Free the Slaves: Zimmerman Fellowship

Each year Free the Slaves recognizes various individuals and organizations who have made major contributions to the international anti-slavery movement by naming them Freedom Award recipients. Among those Freedom Awards is the Anne Templeton Zimmerman Fellowship, named for the anti-slavery pioneer and founder of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

The Zimmerman Fellowship is awarded to one or two young adults under the age of 30 who have made concrete progress in ending slavery in the United States and especially abroad. The general purpose of the fellowship is to build up young leaders in the field and introduce them to the work of Free the Slaves. In addition, the fellows partner with Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy where they obtain a certificate in Non-Profit Executive Leadership.

Betsy Bramon, a 2007 graduate of William Jewell College, was one of the 2009 Zimmerman Fellows. Bramon has exemplified what it means to be a modern day abolitionist through her work with numerous organizations like Hagar International and Polaris Project. However, her year with Free the Slaves provided her with an opportunity to explore more of where her talents and passions may lead her in the future. During her fellowship, she worked closely with FTS’ international partnership teams that are successfully combating slavery and trafficking at the local levels. FTS partners with these smaller organizations to help them become even more effective leaders in their areas.

In addition, through the educational experience at Georgetown University, Bramon learned about not only leadership development but also the practical business side of the anti-trafficking field like human relations, finance, policy and research.

Overall, Bramon found her time as a Zimmerman Fellow to be rich and worthwhile. She said, “I was able to see into a different part of the anti-slavery movement, connect with other organizations who share similar values and goals, and grow both professionally and personally."

The Zimmerman Fellowship for 2010 has been selected; however, if you are interested in interning or volunteering with Free the Slaves you can follow this link: http://www.freetheslaves.net/Page.aspx?pid=307

The Slave Across the Street

When people in the US think of sex slavery and sex trafficking, the first image is likely to be of a young woman in another country, perhaps in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. Even people who are aware of trafficking in the US are most likely to picture a sex trafficking victim as someone who matches the traditional signs of being "at risk": a runaway, someone who was abused at home, or someone from an impoverished background. Theresa Flores defies all of these stereotypes.

In The Slave Across the Street, Flores' new book published to coincide with National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day, she recounts her experiences of sex slavery as a teenager living in suburbia in the Midwest. Flores came from an affluent background that valued education and hard work. Her family moved around frequently to allow her father to advance in his career. Because of the frequent moves, Flores lacked a strong support network when her family moved to Michigan.

When she was 16, she was sexually assaulted by a classmate. The assault was an initiation into the world of sex trafficking. For nearly two years, Flores' classmates used threats and violence to control her as a sex slave. Though she had friends, a long distance boyfriend, and continued to attend school and extracurricular activities, no one ever noticed the red flags or changes in her behavior. Eventually, her family moved, which helped her to escape the situation. Truly, though, it was her own incredible strength that allowed her to survive. In her book, she notes that physically leaving the situation was only one small piece on her journey to healing and true escape.

Flores went on to attend college, and is now a licensed social worker with a master's degree in counseling education. Flores recently founded Gracehaven House, a group home for girls under the age of 18 who are victims and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. In addition to recounting her experiences, The Slave Across the Street also includes information about domestic minor sex trafficking/commercial sexual exploitation of children (DMST/CSEC), and information for parents, educators, and others who work with youth on recognizing sex trafficking and working to prevent slavery and support victims.

I first met Flores at an anti-trafficking conference in Missouri two years ago. I remain completely awed and inspired by her and her work. As a survivor, Flores has dedicated her life to helping other survivors through sharing her story, raising awareness, challenging stereotypes and complacency, and providing direct support to other survivors. I recently spoke with her about her new book and her perspective on sex trafficking and the anti-trafficking movement.

When I asked her about what needs to be done to ending sex trafficking, particularly CSEC, Flores stated that she believes that US laws are inadequate and misdirected. She pointed out that people who buy sex are not penalized, while prostitutes face arrest, even if the commercial sex involved a minor or someone who was coerced. She would advocate for a model like Sweden's, where the purchase of sex is illegal, thus targeting the demand side of commercial sex.

Flores also noted the extreme need for increased services for survivors, pointing out that there are only 39 beds in the country for DMST/CSEC survivors, though the FBI estimates that 100,000 American children are victims each year and 300,000 are at risk. According to Flores, people wishing to support survivors should advocate for increased services as well as increased awareness. One of the challenges she has faced in telling her story has been the victim-blaming attitudes and comments she has encountered from people. She argues that challenging victim blaming as well as cultural attitudes that glamorize pimps are vital for supporting survivors.

