Lita Bellevue. After a few pleasantries, I ask her the obvious question.
"Can you tell me how it happened that you gave your daughter up?"
"My husband forced me to do it," she says.
She tells us that Ti Soeur's birth father is dead. Her new husband, who is abusive, forced her to give the child away, she says, because they are too poor to take care of her. However, the husband does not seem willing to part with the two young children he and Lita have had together.
"Can you imagine living without these children?" I ask.
"I cannot live without them," he says, flashing a nervous, toothless grin.
Lita says she's heard rumors that Ti Soeur is being abused by her owners.
"I hear she's being cut all over her arms and her head," she says. "I try very hard to rescue the child, to go see the child, but my husband won't let me."
"When you think about you daughter living this way, how hard is it for you?"
"I feel sick inside," she says.
To help us better understand why parents make these sorts of decisions, we go see Jean-Etienne Charles, a local Pentecostal pastor who preaches against child slavery. He's got a broad, happy face and a thriving church, complete with a school for local kids.
"I do not think that it is because they do not love the child," says Charles of parents who send their kids into servitude. "They love the kids; they love them. But because they think that they cannot take care of them, they turn them to another person."
As a sign of how deeply entrenched this practice is, it turns out that the pastor's family has a girl living with them whom they took on to do domestic work. They have since legally adopted her and are putting her through school, as an example to the families who abuse child slaves.
"I believe that people who do that should be thrown into jail," says Charles. "But the government is not doing anything about it, so that is why the Haitians are doing it."
Now that we've learned that Ti Soeur is stuck between slavery and an abusive, unhappy home, we decide to try our luck with the Haitian government. We go to the Department of Social Services and meet with several senior officials. We show them videotape of Ti Soeur's scars.
"This is unacceptable," says one official. She promises to act as early as possible. We leave feeling confident that Ti Soeur's fate may soon change.
But within days, government officials stop returning our phone calls, and Ti Soeur's case takes some surprising turns.

A Wrenching Scene
We learn that Bellevue, Ti Soeur's mother, has done something brave and extraordinary: she has forced her abusive husband to go and retrieve Ti Soeur from slavery.
With the government seemingly missing in action, we hook up with a social services organization affiliated with the American-based group Beyond Borders.
They work with mother and daughter, reunited as a result of Bellevue's courageous insistence, to get Ti Soeur accepted into a clean, cheerful orphanage.
But it's a mixed blessing for the former child slave.
Her mother is being kicked out of her house, for the crime of having spoken out to her husband. Rather than take Ti Soeur with her into an uncertain, and potentially homeless future, she decided to leave her at the orphanage, where she's safe.
As they're forced to part again, it's a wrenching scene. Ti Soeur is sobbing. She throws herself on the ground, inconsolable.
As we leave her, Ti Soeur seems traumatized, confused and lonely. But she's also, finally, in a place where she'll be fed, educated, safe and free from slavery.
For Haiti's child slaves, this may be as close to a happy ending as you'll find.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5326508

a special hatred

2010-01-11T12:49:00.000-08:00

I received this email from a friend who knows that I am going on a trip to find out how my church can partner with other organizations that are fighting human trafficking.

This is a devotion from Stasi Eldredge

A Special Hatred
The assault on femininity—its long history, its utter viciousness—cannot be understood apart from the spiritual forces of evil we are warned against in the Scriptures. This is not to say that men (and women, for they, too, assault women) have no accountability in their treatment of women. Not at all. It is simply to say that no explanation for the assault upon Eve and her daughters is sufficient unless it opens our eyes to the Prince of Darkness and his special hatred of femininity.

Turn your attention again to the events that took place in the Garden of Eden. Notice—who does the Evil One go after? Who does Satan single out for his move against the human race? He could have chosen Adam . . . but he didn’t. Satan went after Eve. He set his sights on her. Have you ever wondered why? It might have been that he, like any predator, chose what he believed to be the weaker of the two. There is some truth to that. He is utterly ruthless. But we believe there is more. Why does Satan make Eve the focus of his assault on humanity?

Because she is captivating, uniquely glorious, and he cannot be. She is the incarnation of the Beauty of God. More than anything else in all creation, she embodies the glory of God. She allures the world to God. He hates it with a jealousy we can only imagine.

And there is more. The Evil One also hates Eve because she gives life. Women give birth, not men. Women nourish life. And they also bring life into the world soulfully, relationally, spiritually—in everything they touch. Satan is a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). He brings death. His is a kingdom of death. And thus Eve is his greatest human threat, for she brings life. She is a lifesaver and a lifegiver. Eve means “life” or “life-producer.”

Put those two things together—that Eve incarnates the Beauty of God and she gives life to the world. His bitter heart cannot bear it. He assaults her with a special hatred. Do you begin to see it?

(Captivating , 82–85)

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

2010-01-11T07:35:00.000-08:00

Today, January 11, is Human Trafficking Awareness Day. You may already be aware of this issue or this may be the 1st time you are reading about it. But if you are anything like me you are disgusted by this and want to do something about it. I hope that you will read this, get mad and do something!

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

Human trafficking is the modern day practice of slavery. Also known as trafficking in persons, human trafficking comprises the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, based on the recruitment, harboring, and transportation of people solely for the purpose of exploitation. Every year traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits at the expense of victimizing millions of people around the world.

Victims of human trafficking are people forced or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Labor trafficking is widespread in variety of situations that encompass domestic servitude and small-scale labor operations, to large-scale operations such as farms, sweatshops, and major multinational corporations. Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative sectors regarding the illegal trade in people, and involves any form of sexual exploitation in prostitution, pornography, bride trafficking, and the commercial sexual abuse of children. Under international law, any sexually exploited child is considered a trafficking victim, even if no force or coercion is present.

Traffickers exploit men, women and children through labor and sex trafficking operations.

An estimated 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked annually in the United States alone. The number of US citizens trafficked within the country is even higher. An estimated 200,000 American children are at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year.

Despite this staggering reality, governments around the world are only beginning to address the problem. In most countries, traffickers operate with almost total impunity even in the most severe cases. A lack of awareness in the public exacerbates inaction on the part of authorities. Take a stand and join us in leading the anti-trafficking movement forward to end the modern practice of slavery. Learn more and get involved by signing up to receive regular updates about human trafficking, Polaris Project, and ways to help fight modern-day slavery. We need your support to help end the exploitation of victims of human trafficking.

Most victims lack social networks, making it very difficult for them to escape the cycle of oppression.

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

MYTH #1: Human trafficking is the forced transportation of people across borders.

Reality: Forced transportation in the absence of slavery-like labor or commercial sexual exploitation is usually considered the crime of kidnapping. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery through labor or commercial sexual exploitation, and does not require transportation to occur, though transportation may be involved.

MYTH #2: Trafficking victims are only foreign nationals.

Reality: Both the U.N. Protocol and U.S. federal law use definitions of trafficking in persons that do not require crossing of international or state borders. Many trafficked persons are victims of internal or domestic trafficking - trafficking within the borders of a single country, and are themselves nationals of that country.

MYTH #3: Poverty and inequality are the causes of human trafficking.

Reality: While poverty and inequality are important factors in making certain populations more vulnerable to being trafficked, they are not the primary cause of trafficking. Trafficking is a criminal industry driven by 1) the ability to make large profits due to high demand, and 2) negligible-to-low risk of prosecution. As long as demand is unchecked and the risks for traffickers are low, trafficking will exist regardless of other contributing factors.

Blaming poverty and inequality alone is not only inaccurate and disheartening, it tends to deflect blame from the key actors that perpetuate trafficking - the traffickers themselves and their customers.

MYTH #4: There's not much I can do about such a huge issue.

Reality: Together - we can make a huge difference! We were founded by regular community members like yourself, as were historic organizations like the Underground Railroad. Organizations like Polaris Project live and breathe based on the contributions and dedication of community members. Making a financial donation, a gift of time, goods, or services, or helping to raise awareness are some of the things collectively that help victims everyday. Please join us and be welcomed into the growing movement to combat slavery today!

This information is from the Polaris Project.

please give!

2009-12-22T05:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Loved Ones,

I hope that this letter finds you doing well. I am writing with some exciting news! I am about to embark on a journey to Cambodia with my church to find out how we can partner Globally in the fight against Human Trafficking!

Human Trafficking? What? What is that? Well, I am glad you asked! If I have not talked to you in a while you may not know that God has taken a hold of my heart this past year and given me a passion to “…proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…”, Isaiah 61. Back at the beginning of the year I watched a movie called, Taken, this movie had a sub story about 2 young girls who were taken and sold into slavery. This movie made me sick and after watching it, I found out that you can actually buy a person here in the states for less that what you might pay for a cup of coffee. This just didn’t sit well with me, so began my journey to learning more about Human Trafficking.

Human Trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world and is not limited to just underdeveloped countries. This can be seen by the rise of Atlanta becoming recognized as one of the centers of Human Trafficking in the US. There are far more slaves and trafficked women and children (and men) in the world today than there ever were during the entire slavery period of the mid 1800’s. This reflects a continued decline in the perceived value of a human life, as someone loved and created by God to do His will. There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today!

