Creating Freedom through Business in Calcutta, India

Dear Friends,

Last night I had the privilege to hear a man by the name of Kerry Hilton, a native New Zealander, who has started a remarkable business called Freeset for victims of sex trafficking in Calcutta, India. As Hilton described it, he had a vision to create a business of freedom to counteract the business of trafficking.

I was both saddened and inspired to hear about the stories of the women and children trapped in slavery in this region. According to Hilton, 10,000 women and children within one mile typically service 20,000 men that visit the area. When Hilton mentioned that many women sell their bodies just to feed their children, tears started to welling in my eyes. I also became emotional when he spoke about a mother that came to him for a job because her daughter, age 11, was severely malnourished from not eating. As Hilton stated, "I thought she was going to die right in front of me."

Despite all of this sadness, Hilton also spoke of the women's amazing resilience, the power of their community, and the self-esteem women have gained through dignified work. To show the power of community, Hilton spoke of how the women have split their wages to help each other out and how they pray every morning for the women and children still entrapped in slavery. He also said that the women feel proud about the products they have created.

After hearing Hilton speak last night, I found myself with a whole different perspective. As I entered my bathroom, I remembered Hilton saying that often times entire families will live in a space the size of a bathroom. As I went to eat dinner, I remembered the story of the 11 year old malnourished girl and felt so grateful for food. As I purchased a soda today, I remember Hilton stating that some women are paid as little as $.50 for their bodies. And.....most importantly, I remembered how lucky I am as a woman to grow up in America and have opportunities to educate myself and to earn a decent living.

I have always felt and still feel that the ONLY difference between these women and myself is just a matter of circumstances. As a woman, I recognize the horrible inequalities that exist around the world and the suffering that many women and children must endure.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and please check out Hilton's site at, http://freesetglobal.com/who-we-are/our-story.html. If you live in the DC area and would like to get more involved in trafficking issues, please check out DC Stop Modern Slavery at http://www.stopmodernslavery.org/. For those of you not in the DC area, I encourage to look up Meetup groups at Meetup.com to see what community groups are doing.

Have a great evening and keep fighting for freedom! Please forward this blog to your friends.

-Shelley

Trafficking Awareness Day

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the late posting on this, but please see the events below for Trafficking Awareness Day this Tuesday, January 11th. Please pass this e-mail along to anyone that might be interested in these events. Remember that action against this horrific injustice starts with each and every one of you!

Best,

Shelley

Tuesday is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day! There are three different events taking place in Washington, DC on this day.

If you enjoy sports please join Polaris Project and the DC Human Trafficking Task Force (DCHTTF) at the Washington Wizards v. Sacramento Kings game at 7:00 p.m. at the Verizon Center! The event will bring attention to human trafficking at a widely publicized sports game. During the game there will be an announcement encouraging the thousands of spectators to visit the DCHTTF information booth in the stadium to get more information on human trafficking.

Where: Verizon Center (601 F St. NW)
When: Tuesday, 1/11/2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Details: Purchase your tickets here. When prompted just enter: WIZARDS

Click here for more details.

If you attended the DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk in October please wear your red shirts from the walk which highlight the DCHTTF and the National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-3737-888). If you weren’t at the walk and do not have a t-shirt please feel free to wear any red shirt to show your solidarity.

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There are also two events organized by Florida International University. First, a Congressional Forum on Human Trafficking, where panelists will discuss the issue. The details are as follows:

Where: Rayburn House Office Building 2200
When: Tuesday, 1/11/2011 at 2:00 p.m.
Details: This event is open to the general public

The second, a theater production of Body & Sold at the Kennedy Center. This is a play performed by students from Florida International University and based on transcripts extracted from interviews conducted by playwright Debora Fortson in which ten young victims of human trafficking share their experiences and journeys of loss, innocence and redemption. If you’re more of a theater enthusiast, please consider joining us for the evening’s performance! The details are as follows:

Where: The Kennedy Center
When: Tuesday 1/11/2011 at 7:30 p.m.
Details: Tickets are $30. Please click here to purchase your tickets now.