I also asked her about who motivates her to stay involved in anti-trafficking work and what keeps her going despite these challenges. She said, "I do this to save girls who are going through [what I went through]. I want to give hope to other survivors. You can heal from this, there's another life out there. I tell survivors 'that part of your life, when you went through that, is one small part of you, it's not who you are, it's not all of you.' I survived because I was bound and determined to not let them win the rest of my life. I was going to take over my life from that moment on so that they couldn't win."

Flores said that if there is one thing that people take away from her book, she hopes it is that sex trafficking can happen to anyone, and it is happening in the US. As we commemorate National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day, I hope that her message of awareness, strength, and hope reaches survivors and advocates so that we can end slavery and exploitation.

CNN's Amanpour's Feature on Sex Trafficking Aired Sunday

On Sunday, Christiane Amanpour conducted a show on sex trafficking in India on CNN. Amanpour interviewed Taina Bien-Aime, Executive Director of Equality Now and Ruchira Gupta, filmmaker and activist.

At one point in the show, Amanpour featured a scene from Gupta's movie "Selling of Innocents." After the clip, Amanpour asked Gupta about the scene:

AMANPOUR: That was a scene filmed in Nepal in the startling documentary, "Selling of Innocents." It shows that the problem of human trafficking extends across borders... Let me ask you, Ruchira, you were posing as a trafficker in that scene.

RUCHIRA GUPTA: That's right. I wanted to show how easy it was and how anyone could go into a village in Nepal or India and look around to buy a girl, and somebody would show up to sell the girl, and the girl had no idea about her rights, and for as little as $50 could buy her and do whatever they wanted with her.

AMANPOUR: And it was making that film that turned you into an activist for these -- against this -- this situation? GUPTA: It was a life-changing experience for me, because as a journalist I'd covered war, famine, conflict, hunger, but I had never seen the deliberate exploitation of one human being by another as I saw in a brothel in Bombay, when I walked into a little room which was four-by-four and saw the 10-year-old and the 12-year-olds sitting on the bed.

AMANPOUR: Ten and twelve?

GUPTA: Yes, and 10 or 15 customers a night...

AMANPOUR: Ten or fifteen customers for 10-year-old girls?

GUPTA: Raped repeatedly every night.

AMANPOUR: How many girls and women does this affect?

GUPTA: According to the government of India, just recently in May, they said 1.3 million children are sold into prostitution in India right now. And there are 1.3 million prostituted children in our country right this second.

Although the video of the full show is not yet available, you can find the transcript of the show here.

Interview Michelle Simonsen -- U.S. Domestic Trafficking

"Most families are told by law enforcement that their child is a “runaway” and do nothing to follow up on the missing person case or with the families themselves."-- Michelle Simonsen

While googling "domestic trafficking incidents in the U.S." the first article on google that caught my eyes was "Sex Trafficking--It Happens in America, Too" by Michelle Simonsen. After visiting her blog, Michelle Says So, I realized that she will be a vital source in raising the awareness on the issue of the domestic trafficking in the U.S. As an investigator of the U.S. crime, she offered me the information available to someone who actually witnessed human trafficking in the U.S. in a very tangible sense. I personally found her interview very informative despite the research that I have conducted on domestic trafficking prior to the interview. Lastly, I am grateful for her candor, courage, and passion for the justice that breezed through her responses.

YK: Tell me a little about yourself and your blog.

MS: I went to law school for a year with dreams of becoming a prosecutor in sex crimes. I am a victim of rape I wanted to help others by putting sex offenders away. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford the enormous tuition, so I only completed the first year and then worked in the legal field for 10 years. Since I’ve always been a writer, in 2005 I decided to start a true crime blog and named it “Michelle Says So” because of my notorious opinionated and passionate attitude. I focus on issues such as missing persons, sex offenders, women’s issues and other crime controversies. Soon after I started my blog, I began following the Natalee Holloway case. I felt connected with her personally due to the fact she was sexually assaulted and hadn’t received any justice for her assault and murder. After Beth Holloway declared a boycott against Aruba in November, 2005, I personally connected with her and I started a consumer grassroots boycott movement against the island of Aruba due to the cover-up of Natalee’s murder and the multiple conspiracies in order to protect their tourism.

YK: What inspired you to write an article about human trafficking in the U.S? How did you first learn about it?

