Diana Scimone

Good News

It's always nice to post some good news in the otherwise dismal world of human trafficking--and there's lots of good news today:

In London early this morning, 7 women were rescued from sex trafficking.  The raids followed a 10-month investigation into organized crime rings that specialized in human sex trafficking.  Read more here.

In India, 8 girls were rescued from a brothel in Mumbai where they were regularly subjected to involuntary prostitution, brutality, sexual abuse, and prison-like conditions.  International Justice Mission worked with the deputy commissioner of police in Mumbai to free the girls and arrest the perpetrators. Read more here.

In Botswana, police recently broke up a human trafficking ring suspected of trafficking more than 1,000 people into Canada for slavery and sex exploitation.  Read more here.  

Great news!

Absolutely Nothing

I'm taking a break this weekend: I'm not posting anything about child trafficking. Instead I'm reprinting something I've posted for the past 2 years on Easter Sunday called "Absolutely Nothing."  Here it is--along with a question for you to answer at the end. 

***

I recently had an opportunity to spend 10 days in Israel to write two feature stories for Charisma magazine and to research Adventures With PawPaw: Israel (hopefully published soon).

Visiting a country with 6,000 years of history can be a dizzying experience, and I came home with a notebook full of information, sights, sounds, and quotes. One of the most memorable quotes was from the tour guide at the garden tomb:

"Millions of people come here from all over the world to see absolutely nothing."

Our tour guide spoke those words outside the tomb where Jesus' body was laid to rest.  Three days later on a Sunday morning, Jesus rose from the dead--and 2,000 years later the tomb is still empty.

I always wondered why friends who went to Israel all came home with the exact same photo:  a picture of themselves peeking out of the empty tomb with a big grin on their face. 

Now I know why; there's something about looking into that empty tomb carved out of the side of the hill and seeing the evidence of your faith.  It's empty!  It's true!  He is risen!

Naturally I had the same grin on my face, and had to have the same photo.  So here, direct to you from Jerusalem, is my Easter photo, along with my prayer that the hope represented by that empty tomb will fill your life with joy and meaning this day and forever.

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?'" (John 11:25-26).

How 1 US City Helped Shut Down an International Sex Slave Ring

It happens all the time.  Carla (not her real name) thought she was was signing up to be a housekeeper in the US.  She signed all the papers, paid her money, did all the right things--and assumed the people helping her would do the right thing, too.

They didn't.

Like millions of other women each year, Carla got sucked into the dark world of human trafficking. 

Only it didn't happen in some faraway country.  It happened right here in the US. 

Thankfully the Clearwater (Florida) Task Force on Human Trafficking and local police agencies worked together to rescue Carla.  They didn't stop there, however. They continued the investigation and managed to shut down the international sex slave ring that held Carla and many others hostage.

It's a great example of how local community organizations can work together with law enforcement agencies to stop the traffic.

You can read the story in the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times.  Just remember that Carla's saga is not unusual; it happens all the time in the US. That ring was just one of many still operating throughout the US.

Congratulations to YOU

Last night the US Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. 

It was a great way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights--and is great news for trafficking victims all over the world.

If you made a call to your congressional reps as I urged back in September, congratulations! You helped get TVPA reauthorized for another year. 

TVPA went into effect in 2000 and is the first major comprehensive U.S. legislative effort to address the global epidemic of human trafficking--and it's making a difference. Each year Congress has to reauthorize it, and I'm thrilled they did again this year.  

The full name of the act, by the way, is the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Wilberforce (1759-1833) was a social reformer and abolitionist who was instrumental in bringing an end to slavery and the slave trade in the British Empire.

If you oppose human slavery...if you called your congressional reps asking them to reauthorize TVPA...if you've read a blog or written a letter to the editor or said a prayer for trafficking victims, then congratulations.  You are a modern-day abolitionist.  Wilberforce would be proud of you. I am, too.

Makin' a List; Shoulda' Checked It Twice

Yesterday I shared with you a list of people to follow on Twitter who are involved with non-profits, human rights, and social justice. 

How could I leave off the amazing Beth Kanter who writes a super blog on how non-profits can use social media?  You can read Beth's blog here. You can follow her on Twitter @Kanter. 

Want to see what social media can do in just 3 hours to make a difference?  Here's what Beth wrote this morning:

The theme for Social Media Breakfast #11 in Boston this morning was "Social Media for Social Good." To kick off the event, Bob Collins and I organized a call to action for the group. Tyson Foods was willing to donate 100 pounds of protein to the Boston Food Bank per comment on its Hunger Relief blog.  

As everyone at the breakfast took their 1st sip of coffee, Beth and Bob asked them to get on Twitter and ask their followers to leave a comment on the Hunger Relief blog. Within 90 minutes, they had 300+ comments--enough for 1 truckload.  

Within 2-1/2 hours, they had 800+ comments and a 2nd truckload.  I think they've since filled a 3rd truck. 

Amazing.  The power of social media. 

Now doesn't that just get your creative wheels turning? Notice no one talked about a recession, "the economy," or all those other phrases I'm growing to hate. 

Want to read more?  Emily Bain Murphy was at the breakfast and contrasts it with a talk-only meeting she'd been to the evening before.

How can you use social media for change in your world? Got ideas? Share them here. 

