Not Today – The Movie, 2012

 

“Caden Welles has the world at his disposal. With the resources of his wealthy father, he’s living life as large as any 20-year-old could dream. But what happens when that dream becomes a nightmare halfway around the world?

Traveling with his friends to Hyderabad, India on a whim, Caden’s expectations of a never-ending party crash hard. But not as hard as his conscience when he refuses to help a starving man and his little girl. Haunted by the images of Kiran and Annika, Caden attempts to right his wrong—only to discover Kiran has been forced to sell his own daughter.”

• Read more at Not Today – The Movie
• See full list of movies on slavery and human trafficking

Truckers Against Trafficking – Human Trafficking Training Video

Truckers Against Trafficking has created a human trafficking training video to educate the trucking industry about the enormous problem of sex trafficking and labor trafficking here in the United States.

Truckers Against Trafficking (28:11) from iEmpathize on Vimeo.

Because human trafficking becomes a costly, dangerous and relevant safety issue when it intersects with truckers and travel plaza employees, we hope trucking companies, travel plazas, truck-driving schools, state associations and national trucking associations will consider making this DVD a part of their orientation and training for all employees,” said Kendis Paris, national director for Truckers Against Trafficking.

Visit Truckers Against Trafficking for more information aobut the video, or to order a copy on DVD.

The Child Next Door – St Ambrose Hosts Human Trafficking Conference November 15th

St. Ambrose to Host The Child Next Door: Quad-City Human Trafficking Conference November 15th Event to feature former victims, startling details about the world’s fastest-growing crime.   CEU credits available.

When Tina Frundt was 14-years-old she accepted a ride from an older man who had befriended her.  She was taken from her home in Chicago to Cleveland, OH, where she was forced into sex slavery.  Today Frundt, now an adult, runs Courtney’s House, a Washington DC shelter for women who are escaping sex trafficking. Frundt will be among the presenters at The Child Next Door Quad-Cities Human Trafficking Conference, Thursday, November 15th 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at St. Ambrose University’s Rogalski Center in Davenport, IA.  Frundt’s story of survival from a brutal life as a sex slave is a shocking example of what the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Rescue and Restore campaign calls the “fastest growing criminal activity in the world.”  Cathy O’Keeffe, Executive Director of Braking Traffik, one of eleven groups organizing the conference hopes the event will help open many eyes. “Many don’t yet realize the problem of sex trafficking has reached our backyards.  It’s a very real threat to American children, not just in major cities.”

The Child Next Door QC Human Trafficking Conference is seeking to promote networking and dialogue on this emerging threat.  Parents, members of law enforcement, social services and healthcare workers, legal personnel and clergy are among those encouraged to attend.  Organizers are seeking to promote greater awareness about the markers for human trafficking, while exploring barriers to effective interventions and discussing solutions to helping victims escape a life of bondage, brutality, destruction and death.   This conference has been approved for continuing education credits for nurses and other health care professionals, social workers, IOVA-­CP Certified Providers as well as qualifying for 1.5 CLE credits for attorneys (including ethics hours).  To register for The Child Next Door Conference, or learn more, go to http://www.brakingtraffik.org.   Space is limited to 250 attendees.  A free kick-off event will be held Wednesday, November 14th from 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at John Deere Planetarium on the campus of Augustana College.  The kick-off event is open to the public and requires no registration.

Also presenting at The Child Next Door Human Trafficking Conference, Ruth Buckels, adoptive mother of Brittany Phillips, who was lured from a Cedar Rapids grocery store at the age of 14 by a man offering a modeling opportunity.   She was marketed for sex on a popular online website, before it shut down its adult services section.  Online escort sites remain a major pipeline for sex traffickers.  One survey conducted by Braking Traffik this fall found 19 different females tracked to the same phone number, a possible indicator that they were being trafficked.  Several of the posts included known indicators or ‘code words’ that some of the females were being marketed as minors.  Recent FBI stings in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, IA netted scores of adults and one 16-year-old girl forced to sell sex for money.  This past September, three adults were arrested in Iowa City under suspicion of trafficking three minors.

The Child Next Door QC Human Trafficking Conference is being presented by a coalition of Quad-Cities organizations that include Braking Traffik (formerly the Quad-Cities Human Trafficking Project), Attacking Trafficking, The Catholic Diocese of Davenport, Community Partnerships for Protecting Children, Scott County Kids, Family Resources, Iowa State Patrol, Child Abuse Council, CASA, Building Forever Families, The Place2b Youth Center, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church Jubilee Ministry, the Christian Church Disciples Women’s Ministry and Augustana College.

To register for The Child Next Door Conference, or learn more, go to http://www.brakingtraffik.org.