MS: I was inspired to write about human/sex trafficking after studying the case of Amy Bradley, who was abducted off a cruise ship in 1998 and has been seen throughout the Caribbean as a sex slave by at least four individuals. In fact, all these witnesses contacted the FBI, only to be ignored. I was instantly shocked by this “invisible” and rarely prosecuted crime. Generally speaking, we are naïve citizens and I chose to get involved in order to educate others about these heinous offenses against our women and children. My audience is for everyone. Women, men, mothers, fathers, boys and girls. Education is the key to freedom and change.

YK: Many Americans think that human trafficking happens only in countries like Thailand or Eastern Europe. In an effort of raising the awareness, what would you say to them about trafficking within the U.S.?

MS: U.S. citizens tend to believe human trafficking only happens in other countries. In fact, human trafficking is the one of the most lucrative and increasing crimes our society faces. Some have the opinion that “prostitutes” have chosen this lifestyle. For the majority, this is not the case. Very rarely do the traffickers or pimps get arrested, charged or punished. The women arrested are treated as criminals instead of victims. When the women are released from custody, they go back to their captors due to threats of violence against them and their families. Most have no victim support resources, no one to protect them, and have brainwashed by these manipulative predators. Girls and women who are brought to the U.S. from other countries get their passports taken by the trafficker in order to keep them from escaping. They have nowhere to go, are isolated from the public, and don’t understand their rights or how to seek help.

Traffickers tend to choose young and impressionable girls and women because they know the girls can be easily fooled and tricked, then ultimately controlled through violence, threats and even murder.

Trafficking occurs in every state. You can live out in the country in Montana or Idaho, or you can live in a big city like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. This epidemic does not discriminate locales. Sadly, it’s a matter of supply and demand in which men continually fund this criminal enterprise.

YK: Based on your research / knowledge, what do you think is the biggest cause/problem of the trafficking in the U.S.?

MS: People believe that the police are here to protect us. However, most cases of human trafficking that have been uncovered have been through tips from concerned neighbors and people who detect something suspicious or “just not right”.

YK: How can people support anti-human trafficking in the U.S.?

As I said, education is the key and the best defense is citizen involvement. Many individuals have the mentality that they don’t want “to get involved”. Yet, these are the key people who can cause change and raise awareness to law enforcement and politicians.

There are many loopholes preventing the identification of human trafficking. In some cases business owners, law enforcement, hotel establishments, and even politicians have their hands in this most lucrative illegal operation that nets over 32 billion dollars a year. This makes drug and weapon trafficking look like kids with a lemonade stand.

Other loopholes occur in the justice system itself. Sex trafficking is very hard to prosecute because the women are too afraid to come forward and testify against their captors. Since most states do not have resources to help and protect these young women, it is almost impossible to successfully prosecute those involved.

Unfortunately too many states lack law enforcement training, task forces, research commissions, or victim protection. Polaris Project, which focuses on human/sex trafficking charted each state to determine what laws or programs that are in place.

Polaris Project declared that “U.S. states with no existing law or pending legislation specifically addressing human trafficking are Alabama, Delaware, District of Columbia, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.”

According to the research done by Polaris Project, 24 states have no human trafficking task forces, 30 states do not have human trafficking law enforcement training, and 22 states offer absolutely no victim protection services. (Polaris Project, “U.S. Police Alert on Human Trafficking—Summary of U.S. Policy Activity”, July 2007.

However, this can be easily changed through the old saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the oil”. Politicians need our votes; therefore they need to address our concerns. The only way this can happen is for us as a society to step up, take notice and fight.

People tend to believe, “I’m just one person…what can I do?” If everyone changed that apathetic mindset things can change and lives can be saved and rebuilt. In addition to John Q. Public, trafficking survivors need to speak out and be proactive in order to stop this from happening to others.

YK: Have you received any responses from the audiences? If so, how have they responded to it?

MS: I have received huge and positive responses due to my human/sex trafficking article. I’ve connected with families who have lost their daughters to sex trafficking. They are grateful because the media, law enforcement and politicians don’t take these cases seriously. Most families are told by law enforcement that their child is a “runaway” and do nothing to follow up on the missing person case or with the families themselves.

YK: What did being able to write an article on human trafficking mean to you?

MS: Writing the sex trafficking article was important because I believe this needs to be addressed fully and in the forefront of our society’s problems. I want to educate and offer assistance to as many people as I can. Even though I am only one individual, I believe I can make a difference in someone’s life through my writing and motto of never giving up.