Lots to Be Thankful for in the Fight Against Child Trafficking (Really)

There really is lots of good news in the fight against child trafficking. Since this is Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S., here's my list of what I'm thankful for:

Zambia's new president signed the Anti-Human Trafficking Act this week. Now traffickers can be prosecuted and victims must receive protective services. (Sounds like a given, but in many countries it's not.) 

In Kosovo, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe launched a campaign against human trafficking last week. Kosovo is a place of origin, transit, and destination for women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor.

In Washington DC, high-school students are learning about child prostitution through a curriculum sponsored by the Fair Fund. It's part of a 4-year effort in DC to break up child-prostitution networks and help kids rescued from the streets. 

In Miami, 9 immigrant women were rescued from sex slavery and 4 men were arrested on suspicion of trafficking the women. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the rescues and arrests were part of an intensive investigation of a large criminal organization operating in south Florida.

On the India/Nepal border a few weeks ago, anti-trafficking volunteers rescued 9 Nepalese girls, almost all minors, who were being held captive and transported to New Delhi to be child prostitutes. An estimated 100,000 girls and women from Nepal are forced to work as sex slaves in brothels in India.

In Nigeria, police have uncovered a ring of "baby farms" where pregnant teenage girls are held captive and their babies put up for sale. In some cases, girls were held for years while they were raped and then forced to sell their babies for nominal sums. About a dozen farms, disguised as orphanages, clinics, etc., have now been shut down and the traffickers arrested. 

Join me in thanking God for each of these victories.  Each one represents a life rescued. If you know more good news in the fight against child trafficking, you can share it here.  

Don't Let Child Abuse Travel

File this under "good news." (Hat tip, Season of Light.) Today the World Tourism Organization (WTO) launched a new awareness campaign in partnership with the International Task Force for the Protection of Children in Tourism. The goal? To stop exploiting and trafficking children in the tourism industry.

 

Each year more than 1 million children are trafficked for se x around the world--including through organized child s ex tourism. That's in addition to the huge number of kids who are already trafficked. 

WTO is encouraging the travel industry to enforce its Global Code of Ethics for Tourism to protect children from harm. 

 

WTO encourages the tourism industry to:

• Use the campaign's logo.
• Distribute the logo, sticker, and other print materials.
• Link tourism websites to www.unwto.org/protectchildren.
• Organize community campaigns.
• Plan events on November 20, Universal Children's Day.
• Distribute the campaign video.

For more information: www.unwto.org/protectchildren or protectchildren@unwto.org

Cambodia: A Filmmaker's Blog

I've been following the blog of a group of filmmakers who arrived in Cambodia earlier this month to make a documentary about the effort to stop child trafficking. They have some good insight into what works and what simply reinforces the system.  

Their film will focus on the work of AIM 4 Asia.  Remember the Dateline special a few years ago called Children For Sale?  It showed a raid on a brothel in Cambodia that was filled with children. After the raid, the building was locked and vacant for 5 years. Last year AIM leased it and reopened it as a community center reaching out to kids, including some of the very same little girls who were once held captive there. Pretty cool, huh? AIM also has a home where "wounded, broken girls" can live in safety.

Child trafficking is far from over in Cambodia, of course. That was one children's brothel out of many. In fact, Cambodia has one of the worst rates of child trafficking on the planet. One of the ways to help stop it is to show what is happening--which is what this new film will do along with offering hope and solutions that are working. 

You can read the filmmakers' blog here.  And if you've ever wondered how a parent could sell his or her child into slavery, read what the filmmakers wrote about Cambodia's Recent History: The roots of child se x slavery. It explains a lot.

Here's a photo I took at few years ago this very week at the Thailand/Cambodia border crossing:

To comment on this post, click here.

When Dr. Phil Talks...

...people listen.  Remember last week when Dr. Phil devoted an entire program to child trafficking in the US?  

Thanks to his efforts to draw attention to the pandemic, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline had 198 calls in one day!  The Polaris Project, which operates the hotline, says that's a 1000% increase over the usual call volume. 

The calls were from concerned parents and grandparents who believed their kids were in positions of forced labor and pros titution. Those stories, of course, are not good news--but the fact that these people had somewhere to turn is good news.  Hotline staff were able to give them immediate access to resources and assistance, connecting them with local organizations and law enforcement.

It's one week later and calls are still coming in.  

Want to know how to recognize red flags and potential indicators of human trafficking?  Visit the Polaris Project's Action Center website.  If you suspect a potential trafficking situation or would like more information on human trafficking, call the hotline at 888.373-7888 or email NHTRC@PolarisProject.org. 

Good News

I'm starting a new category on this blog called "Good News"--and the first entry is this great report about the decline in child trafficking that takes place across the border between Guinea-Bisseau and Senegal.

The reason?  Better collaboration among local residents, civil society groups, and government--which means more people are now watching out for suspicious movement of children.

"A whole new set of actors are involved who weren't in the past--border police, governors, even truck-drivers unions," said Karyna Gomes, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson in Bissau. "We receive information from surveillance committees every two to three weeks about what is going on."

Community village chiefs, local governments, and border police in Guinea Bissau and Senegal have set up surveillance committees that work with local authorities to report suspected transport of children across the border. 

Imagine the trauma of those kids--but there's even a procedure in place to help them: Welcome centers where kids are cared for and receive medical attention while they wait to be reunited with their families.  

Now that's good news.

You can read more in Africa News and comment on this good news here.