We hope that you can make it out to at least one of these events to commemorate National Human Trafficking Awareness Day with us (we’ll have staff and supporters at all three venues).

We look forward to seeing you there!

Johanna Olivas
Program Associate
Public Outreach and Communications

Restavek Children in Haiti

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to highlight the story below of a young girl, about fifteen, who is considered a child slave, otherwise known as a restavek in Haiti. There are an estimated 300,000 restavek children in Haiti. For all intensive purposes, these children are considered property of wealthier families in Haiti. They are made to do all of the housework including taking care of children. Their lives are full of suffering. Few of these children are ever lucky to ever get out from under the grips of slavery and restore their dignity and hope. Please take a moment to read the article below and donate at http://www.restavekfreedom.org or another organization of your choosing.

Thank you and Happy Holidays.

Article Below:

You’d never know it was a school, but tucked down an alley near a pier in the slum of Cite Soleil, is the Waf Jeremie School. It’s about the size of a garage, with Sheet metal walls, tarp for a roof. Inside are about a hundred children, dressed in pink and maroon uniforms. That is where we found Rosaline Durici. She’s fifteen and basically a slave.

15-year-old Rosaline Durici is basically a slave (Photo: Sabri Ben-Achour)

Do you live with your mom and dad? No, she says, she lives with a woman who she calls her aunt, but she’s definitely not her aunt.

How did you get to live with this woman, I ask. Seven or eight years ago – it was a Friday, Durici remembers – this woman came to her home in the countryside. She told Durici’s parents that she didn’t have any children of her own, that she wanted to adopt Rosaline, and promised to send her to school.

Her mother wasn’t totally happy with the idea, she says, and Durici didn’t want to go but her father said she had to, because it would mean she would get a good education.

Where are they now, have you seen your parents since? She doesn’t even know exactly where they live.

Contrary to what Durici’ parents were led to believe, Durici didn’t go to school for 8 years. The woman who “bought” her has four children. Durici is responsible for bathing them, braiding their hair, dressing them, taking them to school. Then she has to do the washing, the cooking, the cleaning – everything there is to do around the house.

The children aren’t nice to her, she says, they don’t respect her. They call her names just like their mother does, insulting Rosaline about her body, telling her she stinks.

Sometimes the woman mistreats her, she says. Beats her, swears at her. Durici only started attending school this year – and only because neighbors started complaining. They told the woman she couldn’t just keep Durici shut up in the house all the time.

Does she ever hug you, I want to know. “Non” Does she do your hair? Yes, when I go to school, she’ll do my hair. But if I’m not going to school, I have to do it myself. I ask her wether she’s mad at your parents? No, she says. They only made me go so I could go to school. They didn’t know how this woman would treat me.

What makes you happy? Nothing, she says. Nothing makes her happy. Because she’s far from her mom and dad. No matter how hard things might be out in the countryside, she believes she would be happy there, because they would be together.

Rosaline Durici’ story is starting to look up a little bit. She’s in school now, she can write her name, her parent’s names. That’s the only unusual part of her story though – that she made it to school at all. Jurvelle Luckner is a pastor who runs the school that Rosaline Durici attends. He says life for some of Haiti’s restaveks has only gotten harder in the months after the earthquake. When some families’ homes collapsed, he says they turned their Restaveks out onto the street.

Rosaline Durici doesn’t know what she’ll end up doing in life. Most restaveks – skillless and illiterate – end up on the street or as domestic servants. Some even stay with their host family through their adult lives. Rosaline just holds out hope that maybe, one day, she’ll see her family again.
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Please sign petition to free sex trafficking victim

Hi Friends,

Please see the article below and sign the petition to free Sara Kruzan. Sara Kruzan was arrested at the age of sixteen after she shot and killed her pimp. She is now facing life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. However, as you read the details of the case below, you will see that Sara was in a situation where she was severely traumatized at the hands of her pimp and the men who were buying her on a nightly basis. Please read the story below and click on the link at to sign the petition. I appreciate your assistance in this important matter and please forward to others.