In March, my church, North Point Ministries, is going to shine the light of Christ into this worldwide scourge, starting in a region of Southeast Asia that is well known for its high incidence of child prostitution and abuse. Ours is an assessment team. From March 18-28 we will journey into some of the darker corners of Cambodia to identify national partners who are already at work. We will seek to identify several potential partners who already have successful and effective ministries, determine what North Point Ministries can learn from them, and assess if there would be value in North Point Ministries coming along side. Upon return we will make a proposal to GlobalX regarding future ministry opportunities.

Approaches to battling Human Trafficking are often categorized into one of four categories. Prevention, Rescue, Rehabilitation and Prosecution. Each have a significant role in the fight against Human Trafficking and offer different opportunities for North Point Ministries engagement. We will seek to determine where North Point Ministries resources and people could best be utilized and begin the process of forming partnership agreements and understandings. Considering the many potential partners, most importantly we will seek to determine with whom God would have us co-labor. In addition, we will seek to determine how people who journey to Cambodia on Human Trafficking journeys can also engage in Atlanta after they return home.

Please join me in this battle, the battle for human rights. The battle for freedom.

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, [a]

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.

Isaiah 61: 1-3

You can give to our trip or pray for us! Each member of our team needs to raise $3,000.00. To give, please go to https://ssl.northpoint.org/ssl/globalx/giving.html. Please select “trip with the most need” and put my name in the individual field ~ Erin Ritter. Our trip is not listed on the site as it is an exploration trip.

Much Love,

Erin Ritter

my church ROCKS!

2009-12-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

i love my job! i get to be a part of the most amazing organization in the world. thanks for letting me be a part of such incredible life change! buckhead church, you rock!

What this video and GET INVOLVED!

2009-12-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

concert for a cause!

2009-11-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

save the date kids! james david carter, chrystina fincher, and jamie portee are all gathering together to fight human trafficking! thursday, december 17th. more information to follow but get this on your calendar. tickets are limited!

thankgiving?

2009-11-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

7 Reasons Corporate Slave-Holders Are Giving Thanks

by Amanda Kloer

categories: Human Trafficking Awareness, Labor Trafficking and Trade, Money and Economy

Published November 26, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT

On this Thanksgiving day, many of us are counting our blessings. Or at least, trying to count our blessings while Aunt Betty and Cousin Bob fight about politics, Little Mackenzie sings Hanna Montana at the top of her lungs, and mom shoves a fourth slice of pie down your throat while asking intrusive questions. But you know who else has something to be thankful for today? Corporations who use slave labor to make their goods. Here are seven reasons why they are feeling grateful today, too.

7. Their lobby groups are going to oppose a ban on goods made by child labor. The powerful lobby for big business isn't going to stand by and let their poor clients be hurt by an audacious bill which would ban the import of goods made by child or forced labor to the U.S. They're going to fight to keep those children and slaves working hard.

6. Most major U.S. grocery chains carry few or no Fair Trade products. When large chains carry few or no Fair Trade options (or hide those options on the bottom self), customers are more likely to continue to buy the cheap, slave-made products that earn a huge profit for the companies that make them. It's a good thing for corporations that use slaves when large chains don't carry Fair Trade.

5. The holiday season is about quantity, not quality. These corporations are really thankful that people get so caught up in the holiday season, they often ascribe value to sheer quantity of stuff bought over issues like where it came from and how it was produced. They really hope consumers don't wise up and start shopping with an eye to where their holiday purchases came from.

4. The global recession has made more people than ever before vulnerable to slavery. There is no shortage of vulnerable workers in desperate need of a job, just waiting to be exploited and enslaved. The global recession has really expanded the labor pool of potential slaves for corporations to pick from. Now they can weed out anyone who might cause a fuss by demanding rights or pay.

3. Media is much more likely to expose slavery in prostitution than other industries. Corporate slave-holders know that even if human trafficking is exposed this holiday season, it's likely that the focus will be on trafficking into prostitution, and not the slaves who make their products. Not a lot of people buy sexual services as gifts for each other, but a lot buy shoes, clothes, and electronics made by trafficking victims.

2. Everyone is about to eat more chocolate. The cocoa industry is going to see a boost this season when chocolate consumption goes up around the holidays. Unfortunately, the children and adults forced to work harvesting cocoa with little or no pay won't be seeing any of those extra profits.

1. A lot of people are still in the dark about slavery in consumer goods. The biggest reason that corporations who use slaves are giving thanks today is that many people still don't know that many components of goods we use and wear and live with every day are made by slaves. And what they don't know, the corporations think, won't hurt anyone.

Slave-holder corporations may have a lot to be thankful for today, but so do I. I'm thankful that you're reading this post. I'm thankful that you're thinking about ways to make better choices in what you buy, both for gifts and for yourself, this holiday season. I'm thankful that you and I are part of a dedicated community of activists on Change.org who are making a difference in the lives of at-risk and trafficked persons around the world. Together, we can take away all the reasons human traffickers and those who profit from the slavery of others have to give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

former human trafficking slave talks about her horrors

2009-11-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

Former sex trade prisoner talks about the horrors of human trafficking

Diane Turbyfill

Dee Schronce ran away from her Ohio home to escape sexual abuse, but an unimaginable fate awaited her in New Orleans.

At 17, Schronce was drugged and sold into sexual slavery.

“Being forced to work in a brothel is, if you can imagine, being sexually assaulted over and over and over again and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your mind has to go to a place of survival and has to sort of tune it out,” Schronce said.

Three months in captivity

For three months Schronce lived in darkness.

She was kept in a dark, dank trailer with other women. Two other trailers sat on the property that was surrounded by a fence and overseen by a guard.

The women were brought out after dark and taken into an adjoining bar. Here, clients waited.

“It was full of fear, and it was just like being a prisoner only tortured in a different way, not just physical but psychological,” Schronce said. “It was very degrading.”

The women with whom Schronce “served time” weren’t drugged. They were intimidated, humiliated and threatened. They were held captive and used.

Schronce struggled through the daily routine but secretly planned her escape. Her first attempt failed, and she suffered the consequences.

She was beaten and made to dance, covered in blood and torn clothing. But three weeks later, she tried again.

With help from a client, Schronce climbed over the fence and rode away in her accomplice’s truck.

“That’s what allowed me to get out. I never lost hope. Once you’ve lost hope then you’ve pretty much sealed your fate,” said Schronce.

She never returned to the site of her captivity.

Breaking the silence

For more than 20 years, Schronce kept quiet about her ordeal.

She created a new life in Gaston County. She married and had children.

But Schronce’s faith led her to part her lips and speak up for the women and children suffering silently in the human trafficking trade.

Schronce authored a book, “Mary and Me: From Ruin to Royalty,” and started speaking to groups across North Carolina.

She became a board member for AVID, Assault & Victimization Intervention & Deterrence in Gaston County.

Opening old wounds isn’t easy.

“It’s just a place you don’t want to walk back into,” she said. “There’s still a scar.”

Schronce hopes her openness about her ordeal will help others break the silence.

“I want to break that chain of shame that goes along with being a victim. A victim shouldn’t have to feel that shame,” Schronce said. “From the time that I was a child to even now, I identified it as shame that I never should have owned in the first place.”

Human trafficking

There have been no reported cases of human trafficking in Gaston County, but that doesn’t mean the issue should be swept under the rug, according to Nancy Newman, director of AVID.

“It is a terrible crime that has been taking place on a large scale for a long time,” said Newman. “Only now is it receiving national recognition because of the beautiful little 5-year-old that was destroyed for trafficking purposes.”

Shaniya Davis, 5, of Fayetteville was found dead Monday on a rural Highway in Lee County. The child’s mother, Antoinette Davis, has been charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution.

Mario McNeill is being charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child in the case, Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine told reporters at a news conference.

Davis’ death should bring local attention to a national issue, Newman said.

“This is no longer a Third World country problem, this is happening in America,” Newman said. “In foreign countries, parents have been selling their virgin females into organized crime for years.”

Human trafficking can be for labor or sex purposes.

“It’s the leading source of income now for organized crime,” said Newman.

Signs of abuse

Human trafficking victims are often isolated, Newman said, and are typically moved from place to place. Relocating a victim keeps the person confused, detached and unfamiliar with his or her surroundings.

Victims are often runaways. They are targeted because they are vulnerable.

“It’s the people that fall through the cracks. Not only are they victimized once but they’re victimized over and over again,” said Schronce.

Places used to harbor trafficking victims can be identified by some physical characteristics.

Some indicators include:

Barbed wire surrounding a home

Bodyguards around a home, factory or business

Bars on windows of home or factory

Vehicles coming and going at odd hours

Men coming and leaving at odd hours

People being escorted to and from a building

Lots of people being loaded into a vehicle

“Approaching these victims can be very touchy. You can cost them their lives,” said Newman. “The best thing you can do is contact law enforcement immediately because there are a lot of risks for the victim and for you.”

