Interview with Maya Worman on Our Border

The Department of Homeland Security recently launched a new social networking site called Our Border. Maya Worman of DHS kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the site.

What is Our Border?

Our Border, http://www.ourborder.ning.com, is a social network maintained by the Dept. of Homeland Security that promotes direct communication and collaboration among its members by highlighting issues, ideas, and events relating to the Department's mission.

What is the goal of Our Border?

It is a meeting place for those interested in following issues, as well as those that are already active leaders in the issues discussed on Our Border. Members of Our Border can initiate or strengthen relationships within the issue areas of their choosing, collaborate with partners thousands of miles away, raise overall awareness and generate support for local efforts and events. The goal is simple: come to Our Border--talk about what you are working on, learn from your new partners, and share what works.

Who contributes to the site?

The membership is growing by word of mouth and direct invitations from content facilitators and current members to an international network of individuals, academic professionals, local and regional officials, decision leaders, emerging advocates and municipal governments--any person interested in preventing, interrupting or stopping human trafficking, or interested in learning the facts about the issue--is welcome to join.

What is your role in relation to Our Border?

I am a member of a group of DHS employees looking to develop and expand how the Department communicates with the public--through the utilization of social networks, face-to-face community meetings, and the information we make available on our main web site, www.dhs.gov. The federal government is committed to providing direct lines of communication about issues that affect us all, especially when resolutions require community engagement. Our Border is one of those direct lines.

How does Our Border relate to human trafficking?

Our Border is the host for the human trafficking group. By including human trafficking outreach and coalition building in Our Border, growing networks focused on advocacy in other areas--bi-lateral cooperation, commerce, travel and trade facilitation, etc.--have access to information and discussions about human trafficking that they may not have direct exposure to otherwise.

How can people get involved/can it be used to help fight human trafficking?

Joining the site is the first step. Join Our Border and then join the Human Trafficking group within Our Border. Encourage your friends to do the same to stay updated on what is happening in the realm of human trafficking. Advocates can use the site as an additional way to communicate, promote events, grow awareness, or share ideas. The site can be used as a repository for what is happening at the community level, and as a way to build coalitions with individuals, groups and federal law enforcement partners.

What tools are available on the site?

The site is similar to other social networking applications. The content is populated and utilized by the resourcefulness of its members. Discussion forums, picture and video sharing, direct communication, document storage, etc. are a few of the standard site tools.

What do you hope the site will accomplish?

We hope the site will be a valuable resource for its members. We hope that members will log on to find out what is happening in communities like their own, learning best practices or new ideas for combating a colossal problem. We hope that advocates will utilize this tool to connect with the public and explore the partnerships that Our Border has facilitated. We hope that students and emerging advocates find authoritative facts to share with their friends, schools, community groups, and that soon people on the street aren't surprised to learn about the millions of adults and children, at any given time, held against their will in forced labor and sexual servitude.

"Be the Change" on Gandhi's Birthday

Here's a great chance to "be the change you wish to see in the world": the Kids with Cameras Foundation is looking for volunteers to host "House Parties for Hope" on October 2 - Gandhi's 140th birthday. Kids with Cameras is the foundation that grew out of the award-winning documentary Born into Brothels, which follows the lives of several children of prostitutes in Calcutta's red-light district who are given video cameras and taught how to use them. Through a partnership with the Buntain Foundation, Kids with Cameras is now working to build "Hope House," which is a "landmark endeavor to house up to 100 girls who are daughters of prostitutes from the same red-light district featured in the film. Hope House will give them access to on-site physical and psychological care, as well as formal mentorship from nursing students from an adjacent College of Nursing, all on a quiet, rustic campus on the city's outskirts. Each girl will have a full scholarship for private school education through high school, as well as access to computer labs, English language instruction and art, film and photography classes."

To complete the project, Hope House needs to raise the remaining $690,000 of its $1.2 million goal--and that's where you can help, by joining others from all over the world in hosting or attending a screening of Born into Brothels at a House Party for Hope. All proceeds from the house parties will go directly to Hope House's Capital Campaign.

Says Ross Kauffman, co-director and producer of Born into Brothels: "I hope all of the film's fans and our past supporters will join us in this unprecedented effort to raise the completion funds to build Hope House. It was a dream of ours as we made the film to have a place for these children to learn and grow. The dream is close to becoming a reality. There is no better way for anyone that watches the film and falls in love with these kids, just as we did, to make a difference in their future."

To learn more about hosting or attending a House Party for Hope, please visit http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/. For more information on Hope House, visit http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/school.

Global Online Competition to End Human Slavery

From Ashoka's Changemakers:

Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes Leading the Way

Join Humanity United and Ashoka's Changemakers in a global online competition to identify innovative approaches to exposing, confronting and ending modern-day slavery.

We believe in the value of human dignity. At Humanity United, we recognize that the most powerful solutions spring from building coalitions of dedicated individuals, which is why we have joined with Ashoka, a leading innovator for social change, to launch "Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes Leading the Way".