Fair Trade Your October with Global Exchange

Global Exchange has 31 creative ideas to celebrate a Fair Trade October.

Here are a couple I like:

• Find out which stores in your neighborhood sell fair trade chocolate and buy your Halloween candy there.
• Host a screening of the Dark Side of Chocolate… they even include a tool kit with everything you need
• Check out the rest of the Fair Trade October ideas

Buying Fair Trade items helps prevent slavery by supporting sustainable markets for vulnerable people in developing economies.  It also helps fight slavery by sending a message to companies that don’t support Fair Trade, giving them a business incentive to support sustainable markets.

When I buy chocolate and other candy from Hershey, MARS, and Nestle today, those companies can’t assure me that my products weren’t grown, harvested, distributed, and even manufactured by slaves and child labor.  I used to love M&M’s, but they don’t taste as good to me when I picture a slave picking the cocoa for CEO Paul Michaels at Mars.

I’m glad to hear that Hershey has responded to pressure from the Raise the Bar Hershey campaign, and announced that they are committing to be 100% Fair Trade by 2020.  While that’s better than NOT committing to becoming Fair Trade at all, it’s still 7 years away.  I guess if Hershey is asking the farmers and laborers to wait 7 years for Fair Trade practices, then Hershey can wait 7 years for me to buy their products.  In the meantime, I’m keeping an eye on Nestle and Mars to follow suit, and I’ll keep buying chocolate and coffee that are Fair Trade now.

What is your reaction?  How do you decide which candy, costume, or products to buy for Halloween? Click here to leave a comment, or click on the bubble next to the title of the post.

Trade of Innocents – a new movie with Mira Sorvino, Dermot Mulroney. Justice Needs a Hero

Mira Sorvino and Dermot Mulroney star in a new film about children in sex slavery and the complications of real people fighting an overwhelming crime.

• find a screening
• view a trailer
• resources for groups
• from the movie press kit

In the back streets of a tourist town in present-day Southeast Asia, we find a filthy cinder block room; a bed with soiled sheets; a little girl waits for the next man to use her.  Alex, a human trafficking investigator plays the role of her next customer as he negotiates with the pimp for the use of the child.
Claire, Alex’s wife, is caught up in the flow of her new life in Southeast Asia and her role as a volunteer in an aftercare shelter for rescued girls.  She, and Alex both still are dealing with their grief of losing a child years earlier.  As both of them struggle in their own way to overcome the pain of their past and realities of child exploitation where they now live and work, they find themselves being pulled together in to the lives of local neighborhood girls, whose freedom and dignity are threatened.  Parallel story lines intertwine and twists unfold against the backdrop of the dangerous human trafficking world, in a story of struggle, life hope and redemption in the “Trade of Innocents.”

• Find other movies on slavery / human trafficking

Buy Art Not Kids, An ECPAT-USA Benefit Auction, NYC, October 22nd, 2012

Buy Art Not Kids

An ECPAT-USA Benefit Auction

Monday, October 22nd, 2012 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
at the Salmagundi Club
47 5th Avenue, Manhattan, NY

“The silent auction will feature works from renowned artists Pieter Hugo, Yoshiaki Mochizuki, Joel Shapiro and many others. The docket will also highlight works from survivors of sexual exploitation. Luxury items will be available for bid as well. Come and enjoy a complimentary assortment of delicious wine and cheese.”

Go to Buy Art Not Kids for more information about online bidding and buying tickets to the event.

Missed Half the Sky on PBS October 1-2? Don’t Worry, There’s a DVD

I stumbled across Half the Sky on PBS on October 1st, and I was enthralled. Half the Sky author Nicholas Kristoff treks around the world educating us about efforts to fight slavery (aka human trafficking). He went to Sierra Leone with Eva Mendes, Cambodia with Meg Ryan (hosted by the courageous and inspiring Somaly Mam), Vietnam with Gabrielle Union, and more. It was such a eye-opening experience to these famous women, who took time from their busy schedules to touch and listen to precious girls who’ve had their innocence stolen.

If you missed Half the Sky on PBS, you can stil order a DVD to watch it on your own.

Not For Sale 2012 Global Forum: “Justice for the Bottom Billion” – Are you going?

Not for Sale is hosting the 2012 Global Forum, “Justice for the Bottom Billion”, November 1&2 in Silicon Valley.

Featured Speakers:

• Jeremy Affeldt – Pitcher, San Francisco Giants
•  Leila Janah – Founder, Samasource
•  Sarah Ferguson – Duchess of York
•  Nancy Duarte – Founder & CEO, Duarte Inc.
•  Francis Chan – Pastor and Best-Selling Author
•  Jaida Im – Founder and Executive Director, Freedom House

The Global Forum is more than a conference. It is a personal, face to face gathering that will leave you inspired, equipped, and more plugged in as an abolitionist than ever before. You’ll hear what is going on in the movement to end slavery, recent developments and new strategies to fight human trafficking, as well as intimate break-out sessions from some of the leading abolitionists around the world.