15 men lined up to have sex with 14 yr old girl

2009-11-18T06:01:00.000-08:00

By AMY LEIGH WOMACK - awomack@macon.com

Two Macon men have been indicted on charges that they locked a 14-year-old girl in a house in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood and forced her to have sex with up to 15 people.

Shuntain N. Griffin, 30, and Marcus Dwayne Henley, 31, are charged with trafficking a person for sexual servitude, according to an indictment returned in Bibb Superior Court on Tuesday.

The girl ran away from her Bibb County home March 8 and walked to the Zebulon Road Wal-Mart, where she met a trucker and spent the night in his truck, said Allie Seckinger, a Bibb County sheriff’s investigator.

The next day, he dropped her off at a CVS pharmacy in the Bloomfield area of Macon, where she camped out in the woods for a couple of nights.

At some point, men in that neighborhood introduced the girl to Griffin, and she spent the night at his house, Seckinger said.

The next day, Griffin and Henley took the girl to a house on Second Avenue, where, in the girl’s words, she was forced to “serve” people, Seckinger said. At one point, there were 10 to 15 people lined up waiting for her.

“They pretty much pimped her out,” Capt. Mike Smallwood said.

After two to three days, Griffin and Henley sold the girl to a Crawford County man for $500, Seckinger said.

Authorities soon received a tip that the girl was in Crawford County, and they returned the teen to her family March 19. It wasn’t until later interviews that investigators discovered the sexual activity, Seckinger said.

Daniel Chestley White, 46, of Grace Road in Crawford County, was arrested in October on charges of child molestation, aggravated sodomy, rape, interference with child custody, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and human trafficking, according to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.

Additional charges may be pending against White in Bibb County, Seckinger said.

Smallwood said the case is the first instance in which the sheriff’s office has worked a human trafficking case that led to charges being filed.

Crawford County investigator Johnny Cleveland said White’s arrest is the first human trafficking case in Crawford County.

White was released on $20,000 bond Nov. 4, according to Crawford County jail records.

Griffin, of a Bloomfield Drive address, is being held at the Bibb County jail on $111,200 bond.

Henley, of a Virginia Avenue address, is being held without bond, according to Bibb County jail records.

Court records showed that Tuesday’s indictment wasn’t Griffin or Henley’s first brush with the law.

Griffin was convicted of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and writing fictitious checks in 2006 in Baldwin County.

In 2003, he was convicted of attempted burglary in Houston County. In 2001, Griffin was convicted of possession of cocaine in Bibb County.

Henley was convicted of possession of methamphetamine in Bibb County in 2007. In 1998, he was convicted of burglary and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute in Monroe County, according to the indictment.

where does your stuff come from?

2009-11-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

how many times have you looked a label of an item you are going to purchase and wondered...where did this come from and who made it?

oh, never.

yeah me either until this year. but now that i know, what do i do?

ill be the first to admit it is "hard" to buy slave free items.

yes it is more expensive to buy slave free.
yes it is more work to buy slave free.
yes it is inconvenient to buy slave free.

but its worth it.

recently the Department of Labor published a "list of goods produced by child labor and/or forced labor". to make it a little easier for you here are a few screen shots of exactly where some of your things are coming from.

unread articles

2009-11-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

i have been sick and really busy at work the past few days and unable to really catch up on all of my reading. i have 2 google alerts set up in my account one is for sex trafficking and one is for human trafficking. in the few days since i have been unable to read anything this many articles/blogs/news reports have been posted.

seriously? this has to stop!

2009-10-31T07:06:00.000-07:00

Cambodia's Thriving Child Prostitution Industry
October 28, 2008

Al Jazeera's investigation found underage girls working in brothel's around Phnom Penh.

Girls as young as 14 work in brothels' around Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, and while the industry is often shown as serving predatory foreign tourists, local men have been found to be the mainstay of clients.
Thousands of children are bought and sold for sex every day in Cambodia an investigation by Al Jazeera found.

Al Jazeera filmed secretly at several brothels, and in each case found much the same thing - rooms full of young women in their early twenties, as well as teenagers. "For my virginity they gave me $200," Ya Da, a 16-year-old former prostitute, said.

Ya Da worked in a brothel for two years before she ran away. Now, she lives in a safe house with other former prostitutes and abused children. "There were just a few foreign customers [at the brothel]," she said. "I never slept with any, I slept only with Cambodian men."

'Local customers'
Mu Sochua, a politician with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party and a former minister for women's affairs, told Al Jazeera that most of Cambodia's sex industry was supported "by local customers".

"And some of these local customers are high-ranking officials. You have the military, the police and civil servants. you have rich businessmen who have lots of money," she said. The involvement of high-ranking officials has been one reasons, NGOs say, that the sex industry has thrived in Cambodia.

"Very often these brothels and criminal networks are being supported and protected by high ranking officials," Mark Capaldi, from Ecpat International, an organization working to eliminate child prostitution, said. "The problem is not just the abusers but also the impunity and lack of law enforcement in closing down these brothels and karaoke bars."

Daniela Reale, an advisor from Save the Children, told Al Jazeera: "The reality is that we do know local demand is the force driving this abuse. "We also know it is around 70 per cent of local demand rather than sex tourism."

But General Bith Kim Hong, from the Cambodian national police force, rejected allegations that the officials focused their efforts to curb prostitution almost exclusively on foreigners. "The national police are concerned about anyone who commits a crime, who has sex with children, whether they are foreigners or Cambodian," he told Al Jazeera.

"We have a very high commitment to prevent child prostitution."

Few arrests
Last year, the Cambodian police arrested only 21 people for committing sex crimes with children - eight of those arrested were foreigners and 13 were Cambodians. The police also admit that the brothels they shut down in high-profile raids often reopen a few weeks later.

In 2002, Gary Glitter, the British pop star, was expelled from Cambodia amid child-sex allegations.

But while the arrest and conviction of foreigners make the headlines, most child sex trafficking supplies local demand, Mu Sochua said.

"It is easier to catch a foreigner and also the government wants to have showcases to make itself look good - that Cambodia is actually taking care of this problem of human trafficking, which is really not the truth," she told Al Jazeera.

Reale said that governments need to combat the worldwide problem: "They need to address their legal system and their law enforcement." To tackle the poverty that forces girls into prostitution, Reale said that governments must provide support systems to help families match their needs.

She said that the 3rd World Conference on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Rio de Janeiro next month will be as a big opportunity to make real and genuine commitments.

Adapted from: "Cambodia - Child Sex Trade Soars in Cambodia." Al Jazeera. 21 October 2008.

VIDEO Direct Link:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/10/20081021560267677.html

what can you do to help end slavery?

2009-10-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

“I’m just a student. What can I do to end slavery?

By notforsaletn

How Do You Wear Your Orange? When I first heard the phrase “How do you wear your orange?”, and saw photos of people on the Not For Sale Campaign (NFSC) website wearing orange bandanas, bracelets and shoelaces, I thought it was merely a cute gimmick. I should have known better. Dave Batstone, NFSC’s president, isn’t into cute gimmicks.

Over time, I realized that the physical wearing of orange represented a core value of the Not For Sale movement: Our commitment to help find the place in ending slavery that fits you and your unique skills, experience, talents, passions and sphere of influence. Here are some snapshots of ways STUDENTS can engage:

Athletes/ Fitness buffs can organize Free2Play events, joining pros like Major League Baseball player Jeremy Affelt in providing facilities and equipment for rescued children, enabling them to be free to play or hold a Free2Walk event, raising awareness and funds for a project of their choice.
Artists can express their feelings about slavery in their art, hold an exhibition or art benefit or offer prints to raise funds to help victims. “Release Me” (see photo) is an example of an artist using her gifts and passion to free slaves.

Musicians can write a song about slavery, hold a benefit concert (both of which are current actions by the band 3 Minutes to Live), hold a battle of the bands, and/or sell items made by rescued slaves at their events, as artist Amy Courts does.
Campus ministries can go through the Not For Sale Bible Study “Set the Captives Free” and then put what they learn into action by holding a Chocolate Campaign to end child slavery on the Ivory Coast.
Groups of students can target specific areas of town to hang posters that lead to victim identification. A Not For Sale TN volunteer graphic designer created these eye-catching and effective tools. Write to us to arrange to pick up posters or to get a pdf file emailed to you to print your own by emailing info@notforsaletn.org.
Consumers can hold a home/school party, selling items made by rescued slaves and, in the process, sharing the stories behind the items, or host a Presents with a Purpose event before a holiday, enabling people to purchase gifts that bless the creator, as well as the receiver. Items include cute tote bags, beautiful, unique jewelry, coffee and more.
Actors can put on a production related to human trafficking. One group created a powerful presentation using victims’ own words from the book To Plead Our Own Cause.
Writers can write about slavery for the school paper, highlight local trafficking and the activities of Not For Sale for local media, create a play or poetry on modern slavery, and/or write to news media sources correcting terminology in reports on the topic i.e. prostituted children, NOT child prostitutes, world’s oldest exploitation not profession, no such thing as a ‘victimless crime’ etc.