Free Sex Trafficking Victim Sara Kruzan

Plus: Amazon Pulls Pedophile Guide • Police Threaten Rape Victim • Halliburton Fracking Controversy • Fighting Racist Mascots • Recovering from Wrongful Imprisonment

Dear Shelley,

At Change.org, we encounter a lot of stories of tragedy, injustice and triumph. None is more heart-wrenching than the story of Sara Kruzan.

Sara, who was once her elementary school's student body president, met the man who would become her pimp when she was just 11. After acting as the father figure she never had for two years, he raped Sara at age 13 and trafficked her into the commercial sex trade.

For the next 3 years, from 6pm to 6am, strangers would pay Sara's pimp to rape her and other adolescent girls he recruited and preyed upon.

Finally, physically and psychologically traumatized, Sara snapped. She shot and killed her pimp.

Her punishment? Life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The sentence was handed down by a judge in 1994 against the recommendation of the California Youth Authority, and before there was much awareness about the violence of child trafficking or an appreciation for the trauma of adolescent sexual and physical abuse.

The sentence was extreme and unjust. And it can now be overturned by one man: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Governor Schwarzenegger is leaving office at the end of the year, and will soon be considering clemency petitions. In response, there is a grassroots movement building to call on Governor Schwarzenegger to commute Sara's sentence to time served.

Join the movement to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to free Sara Kruzan now.

Tragically, the sexual exploitation Sara suffered is not unique. But what makes her case especially poignant is not just the injustice of her life sentence, but her response.

Rather than descend in hopelessness, Sara has found redemption in jail and become an inspiration to all those around her. She has graduated from high school, is on her way to completing her college degree, and started the prison's Committee for Youth to serve as a mentor to younger women. She was recently voted "Woman of the Year" at her prison.

However, without intervention from Governor Schwarzenegger, Sara will likely die in prison.

Don't let this happen. Sara has more than paid her debt to society with 16 years of incarceration. It's time to set her free.

Call on Governor Schwarzenegger to free Sara Kruzan now.

For more information on Sara's case, click here. And for more news and opportunities for action from this week in change, see the summaries from your favorite causes below.

Meeting Anti-Slavery Activists

Hi Everyone,

Please look at the event sponsored below by DC Stop Modern Slavery. If you are interested in meeting Anti-Slavery Activists, this would be a great opportunity. Please paste the following link in your browser at http://www.meetup.com/wdcsms/calendar/15271412/to RSVP and sign up. You may have to also join DC Stop Modern Slavery as a member.

Feel free to pass along this post and my blog information to others who may be interested in learning more about human trafficking in our region and abroad.

Have a great afternoon.

-Shelley

Child Trafficking in DC

Hi Everyone,

Please take a moment to check out the news report at: http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=119188&catid=158 by Channel 9. I have been following the issue for quite sometime, but was particularly alarmed to read about the level of corruption by professionals such as judges, police etc. I hear about this corruption in less developed countries, but want to believe that the United States maintains a higher standard.

There are so many ways that the problem of child trafficking needs to be attacked. As a civil society, we must demand stronger enforcement, tougher sentencing guidelines, and more social services for victims. Additionally, economists could weigh in on this debate by pointing out to lawmakers and the general public how many dollars are lost to our overall economy because of child trafficking. I am not an economist, but I do know that there are millions of nontaxable dollars exchanged by pimps and their customers. Additionally, there is a potential loss in market labor of adolescents who may be forced to sell their bodies on the street rather than maintain legitimate jobs in the workforce sector. I would welcome any further comments from on this line of thinking.

I encourage you all to keep up the fight against this heinous crime and demand action from your political representatives and community.

Testing

Hi Everyone,

I am testing my blog to see if you receive this post. I have heard from several people that they have not been receiving my posts. Please let me know if you receive this.

Thank you and have a great afternoon. There will be more trafficking alerts to come.

Best,
Shelley