Since its inception, Humanity United has invested in the power of ideas and individuals, bringing together the best in research, policy, and public pressure to activate local and global solutions to modern-day slavery. We are now proud to partner with Ashoka and use its unique Changemakers platform to cast a wider net in the community of innovators.

Ashoka is a non-profit support network for social entrepreneurs – people around the world who develop innovative solutions to the social problems that most urgently demand them. To further this goal, Ashoka’s Changemakers.net website provides an online, interactive forum that encourages collaboration and discussion, along with competition, to draw out the most effective ideas.

Humanity United and Changemakers are launching a global online competition to identify innovative approaches to exposing, confronting and ending modern-day slavery. We hope you will join us. Between April 2nd and July 14th, 2008, we invite you to propose ways to end this worldwide crisis and create a universal standard of human dignity.

You don't need to submit a proposal to join the dialogue. Visit the online Changemakers community to make suggestions and recommend resources that will help refine and strengthen the strategies presented by competition entrants. Tell us what surprises you, how you view the field, and where you imagine the challenges and opportunities lie.

We’ll need your input again in July 2008 to vote for three winners from the 12 finalists who will be selected by our panel of judges – a group of influential leaders in the field of solutions to modern-day slavery.

With your help, we have the potential to shape holistic solutions to one of the fastest-growing and most obscured social problems in the world. We encourage you to invite others to the competition as well, so together we may make good on our shared responsibility to respect and protect the value of human lives.

Click here for the entry form and the tips for success:

• Read the guidelines and criteria before sharing your innovation; this will help you to define your ideas and work.
• Be as detailed as possible in explaining your innovation.
• Add videos and documents to your blueprint at the bottom of the page. Bring your story to life!
• Invite your network to provide feedback on your blueprint and then revise and refine your blueprint with the feedback you receive.
• Remember that the Changemaker's unique open source format makes your blueprint viewable online by the entire community and public.

The sooner you share your innovation the more exposure and insight you gain through the community!

Don't Believe the Hype?

Social Networking Sites Used for Human Trafficking



A friend pointed out to me:

This article seemed really fishy to me, so i looked into the publication. It turns out the Edmonton Sun is a tabloid, a pretty typical (i.e., trashy) one as far as I can tell except that it also has a blatantly conservative/reactionary ideological bias. I'd be skeptical of anything this paper publishes. In the case of this article, furthermore, the portrayal of online networking sites as dangerous breeding grounds for criminal perversion might as well have come out of Bill O'Reilly.

*Thanks Noah, now read on with a grain of salt...

From the Edmonton Sun:

City cops are investigating two suspected human-trafficking rings believed to be part of an international network that enslaves hundreds of young Albertans each year, many of whom are forced into the sex trade in Las Vegas.

Staff Sgt. Kevin Galvin, head of the Edmonton police organized crime and gang units, said because the investigations are still underway, he wouldn’t give specific details.

He said that while human-trafficking “criminal enterprises” have operated in Western Canada for at least 20 years – and for decades longer in central Canada – they’re more sophisticated than ever before.

They do most of their recruiting on social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace, choosing naïve or vulnerable victims for “grooming” who are right around 18 years old in order to avoid detection by authorities looking for predators after underage kids.

Asked how many young Albertans are caught up in this web each year, Galvin replied simply, “hundreds.” Most are women, he said, but young men are also targets. Galvin said that typically, a man will develop an online relationship with the victim, selling himself as a glamorous high roller.

Once he’s begun to reel in the victim, he makes a date to meet her. A whirlwind romance follows. “She gets the red carpet treatment,” Galvin explained, “Limos, expensive restaurants, VIP rooms at night clubs.

Everything mirrors the pop culture ideal of good times. These guys can read the girls really well. She thinks he’s her boyfriend.” After four or five dizzyingly spectacular dates, the predator will invite her to a private party...

Read the full article

The Feast Returns

ALL DAY BUFFET

Before I left for the Philippines I helped start All Day Buffet, an organization dedicated to connecting young adults to important humanitarian issues throughout the world.

It's a simple idea: Inspire Action. Change the world. Have Fun.

I'm happy to announce we're back and better than ever! We have a new website and a growing community in the Big Easy. And now we are starting a series of happy hours called 'Cause for Drinks.'

Come join us next Wednesday, Aug. 22nd, for our very first one at Gallery Bar in NYC and LePhare in New Orleans. $2 from every drink purchased will go towards school supplies for kids in under-resourced schools in NYC and helping to educate veteran child soldiers in Ghana.

When:
Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Where:
(NYC) Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard Street (Between Delancy & Rivington) - Map

(NO) Le Phare, 523 Gravier - Map

Being in the Philippines I am unable to attend, but I will be there in spirit.

Hats off to those who organized this event and have various surprises and treats in the pipeline. Although I'm on the other side of the world I'm overjoyed to see your hard work come to fruition- congratulations and thank you for keeping the idea alive!

Cheers!