Anyone can

Host a movie/discussion night, or other awareness and/or fundraising event. We have lots of resources and ideas to share with you.
Decorate some cans/jars or boxes, label them with a bit of information about NFSTN and human trafficking, and ask store owners for permission to place one by their cash register. Offer to come by to collect donations at regular, agreed upon intervals. Send the funds to donate@notforsaletn.org
Use your social networks to inform others about slavery. Commit to post at least one fact a week on FaceBook, Twitter, your blog or MySpace, for example.
Download music from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Ready for serious action? Start a monthly club , helping participants to become more informed and more involved. We’ll help with resources and ideas!

There are a lot of ways to physically wear orange: Shirts, purses, hats, ribbons, patches, socks and more. And there are about as many ways to become an activist in this cause as there are willing people.

We want to connect you and your passions to the movement to end slavery.

Contact us for more information about these, and other ways of becoming a modern Abolitionist, use the contact form on our website or write to:

info@notforsaletn.org

this information is taken from the not for sale tennessee website

serving opportunity to help trafficking victims

2009-10-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

if you want to help the survivors of human trafficking in atlanta i have the perfect opportunity for you. redeemed, the organization i serve with, is currently accepting female volunteers for their emergency housing team.

Emergency Housing Volunteer Description

Volunteer Description

1. Ensure the survivors (maximum of two (2) young women at a time) keep the schedule daily. The schedule will be provided to volunteers in advance.
2. Assist in the long-term recovery home application process.
3. Provide encouragement, advice and guidance to the survivors in the home
4. Discipline in love and set boundaries
5. Transfer survivors to therapy and life skills classes (2-3 times/week)
6. Monitor the survivor if leaving the home together during your shift (survivor must stay in eyesight and close vicinity if not at the emergency home)
7. Assist in setting the alarm at night and/or in the morning
8. Monitor phone calls during supervised phone time (retrieving the phone out of the locked area and staying in the room during phone time).
9. Love the survivors with compassion and commitment.

Required Skills
Intensive training will be provided. Emergency housing volunteer must be committed to the program and those participating in it. Emergency housing volunteer must have a desire to learn and set boundaries with individuals coming through the transition home. They must also be committed to restoration and persevering in love with the young women in the home.

Location
Atlanta, GA

Business Unit/ Manager
Volunteer Department/ Report to Emergency Housing Coordinator

thought for today

2009-10-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

thought for today

2009-10-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

thought for today

2009-10-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

breast cancer 3 day walk

2009-10-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

i will be out of pocket for the next few days as i am walking the 3 day breast cancer walk in honor of my mom who is fighting this horrible disease! pray for safety and for me to successfully walk 60 MILES! in 3 days! i have a few posts lined up for you over the next few days so come back!

welcome ragamuffins!

2009-10-19T05:05:00.001-07:00

hey ragamuffin community.

thanks for stopping by. if you would like to learn more about trafficking you can join us TOMORROW night for the movie playground.

"In Playground, filmmaker Libby Spears unravels the gut-wrenching atrocities that children face in America’s sex trade and trafficking industry. When she began shooting Playground, Spears initially focused on international countries but quickly found that the problem of child prostitution was disturbingly in high demand right here in our own country. Through interviews with actual victims, social workers, and even pimps and johns, Libby was able to construct and display just how massive the problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children really is in the U.S."

watch this trailer and then join us tomorrow night, oct 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the woodruff arts center in downtown atlanta.

Redeemed

2009-10-17T05:31:00.001-07:00

the organization i serve with was just featured in a local alliance newsletter as an organization "Making a Positive Change in Our Community".

NEXT TUESDAY!!

2009-10-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

Playground

Tuesday, October/20/2009, 07:30 PM

Venue: RICHARD H. RICH THEATRE

PLAYGROUND – The Documentary
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Rich Theatre
VIP Admission Seating, General Admission Seating

6:00 pm VIP Reception in Circle Room
7:30 pm "Playground" film screening
Immediately following the film, a 30 minute Q&A with panelists

In December 2006, Judge Sanford "Sammy" Jones assisted Libby Spears of Blu-print Films in the creation of a documentary film on domestic trafficking of children.

At the time he was the Chief Judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court, the largest juvenile court in the southeast, Judge Jones had been instrumental in helping to establish the Juvenile Justice Fund, the nonprofit at the court that helps to identify and serve the special needs of those most underserved youth and family populations in its jurisdiction. CEASE, the Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation, was one of the programs established through the Juvenile Justice Fund.

While Blu-print Films was gathering footage in Atlanta, Judge Jones was instrumental in giving the crew access to the people, places and cases that shone the brightest light on the problem of prostitution and sexual exploitation of girls in Atlanta. He was fully committed to the project and he himself appears in the film.

Judge Jones was taken from this world too soon when he died in a small plane crash on May 15, 2009. When word of his tragic passing traveled, the Juvenile Justice Fund was contacted by Blu-print Films and asked to host the Atlanta premiere of the recently completed documentary, Playground, in honor of Judge Jones and the shared work on this project.

In Playground, filmmaker Libby Spears unravels the gut-wrenching atrocities that children face in America’s sex trade and trafficking industry. When she began shooting Playground, Spears initially focused on international countries but quickly found that the problem of child prostitution was disturbingly in high demand right here in our own country. Through interviews with actual victims, social workers, and even pimps and johns, Libby was able to construct and display just how massive the problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children really is in the U.S.

CEASE continues to address the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of girls in the Atlanta metro area and will receive all general admissions and student ticket proceeds from this enlightening event. Proceeds from VIP Admission will benefit the Sanford “Sammy” Jones Memorial Playground that will be built and gifted to the Fulton County Juvenile Court.

VIP Admission includes reception, memorial film honoring Judge Jones, champagne toast and Playground film preferred seating (VIP tickets limited to 300 and will be sold on a first come first served basis).

Tickets: $25 General Admission. $125 VIP Admission. $15 Student Admission (w/valid ID). Discounted ticket prices are available for groups of 10 or more. Please visit or call the box office to order (404) 733-5000. Group discounts are not available for web orders.

This event is recommended for adults age 18+ years.

All orders will incur 8% sales tax added. For tickets more than $25, the handling fee is $5 per ticket, for tickets $25 and under, the handling fee will be $2.50 per ticket.

Prepaid parking (including valet parking), plus limousine service is available for the Woodruff Arts Center Parking Garage and can be added on to Internet orders. Please take note of both the date and time. Parking passes are only good for entry on or after the stated time.

The Rich Theatre is located in the Memorial Arts Building of the Woodruff Arts Center.

how cool is this?

2009-10-10T05:22:00.001-07:00

so ive been busy this week working so i could attend an amazing conference for church leaders! i learned so much. there will be a lot to process and you can read more about all of that here in the next few days but in the meantime. how cool is this?? i realize he is following 8,900 people BUT still come on its RICK WARREN!! yeah!

if you would like to follow me on twitter just click here. i tweet all kinds of profound stuff. like wow my bug went poop on the potty all by herself :). just kidding, i do tweet that stuff but i also try to tweet trafficking information that i think others might find helpful. see you on twitter!

atlanta

2009-09-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

so thanks to a good friend of mine i got some great stats about trafficking and atlanta. thought these might be helpful for you to see that indeed this is happening here.

Atlanta Statistics

*All statistics are taken from “Hidden in Plain View” Mayors Report and the CSEC Senate Study Commission Meeting featuring the Shapiro Group Researchers in conjunction with The Juvenile Justice Fund.

o Atlanta has more strip clubs per capita than Las Vegas
o 80% of adult prostitutes begin between ages 12-14
o 1 in 3 women in the general population are victims of childhood sexual abuse-- this number is usually higher for women in the Adult Entertainment Industry
o In the state of Georgia alone, approximately 250 girls are recruited into prostitution on a monthly basis. There are over 4,000 strippers who work in the 40 adult entertainment clubs in and around the Atlanta area and statistics show there is a clear link between pornography, exotic dancing and prostitution.
o #1 site for prostitution is Craigslist
o The prices for erotic services on Craigslist are measured in "roses"
o When the mayor wrote Craigslist about this problem, they simply said, "We're only responding to demand."
o After much complaining, there is now a statement about GA laws and a link to the APD on the Craigslist erotic services pages but victims are STILL BEING BOUGHT AND SOLD on the site.
o When Atlanta raised the ordinance so that women under 21 could not get their dancing permit, it took 2600 girls off the stage
o Atlanta will become the 48th city in the United States to start a "John School" -- a school for first offenders to realize the effects of prostitution related activities
o The Shapiro Group, in conjunction with the Juvenile Justice Fund, estimates that when a young girl is dressed provacatively, she is assumed to be 8 years older than she actually is-- this leads many men to believe they are buying services (sex, lap dances, erotic services in general) from a legal woman, when in reality, she may be a child.
o When surveying Atlanta for areas of prostitution and trafficking, the Shapiro group has found that where strip clubs and hotels meet, illicit sexual activity is usually happening-- researchers sat in major hotels and watched the traffic from the strip clubs into the hotels
o Out of 500 escort phone numbers, 85% go to 3 main call centers-- this shows there are 3 main escort services that are trying to have the appearance of many different businesses. There is a organized nature to trafficking and sexual exploitation.
o There are 400-500 listings for erotic services/day on Craigslist
o Prostitution as a symptom—the victims are not running to the street, they are running from their homes.
o 75% of minors are controlled by a pimp
o There are more domestic minor sex trafficking victims in the US than international victims in the US
o Approximately 1.7 million runaway/throwaway episodes occur every year in the U.S., and 90% of runaways become a part of the sex trade industry. This recruitment doesn’t take much time or effort; 1 in 3 teens will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.5
o We can't make these victims compete with child abuse victims-- child abuse is revealed because of an outcry, CSEC victims do not speak out, they deny out of fear and intimidation.

playground

2009-09-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

on tuesday, october 20th the movie "playground" is coming to atlanta.