Register or find out more information at Not For Sale Global Forum

Jewelry from Made By Survivors

Check out Made By Survivors and shop for beautiful jewelry that was handmade by survivors of poverty, abuse, and human trafficking.

http://www.madebysurvivors.com/handmade-jewelry

Supporting women who are working to rebuild their lives after oppression and hardship fits in the bigger strategy of how to turn the tide against slavery

1. Reduce Supply – Sustainable economic development to help prevent people in poverty from becoming victims of slavery (or become victims again)
2. Reduce Demand – Responsible, knowledgeable consumers who reduce demand for slave labor by insisting on transparent, verifiably free-labor supply chains (shop carefully, knowledgeably, and compassionately for things like gold, chocolate, fruit and vegetables, cotton, high tech minerals, low cost consumer goods, rugs, clothing, etc)
3. Reduce Demand – Men not buying women and children for sex (train young men not to treat women and children that way, and enforce laws against men who do)
4. Reduce Supply – investigate and prosecute people who exploit and enslave others
5. Reduce Supply – rescue and rehabilitate slaves in every country (child soldiers, slave brick makers, enslaved sex workers, debt bondage victims, tomato pickers, cotton farmers, children maimed for the purpose of begging, slave brides, and so on)
6. Reduce Supply & Demand – end regional conflicts in places like Congo and Mali which increase the demand for human trafficking because the armed forces enslave child soldiers and require criminal networks to traffic victims as a source of funds for weapons and supplies, but also increase supply because of displaced people and communities, destroyed natural resources and infrastructure which removes people’s source of income. And the conflicts themselves are a result of the forces that lead to human trafficking in many cases. For instance, in Congo, much of the struggle is for control of mineral resources that are used in our Western high tech consumer goods, such as smart phones and computers. When we buy electronics at the local warehouse store, we may be fueling a war on the other side of the world which is contributing to the supply and demand for slave labor. And that’s in addition to the fact that the electronics themselves may involve slave labor in their manufacture.

Not to mention governments passing and enforcing anti-slavery laws, people reading books and watching movies to educate themselve and others, researching human trafficking solutions, fighting international criminal networks that traffic people, and being alert to human trafficking in our own communities.

Slavery and human trafficking are not going away any time soon, but this generation can at least turn the tide, and attempt to hand the next generation a world that is more slavery free than today. Supporting groups like Made By Survivors is one good way to support the fight.

National Day of Johns Arrest – Did your city participate?

In August, many cities’ and counties’ law enforcement agencies participated in a National Day of Johns Arrest.  It’s a start at a coordinated effort to tell men, “don’t buy women for sex.” People debate about whether prostitution should be legal, but evidence increasingly shows that legitimizing prostitution makes sex slavery worse, not better.  Here’s my conclusion… legal prostitution creates an incentive to supply cheap prostitutes, and human traffickers are willing and able to provide.  In places where prostitution is illegal, arresting the prostitutes and pimps has little effect and further victimizes the women, many of them underage.  On the other hand, Sweden has shown that when they focus on making buying prostitution illegal, and direct their law enforcement efforts at the buyers of sex, the incidence of prostitution goes down, and so does human trafficking.

Imagine for a moment if there were zero customers for commercial sex.  There would be no prostitution, and therefore no sex trafficking.  Of course, there will never be zero customers, but you get the idea.  Reduce demand, and you’ll reduce the market for sex slaves.  Yes, we need to continue to rescue and rehabilitate sex trafficking victims.  But we also need to focus preventative efforts on reducing demand.  One way is to educate men and boys that it’s unacceptable to buy women for sex.  An additional step is to focus law enforcement efforts at arresting prostitution customers.  There should no longer be a “boys will be boys” attitude about prostitution, because that response ignores the victims — the girls and women who are too often coerced into providing sex to the “boys.”

Fortunately, US law enforcement is slowly starting to turn attention away from the prostitutes/victims, and realize that the problem won’t go away until customers stop buying.  Those are my opinions based on the reading I’ve done.  Please leave a comment with your thoughts. Find out if your city/county participated. Urge law enforcement in your community to focus their vice resources on fighting demand.

You can read more at Demand Abolition

http://www.demandabolition.org/how-we-work/national-day-of-johns-arrests/

Or view a press release, also at Demand Abolition

http://www.demandabolition.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/OperationBuyerBeware.pdf

For more research, check out the book The Johns by Victor Malarek on the Non-fiction books page.