In PLAYGROUND, filmmaker Libby Spears unravels the gut-wrenching atrocities that children face in America’s sex trade and trafficking industry. When she began shooting PLAYGROUND, Spears initially focused on international countries but quickly found that the problem of child prostitution was disturbingly in high demand right here in our own country. Through interviews with actual victims, social workers, and even pimps and johns, Libby was able to construct and display just how massive the problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children really is in the U.S.

please watch this movie clip with the knowledge that it is very graphic.

if you would like to attend the movie with us, please email me, mckennah1972@gmail.com

The Human Cost of Chocolate

2009-09-16T10:13:00.001-07:00

Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy

Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child labor, little progress has been made.

By Christian Parent

The human cost of chocolate

Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child labor, little progress has been made. Seventy percent of the world's cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, where working and living conditions are brutal and many workers are underage.

Eight-year-old twins Hassan (left) and Hussein open cocoa pods in Ivory Coast.

The Cargill warehouse in San Pedro.

Seven-year-old Sami Sery works in his uncle's cocoa grove in L'Ssiri, Ivory Coast.

(Fortune) -- Outside the village of Sinikosson in southwestern Ivory Coast, along a trail tracing the edge of a muddy fishpond, Madi Ouedraogo sits on the ground picking up cocoa pods in one hand, hacking them open with a machete in the other and scooping the filmy white beans into plastic buckets. It is the middle of the school day, but Madi, who looks to be about 10, says his family can't afford the fees to send him to the nearest school, five miles away. "I don't like this work," he says. "I would rather do something else. But I have to do this."

Sinikosson, accessible only by rutted jungle tracks, is a long way from the luxurious chocolate shops of New York and Paris. But it is here, on small West African farms like these, that 70 percent of the world's cocoa beans are grown - 40 percent from just one country, Ivory Coast. It's not only the landscape that is tough. Working and living conditions are brutal. Most villages lack electricity, running water, health clinics or schools. And to make ends meet, underage cocoa workers, like Madi and the two boys next to him, spend their days wielding machetes, handling pesticides and carrying heavy loads.

This type of child labor isn't supposed to exist in Ivory Coast. Not only is it explicitly barred by law - the official working age in the country is 18 - but since the issue first became public seven years ago, there has been an international campaign by the chocolate industry, governments and human rights organizations to eradicate the problem. Yet today child workers, many under the age of 10, are everywhere. Sometimes they're visibly scarred from their work. In the village of Lilo a young boy carrying a machete ambled along a road with a bandaged shin. He said he had cut his leg toiling in a cocoa patch.

The big cocoa exporters - Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM, Fortune 500), Barry Callebaut and Saf-Cacao - do not own plantations and do not directly employ child workers. Instead, they buy beans from Ivorian middlemen called pisteurs and treton. These middlemen own warehouses and fleets of flatbed trucks that travel deep into the jungle to buy cocoa from the small independent farmers who grow most of the crop. But labor and human rights activists charge that Big Chocolate has an obligation to improve working conditions on the farms where so many children toil. They argue that the exporters and manufacturers bear ultimate responsibility for conditions on the farms because they exert considerable control over world cocoa markets, essentially setting what is called the farm gate price.

A mandate versus protocol

The controversy came to a head in 2001, when U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced legislation mandating a labeling system for chocolate. The industry fought back, and a compromise was reached establishing a voluntary protocol by which chocolate companies would wean themselves from child labor, then certify that they had done so. The certification process would not involve labeling of products, but it would call for public reporting by African governments, third-party verification and poverty remediation by 2005. When none of those deadlines was met, the protocol was extended until July 2008. To turn up the heat, the U.S. Department of Labor contracted with Tulane University to monitor progress.

Tulane recently released its first report, and though the tone is polite, the picture isn't pretty. Researchers found that while industry and governments in West Africa have made initial steps, such as establishing task forces on child labor, conditions on the ground remain bad: Children still work in cocoa production, regularly miss school, perform dangerous tasks and suffer injury and sickness. The report criticized the governments of Ivory Coast and Ghana for lack of transparency. And it said the industry's certification process "contains no standards."

In some respects the situation only got worse after Harkin-Engel. From 2002 to 2004, Ivory Coast was gripped by civil war. As militias and renegade soldiers killed and raped their way across the lush interior, income from cocoa exports helped fuel the fighting. Like diamonds and timber, cocoa became a so-called conflict resource. "Blood chocolate" was providing fast cash for armed groups and creating misery for common people. Since 2004, Ivory Coast has settled into an armed peace, with French and UN troops keeping the warring factions apart. But chocolate exporters and manufacturers say the war and its aftermath have hampered their efforts to eradicate child labor.

The industry's two main trade groups, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the National Confectioners Association, say tens of millions of dollars have been spent on building a socially responsible cocoa sector across West Africa. But the Tulane report criticizes the industry for not providing specifics to back up those assertions. And on the ground there is little evidence anyone is paying much attention. "What protocol?" asks Ali Lakiss, the director general of Saf-Cacao, the largest cocoa exporter in Ivory Coast, which controls about 20 percent of the trade. "The farmers don't get the best price. If the cocoa price is good, then kids go to school. No money, and kids work at home."

Ivorian government officials likewise describe their efforts to stop child labor as robust, but they remain fuzzy about details. "This is our No. 1 export," says N'djore Youssouf, the technical adviser to Ivory Coast's presidential task force overseeing Harkin-Engel compliance. "This issue is taken seriously at every level of the government." But Youssouf acknowledges that remediation "has not yet begun."

Poverty breeds child labor

Outside Sinikosson, El Hadj Madi Sankara cultivates 27 acres of cocoa, from which he usually harvests ten tons of beans, earning about $9,000 a year but remaining deeply in debt. Sankara and his 11-year-old son, Ibrahim, are preparing a large mound of cocoa pods for processing. "I want to help my father," says Ibrahim, standing on a pile of pods, toying with his machete. "I need to learn how to be a farmer." His sentiment captures the complexity of the child-labor issue here: Typically it is poverty that compels child labor, not greedy overseers.

Soon a group of young men and boys join the work. Among them are 8-year-old twins Hassan and Hussein. The boys, the children of a neighbor, are helping Sankara make his harvest on time. Their payment won't be in cash, but in reciprocal help from Sankara's family to their father. Not one of the kids goes to school. "We're all doing a hard job," says Sankara, "but we do not get a just price."

Cocoa prices have been declining in recent years - currently about 90 cents a kilo - because of corruption and a poorly planned economic liberalization. President Felix Houphouët-Boigny, who ran Ivory Coast from the late 1950s until the mid-1990s, borrowed heavily against his country's assets and wasted the money on megalomaniacal vanity projects, such as the world's largest basilica - built in the country's desolate interior. During his reign, Houphouët-Boigny invited in hundreds of thousands of Muslim farmers from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to grow cocoa. These immigrants produced abundant and profitable crops, and Ivory Coast became one of the region's more prosperous and stable countries. But the newcomers were not given citizenship, identity papers or legal rights.

When the bills on Houphouët-Boigny's squandered loans came due in 1999, the government imposed fiscal austerity and liberalized the economy. Its marketing board, Caistab, was defanged, prices were deregulated and new oversight agencies and development funds were created to support the market and aid farmers hurt by lower farm gate prices. According to European Union and World Bank audits, these new government bodies now collect three times as much money from the cocoa sector, much of it from exporters, as did the old system, but they spend little on infrastructure or subsidies. In short, not much money gets past corrupt officials and down to the farmers.

Economic hard times followed, and many native Ivorians turned against the immigrants from Burkina Faso and Mali. Demagogues preached a xenophobic creed that they called Ivorité, and in 2002 ethnic tensions exploded into civil war. Now, with the front lines frozen and the armed peace holding, the many non-Ivorian cocoa workers, like those who live in Sinikosson, are trapped on remote farms. The dirt roads connecting them to the main markets are controlled by hostile, corrupt police and soldiers who threaten them with deportation or shake them down for bribes. "I've not been into the main town for four years," says Aladji Mohamed Sawadogo, the chief of Sinikosson. "The last time I tried to go I did not have enough money to pay all the bribes at the checkpoints. I am just stuck. These are the conditions in which we live."

Better prices make a difference

With a wispy beard and a thin, weather-beaten face, Sawadogo looks older that the 55 years he claims. He admits that the village children work, including his own. He even allows them to be interviewed. "I'd like to be a mechanic," says one of his kids, who looks to be about 7 but says he is 11, "but I have to farm cocoa." Adds Sawadogo: "We are not happy that we ourselves live and work like this. Of course we don't want it for our children. But there is no choice."

What would make a difference? "Better prices."

Down the road from Sinikosson is the warehouse of Aboulaye Trooré, who buys the cocoa harvested in the area. "It is all going to Cargill," Trooré says, as some of his men unload 150-pound bags of cocoa from a truck.

The farmers in Sinikosson do not know that Cargill buys their beans, but other farmers in the area are on painfully intimate terms with the Minnesota company. In the town of Thoui, members of a local farmers' cooperative say that borrowing money from Cargill has trapped them in debt and forced some of them to take their kids out of school and put them to work. "There is no other way we can buy fertilizer or feed our families throughout the year," says N'guessan Norbert Walle, a former president of the cooperative.

If farmers can't pay back their debts, they risk arrest. When Walle ran the co-op, his manager was jailed, he says, on orders from Cargill. The arrested manager, Lucien Adje, a former accounting student, says he was taken to the port city of San Pedro and put in a small cell. "You had to do everything in one place - you know, urinate, defecate. I couldn't eat much, it was so filthy."

The correct procedure for collecting debts is to go to court and seize collateral, so Adje's arrest was illegal. But, as one farmer explained, "In Ivory Coast, the illegal is normal." An executive at an Ivorian export company confirmed that such arrests take place. "I don't know the specifics, but I do know that some exporters have arrested people who owe them money."

Cargill denies wrongdoing

Cargill denies any wrongdoing. "We have never paid for, or requested, the detention of managers or members of farmer cooperatives, and we do not support illegal detention," says company spokesman Steven Fairbairn. As for child labor, Fairbairn says the company is working hard to fix the problem: "We require that all our direct suppliers of cocoa beans in West Africa sign a statement acknowledging that they understand that we are committed to the elimination of the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa supply chain. If suppliers are found to be employing such practices, their contracts are subject to termination."

But Cargill has yet to terminate any contracts over the issue of child labor. And it and other exporters say they don't have an obligation to pay higher prices. "We are just an intermediary," says Saf-Cacao's Lakiss, "between the farmers and international markets in London."

Hershey (HSY, Fortune 500), like other major chocolate firms, signed the Harkin-Engel protocol and maintains it is working. "The protocol's value is seen in measurable progress on the ground," says Kirk Saville, a Hershey spokesman. "It has created greater community awareness of child welfare issues and increased incomes for family farms and access to education."

But Hershey has no direct role in implementing reforms in Ivory Coast. Instead, the protocol required the industry to create a foundation to oversee certification. That body is the International Cocoa Initiative, or ICI, headquartered in Geneva and funded by the chocolate industry to the tune of about $2 million a year. The foundation began its work in Ivory Coast in 2003, and it claims to have six pilot projects underway there. "We are doing high quality, scalable work," says Peter McAllister, ICI's executive director. "We've not yet had a significant effect, but it's a journey." He is unfazed about the looming July 2008 deadline: "We don't see it as ending in 2008. Our process works, and we're committed for the long term."

But the foundation has only one staff member in Ivory Coast, Robale Kagohi, and his activities appear limited. "One of the main problems is the moral poverty of the people," says, Kagohi, sitting in a tiny office in the basement of a building in Abidjan that houses a corporate law firm. "That is why we are spending so much time on education." He explains that the anti-child-labor campaign has so far favored "sensitization" - workshops with local officials, police and farmers to explain that child labor is wrong and that if it continues Ivory Coast will be shut out of world cocoa markets. On the roads there are billboards urging people to say no to child labor.

Education or intimidation?

Farmers describe these efforts as more akin to intimidation than to education. "People are worried that America will not buy our cocoa anymore," says Julien Kra Yau, director of a farmers' cooperative in Thoui. "That would be very bad." Adds the co-op's treasurer, Raymond Kouasse Kouadio: "It would be a total catastrophe!"

ICI's other work involves helping a nongovernmental organization called the Movement for Education, Health, and Development, or Mesad, provide accommodation and education to homeless street children. But no children from the cocoa sector were staying at the shelter on a visit last fall, and the group's director, Kouakou Kouadio Watson, says ICI has supported only eight underage former cocoa workers, who lived at the shelter for periods of between one and four months. The shelter is a squalid mess, smelling of urine, and a few filthy children sleep on the concrete floors.

The industry's evident lack of compliance with Harkin-Engel puts everyone involved in a difficult position. New coercive legislation requiring "child-labor-free" labeling could cause trouble for the large cocoa exporters and chocolate manufacturers if there were boycotts of non-labeled chocolate. But impoverished farmers in Ivory Coast say loss of markets would also hurt them and their children. Since the idea was first floated in 2001, the chocolate industry has taken the same position: Labeling "would hurt the people it is intended to help," says Susan Smith, a spokeswoman for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the World Cocoa Foundation.

There is fair-trade chocolate on the market, but it accounts for no more than 1 percent of global supply - and the movement has little traction in Ivory Coast. A more effective way to combat child labor would be for the government of Ivory Coast to invest some of the revenue it gets from high taxes on cocoa exporters in education and social services to help poor farmers. But the government of Ivory Coast is ranked among the most corrupt in the world by Transparency International, a nongovernmental watchdog group. And it seems happier making excuses than changes.

Angeline Kili, head of the government body tasked with financing and regulating the cocoa sector, blames farmers from Burkino Faso and Mali for whatever child labor violations may be occurring. "They need labor, so they have kids working, sometimes with the bad consequences," she says. "Sometimes they traffic children. Child labor wasn't a big problem, but it became a big problem recently. You have to remember, all cocoa farmers worked as kids. Our president worked on a farm with his parents for no money."

Rep. Engel, for one, isn't happy with the lack of progress. He and Senator Harkin plan to travel to Ivory Coast soon on a fact-finding mission of their own. "We have given the industry plenty of time," Engel says. "I am not prepared to give another extension."

This article is from Fortune.

labor day

2009-09-06T17:52:00.001-07:00

while you are enjoying your day off because of labor day, be thinking about the 27 million people who are enslaved that have no choice. they will continue 2 labor.

why atlanta is a prime place for trafficking

2009-09-04T05:06:00.000-07:00

Domestic Human Trafficking

Human trafficking has become a major concern specifically in Georgia for a number of reasons. First, Atlanta, Georgia is home to Hartsfield International Airport which is a central connection for most domestic and international flights. As such, traffickers are able to traffic a large volume of their victims both internally and internationally to and from Atlanta, Georgia. Second, Georgia has a large immigrant population that is undocumented. As such, traffickers are able to prey on these victims by extracting forced labor, domestic servitude and sexual services without any fear that the victims will contact the police department or immigration. Finally, Atlanta, Georgia is infamous for its large sex industry. Strip clubs, prostitution, and escort services are abundant. Consequently, all these reasons work together to create the perfect climate for human trafficking in Atlanta, Georgia.

This information is from Jamaicans.com.

it does happen here

2009-09-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

Restaurant in Woodstock

busted for running sex ring.

Federal agents said they raided a Mexican restaurant on Tuesday after reports that the owner was running a prostitution ring out of the establishment. Agents preformed a search warrant at La Cabana restaurant, located on Main Street in Woodstock, and a nearby house on Jaime Way over the weekend.

Federal agents said they had evidence that the owner of the restaurant, Mercedes Arteaga, had smuggled in illegal aliens and forced them into prostitution. There were reports that he ran the operation from La Cabana and from his home nearby. An attorney for Arteaga said that he was innocent.

On Tuesday night, there were customers coming in and out of the restaurant, and no one questioned had suspected any illegal activity.

According to the affidavits, there were only women smuggled and used for prostitution. The women came from Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

And the Federal investigators said that after-hours the restaurant changed into a brothel with an all male clientele.

According to 11Alive.com,

The FBI was brought into the case after Woodstock police received numerous complaints about the business's after-hours activity. "Usually loud music," said Sgt. Paul Brown. "We've had disturbances that have spilled out of the restaurant into the parking lot." Sgt. Brown says most of that activity happened after midnight.

The house that is nearby on Jaime Way is owned by Arteaga and said to be where some of the women who work at the restaurant live. Neighbors have reported seeing a lot of traffic in front of the house, with cars pulling in and out of the drive way at all hours of the night and picking up Hispanic women around twelve times a day.

Federal agents have said that there are no formal arrests made yet. Woodstock police say three people were arrested as a result of outstanding warrants not connected to the "Human Smuggling" investigation.

September 2, 7:45 PMAtlanta Sex and Relationships ExaminerKrista Hadaway

This article is from the Examiner.

you need to know this information

2009-09-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

and what you can do about it! go here to do your part!

3 Americans Face Child-Sex Charges

Men Arrested in Cambodia Are the First Prosecuted Under Trafficking Initiative (yeah yeah yeah i know its cambodia and not the usa but this is happening here too and these men are from california!!! ~ me)

By Ashley Surdin

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 1, 2009

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31 -- Three Americans accused of traveling to Cambodia to have sex with children are expected to be charged in federal court here, officials said Monday, marking the first prosecutions under a new international initiative intended to combat child-sex tourism.

The initiative, Operation Twisted Traveler, targets Americans who exploit children for sex in Cambodia, which experts describe as a top destination for child predators. U.S. and Cambodian authorities, as well as nongovernmental organizations, were involved in the effort.

"This level of cooperation is unprecedented," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which coordinated the initiative with the Justice Department.

Before arriving in Los Angeles on Monday, the suspects -- Ronald Boyajian, 49, Erik Peeters, 41, and Jack Sporich, 75 -- were arrested by Cambodian authorities on charges related to child sexual exploitation. They are expected to make their initial appearances in federal court Tuesday afternoon.

The three men are current or former California residents, and all are registered sex offenders, authorities said. An attorney for Boyajian did not respond to a call to comment. The other two men do not yet have attorneys.

Child-sex tourism -- whereby minors are sold for sex through brothels or solicited off the street -- has long been part of the landscape in Cambodia. Like most countries where the crime occurs, such as Thailand and Mexico, Cambodia is a poor nation, with a $600 annual per capita income, according to the World Bank. In desperation to pay for food or health care, some families sell their children to foreign pedophiles or sex houses.

It is difficult to know how pervasive child-sex tourism is in Cambodia, or in any other country, because of the illicit nature of the crime. Undercover investigators, working with human rights activists, continue to find many brothel owners and traffickers selling minors for sex in Cambodia.

There are increasing reports of men traveling there to have sex with underage girls for as much as $4,000, according to the State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report of 2009. The report designated the Southeast Asian country as among those that should receive special scrutiny because it has not made enough progress in eliminating the problem.

Cambodia has made some efforts. Over the past year, after enacting laws with anti-trafficking provisions, the government convicted a dozen offenders and prosecuted nearly 70. U.S. legislation, including the PROTECT Act of 2003, has also targeted trafficking. The legislation bolstered federal laws targeting predatory crimes against children outside the United States by expanding the range of crimes and increasing penalties.

Officials say Twisted Traveler, launched in October, will help enforce existing laws. Under the initiative, the FBI and ICE trained the Cambodian National Police and local police in Phnom Penh, the nation's capital.

"Some part of what we're trying to do here is change attitudes and change acceptance of child-sex tourism as something that's always been around or can't be changed," Carol A. Rodley, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, said in a telephone interview. "And I think that's very much true of the Cambodian police -- that their attitudes about the issue have changed in part because of the collaboration."

Authorities in both countries relied on information provided by Action Pour Les Enfants, a nonprofit group, and the International Justice Mission, a human rights agency. Their involvement, Rodley said, marked a breakthrough for Cambodia, which historically has had an uneasy relationship with such organizations because of their criticism of the government.

In a statement announcing the latest allegations, officials said Boyajian, of Menlo Park, Calif., is accused of having sex with a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl. Peeters, of Norwalk, Calif., is accused of engaging in sexual activity with at least three underage Cambodian boys, paying them $5 to $10. Sporich, of Sedona, Ariz., is accused of sexually abusing at least one Cambodian boy, and of driving through city streets on his motorbike, dropping money as a way to attract children.

If convicted, the men face sentences of up to 30 years for each victim.

Officials said they hope the arrests will deter would-be sex tourists. Over the past six years, ICE has arrested more than 70 suspects nationwide on charges of child-sex tourism.

"The appeal of a place like this is that it's very far away, and pedophiles feel like they can come here and be anonymous and be outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement," Rodley said. "I hope the message that it sends is one of deterrence." (emphasis mine to make sure you dont miss it).

10 facts about Modern Slavery

2009-09-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ths story of Sophea

2009-09-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

This story is from the website Freedom For Girls.

Sophea’s Misplaced Trust

By Katie Chalk

Sophea is only fifteen.

Each time she tells her story it's a little different, a little closer to the truth. It’s never easy for a victim of trafficking to admit how trusting they once were, how easily they had been tricked along the way.

When she met her trafficker at the age of fourteen, she had just returned from three years in Thailand, including a year away from her family working as domestic help for a rich family in Bangkok.

With all that traveling and working, she must have thought herself very grown up. “Sometimes I went to sing karaoke in my town,” she says. “One day a woman came to sing there too, and she talked to me. She wanted to know if I was looking for a job. She knew of one in Siem Reap that paid 3000 baht a month (nearly US$100)”

“My mother said it was up to me. So I decided to go.” Did she like the woman who promised her such a good start in life? At this question she becomes confused, looks down at her hands with their brightly painted nails.

Finally she explains that she liked her very much. The woman was well-known to her. She was the mother of Sophea's boyfriend.

“Instead of taking me to Siem Reap, we went to a guest house in Udor Meanchey (near the Thai border),” says Sophea. “Then she told me that if we wanted to get to Siem Reap I would have to sleep with the driver as payment. He came into my room, forced me and told me he’d already paid 500 baht for it. Later that night there was another man.”

Next they traveled to Battambang, where they stayed three nights. There were more men, but no money in sight. “I wanted to run away,” says Sophea, “but I had nothing, and my family was too far away now.” Afraid of everything, she did as she was told.

As they headed towards the Thai border once more, Sophea spoke up for the first time about her treatment. Her trafficker reassured her and implied that she would soon organize a wedding between Sophea and her own son. Sophea was left in the hands of brothel owners and told to wait around a month.

"Life there was unbearable," says Sophea. "The men liked young girls and I was the youngest. I had all sorts of customers, Thai and Cambodian – I hated them all. Worst were the beatings if I said no. They gave me drugs and told me afterwards that I would need to pay for them out of my salary. I was never given any money at all, only more drugs."

Sophea woke up from her abusive haze when she realized she had been waiting a year for her boyfriend or his mother to come to her rescue. She managed to escape long enough to make a phone call to her grandmother who called the police.

Rapha House is the first place she’s felt safe in a long time. “I feel good here,” she says. “I feel secure, nobody hurts me. I can learn to read and write properly for the first time.”

The other girls, who have been through similar ordeals, have been friendly to her, and already she’s learning to trust the people around her. The staff says that she has a strong determination to leave her past life, including her drug addiction, well behind. This is helping her to settle in quickly, make friends and plan for her future.

“The first thing I will do when I leave here is look for my mother, my brothers and my sisters,” says Sophea. “I miss them. I want to learn hairdressing because I think I could earn money with that when I go home.”

Away from the situation, she can see more clearly how she was tricked and how many people must have known along the way, including the owners of the guesthouses where she was abused. She thinks it may not have been the first time her trafficker had taken this path with a young victim.

To other Cambodian girls she gives the advice “Do not fall into such a trick, believing people you don’t really know.”

But she refuses to release her last glimmer of trust. "My fiance can't have known about this, or he would have come to get me," she says sadly.

Katie Chalk is a reporter with World Vision, which has financially assisted Rapha House in special projects.

How are victims recruited or entrapped?

2009-08-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

Question
How are victims recruited or entrapped?

Answer
Traffickers use a variety of techniques to recruit or entrap their victims. Sometimes they use brute force. More frequently, they make false promises of a better life or use coercive threats against the victims or their families.

Traffickers entice their victims through word-of-mouth, newspaper and telephone book ads, brochures, Web sites and fake or dubious employment, adoption or mail-order bride agencies.

Once in the, victims become even more vulnerable. They are separated from their families and support systems. They are unfamiliar with the laws and customs. And they do not know where they can turn for help.

Traffickers use a variety of techniques to keep their victims in forced labor or commercial sex. They threaten them with deportation or imprisonment or threaten to harm family or friends. They confiscate their victims’ immigration, identification or travel documents. They keep their money. They isolate their victims geographically or by limiting their contact with the outside world. They impose debts on their victims for having brought them into the country, for having “provided” them with food and shelter or for having arranged “work” for them, and then tell them that they must pay off the debt by doing what the traffickers tell them to do. They coerce their victims with threats to expose their situations to friends and family in the or elsewhere. Whether they use just one or several of these techniques, the traffickers ultimately paralyze their victims with fear so that they are unable to act against the traffickers wishes.

This information is from The Department of Health and Human Services.

Who are the victims?

2009-08-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

Question:
Who are the victims of Trafficking?

Answer:
Trafficking victims hail from many countries, and their ranks include men, women and children subjected (i) to forced or coerced labor – including sweat-shop, agrarian, domestic servant, hotel and restaurant work or (ii) exploitation in commercial sex – which can include prostitution, escort services and pornography. Any person under the age of 18 who has been subjected to commercial sex is a victim of trafficking.

Victims can be exploited for both legal (e.g., hotel, restaurant and agrarian work) and illegal activities (e.g., the illegal drug trade, prostitution, child pornography).

Some victims are well-educated, and some are not. Citizenship in a particular country is not an element of trafficking; victims can be US citizens or non-citizens. Victims may be here legally on a visa, they may have permanent residence (green cards), or they may be here illegally or without status. Some victims are brought into this country by their traffickers. Other victims fall prey to their traffickers after arriving here.

This information is from The Department of Health and Human Services.

local opportunity to reach out to trafficking victims

2009-08-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

Together We Can Remove Trafficking from the Landscape of Atlanta

If you are reading this hopefully you have a heart for women who have been commercially sexually exploited. With your help we can remove Human Trafficking from the landscape of Atlanta! I am excited to tell you about a chance we have to serve with Maximum Impact during an upcoming out reach.

You may or may not already know about an event that is coming up on Saturday, September 19, that will reach out to the community of Fulton Industrial Boulevard. A number of women who are being commercially sexually exploited will most likely be attending this outreach. This will be an awesome opportunity for us to reach out to the community and to develop relationships with these women.

Maximum Impact needs a lot of help to prepare for this day!

Ways to serve:

~ Gather the items they need to be able to serve the community of Fulton Industrial Boulevard. Clothing, toiletries, and food.
~ Help distribute flyers the week before the event, September 14-18.
~ Help setting up the day before the event, on Friday, September 18.
~ Serving at the event, on Saturday, September 19. There will be two shifts available on Saturday to choose from to serve, 10-2 or 2-6. The 10-2 shift will involve helping with last minute set up and the 2-6 shift will involve helping with breakdown.

If you would like to be a part of the team, leave a comment here or email me at mckennah1972@gmail.com

The Story of Ng

2009-08-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

This story is from the website Freedom For Girls.

The Story of Ng
What six-year-old Ng wanted was what most girls her age want—a safe and loving home to grow up in. What she got was something entirely different.

One day, Ng’s life turned upside-down when her stepfather ripped a gold necklace from her mother’s neck and grabbed a knife to slit her throat. Ng screamed and instinctively threw herself towards her mother to protect her. Then her stepfather ripped Ng from her mother’s body and beat her until her small body crumpled unconscious. He then took all the family’s money and jewelry and left.

You might think that having her stepfather out of her life for good was the best thing that could have happened for Ng. But life was about to get extraordinarily more complicated for this little girl.

Forced to find money in order to eat and feed her four children, Ng’s mother took all her kids and moved into the city to find a job. There she made little more than a dollar a day. So Ng’s mother decided to do what seems inconceivable for any parent who is unfamiliar with the desperation borne from abject poverty. Ng’s mother sold her to an elderly man in order for her to work as his servant. Ng was just seven-years-old.

Ng’s ready and somewhat mischievous smile masks the darker truths about her life. As she tells that part of her story, her head sinks; and she nervously scrapes away the chipped polish off her fingernails.

After being sold at age seven to an elderly man by her mother, Ng found no sanctuary in the old man’s house. The other servants scolded her. And the people living there slapped her around and told her that she was worthless.

Upon her arrival, Ng was immediately put to work. Her small hands took a towel and dipped it over and over again into a bucket of soapy water as she cleaned the floor on her hands and knees. The other servants, unhappy with her progress, came by and hit her over the head whenever they passed her. That first day in the old man’s house, she washed the dishes, dried and put them away, swept and mopped the floor again, helped to do the laundry, and was told to massage the old man’s feet.

Later that night, she was awakened and told to go to the old man’s room. She remembers hearing the crickets outside and yawning as she padded across the floor to his bedside. Then she tells how he grabbed her and roughly tore her clothes off.

She doesn’t look up as she continues her story. She works away at the nail polish on her hands and says, “Koat tva bhap.” He was bad to me.

This was Ng’s nightmare. And it continued for weeks that turned to months and months that turned to years. Then after six years, she made good her escape.

The path Ng took to freedom was neither straight nor easy.

Someone at the old man’s house where she was a slave told her that her mother had moved. Desperate, she escaped into the jungle with only the clothes on her back.

Ng met up with an older woman who took her in and fed her. The woman knew her mother; and Ng’s hopes soared with thoughts of a reunion, but that dream was quickly dashed when the woman said that her mother had met another man and had moved away. The woman did not know where. Ng was just thirteen-years-old and all alone in the world.

After staying at the woman’s house a few days, Ng left. She didn’t want to be a burden to her, so she slept in the jungle, ate food from people’s trash and begged for money. People spurned her.

Once two young men grabbed her from behind and pushed her behind a house and raped her. With a heavy sigh, she says, “After they were done, I ran to a policeman. He thought I was just a beggar and scolded me. But then he noticed that my pants were ripped and bloody.” She was taken to an emergency shelter and transferred to Phnom Penh and was eventually brought to Rapha House.

When asked about what life at Rapha House has been like, Ng replies, “La ah.” Good.

She arrived malnourished, and her skin was darkened from constant exposure to the sun. The staff says that she was extremely difficult and would fall into long periods of deep depression.

But then something changed in Ng. She started making friends with the other girls there. She started going to school for the first time in her life and began learning to read and write both Khmer and English. Ng has started to trust again. She even has hopes for the future.

Ng has a long road ahead of her. But now, she is safe. And since Ng has no family other than us, we’re going to walk with her on the road to lasting freedom.

some things cost more than you realize

2009-08-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

From UTalkMartketing.com:

The Killers release video to highlight human trafficking issue

The Killers have partnered with UNICEF and USAID to produce a disturbing music video that dramatically highlights the dangers and impact of trafficking for sexual exploitation, particularly for young women.

The video, for the band’s track ‘Goodnight, Travel Well’ from the album ‘Day & Age’ has been created in collaboration, MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) and follows a similar collaboration between the broadcaster and Radiohead.

"We are deeply shocked and appalled that women and children are forced into such exploitative situations. We hope that through MTV's efforts and this powerful video that millions of people across the world learn about this tragic form of modern-day slavery,” said The Killers.

The Killers are bringing critical human trafficking messages to a global audience, said Olivier Carduner, USAID’s Regional Mission Director for Asia.

It provides insight into the realities of trafficking, in particular the trafficking of children and adolescents into forced prostitution, and provides a link to information about how people can help to end exploitation and trafficking. (emphasis mine)

Catch it by watching it below.

a lesson in contrasts

2009-08-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

think about this little boy the next time you put your shoes on in the morning. do you know where or how your shoes are being made?

#9,000 people give $9.00 on 09~09~09

2009-08-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

This post is from Diana Scimone. She is "a journalist who has reported extensively on issues of human rights and religious rights around the world." ~ from her blog

She is doing this really really cool thing on 09~09~09. She is gathering #9,000 people who will each give $9.00 to stop child trafficking. Here is what she is doing in her words:

What's the best way to stop child trafficking?

Make sure kids don't get trafficked in the first place.

What if we could warn children and their parents ahead of time? What if we could teach them about the lies traffickers use--and how to stand up against them?

The rate of trafficking would drop and millions of kids would never be trafficked.

That's the goal of The Born2Fly Project--educating kids and their parents about the dangers of trafficking through a strategic global campaign of books and printed materials.

On 9/9/09 we'll host a 1-day fundraiser to raise money for B2F: 9,000 people each giving $9 on 9/9/09 to stop child trafficking.

Will you join her to help "Kim? She is 8 years old. Tonight she'll be bought for sex ~ perhaps 20 times before the sun comes up."

2009-08-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

a new blog...a place where i can share my thoughts and my feelings about the journey that i feel God is taking me on. this blog is a place for me to share things about me. if you want to join me on this journey of rescuing the world, one person at a time. welcome. others, you can still see the bug here.

in the meantime spend sometime with this video....

rescuing the world, one person at a time

cambodia!

vomit and then doing something

Atlanta Child Prostituion {Human Trafficking}

two little girls

Processing

Not forgotten

its time!!

my life

meeting andrew young!

open letter to Martin Luther King

An Open Letter of Apology to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

haiti and humantraffiking

a special hatred

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

please give!

my church ROCKS!

What this video and GET INVOLVED!

concert for a cause!

thankgiving?

7 Reasons Corporate Slave-Holders Are Giving Thanks

former human trafficking slave talks about her horrors

Former sex trade prisoner talks about the horrors of human trafficking

15 men lined up to have sex with 14 yr old girl

where does your stuff come from?

unread articles

what can you do to help end slavery?

“I’m just a student. What can *I* do to end slavery?

We want to connect you and your passions to the movement to end slavery.

info@notforsaletn.org

serving opportunity to help trafficking victims

thought for today

thought for today

thought for today

breast cancer 3 day walk

welcome ragamuffins!

Redeemed

NEXT TUESDAY!!

how cool is this?

atlanta

playground

The Human Cost of Chocolate

Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child labor, little progress has been made.

labor day

why atlanta is a prime place for trafficking

it does happen here

Restaurant in Woodstock

busted for running sex ring.

you need to know this information

3 Americans Face Child-Sex Charges

Men Arrested in Cambodia Are the First Prosecuted Under Trafficking Initiative (yeah yeah yeah i know its cambodia and not the usa but this is happening here too and these men are from california!!! ~ me)

10 facts about Modern Slavery

Ths story of Sophea

How are victims recruited or entrapped?

Who are the victims?

local opportunity to reach out to trafficking victims

The Story of Ng

some things cost more than you realize

a lesson in contrasts

#9,000 people give $9.00 on 09~09~09

“I’m just a student. What can I do to end slavery?