Diana Scimone

Day 16: Cleansing the World of Child Trafficking

Shhhh, today's prize announcement is a secret.

The gift you could win on 09-09-09 won't even be available to the rest of the world til a few weeks after our 1-day fundraiser for The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Saphoros.com is donating their brand-new Skincare Essentials Gift Set--the same set they'll debut later in September when they tuck them inside celebrity gift bags for nominees at the Emmy Awards.

The nominees--and the rest of the world--have to wait til after the Emmy's telecast on September 20 to see the new Saphoros gift set.  But you could win it on September 9.

"I think what your organization is doing is absolutely fabulous and close to the heart as I am a mom to 5 children," says Saphoros CEO Donna Standridge, who writes about The Born2Fly Project on her company blog. "We're so excited to be helping out."

The Saphoros' Skincare Essentials Gift Set includes 5 full-size products designed for all skin types (including sensitive): Gentle Cleansing Milk, Essenza Antioxidant Toner, Jojoba Facial Polish, Lussuria Eye Treatment, and Mineral Renewal Day Creme. 

Everything is made with vegan ingredients and is paraben-free and formaldehyde-donor-free with no artificial fragrances. The retail value of the gift set is $102.  Thank you, Donna and Saphoros!  (BTW, you can follow Donna on Twitter @saphoros.)

So help cleanse the world of child trafficking by donating during our 09-09-09 fundraiser...and you could win this nice gift that will help you cleanse and take care of your skin. Everyone who donates to the 1-day fundraiser to stop child trafficking (either on September 9 or before) is eligible to win. 

Our goal is 9,000 people each giving $9 on 09-09-09.

Just click the orange Chip-in button at the top right (or here) and donate safely by PayPal or credit card.  Remember, all funds go to the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

* * *

Here's the answer to Friday's question:

Q: 2.8 million kids live on the streets in the US. How long does it take them to be lured into child trafficking?

A: One-third of kids arriving on the streets (including runaways) will be lured into child prostitution within just 48 hours. You can read more about the process to recruit and groom them here and here.

Today's question is:

Q: What US city helped shut down an international sex slave ring operating in their midst?

If you know the answer, leave it in a comment. Watch this space tomorrow for the correct answer--and another prize that we'll award on 09-09-09. (Yup, you could win.)

Take a Stand

Last November thousands of people got together in Birmingham, England, to do something about human trafficking. The event, called The Stand, brought together leading musicians, artists, and the public--all to take a stand against human trafficking and learn what they could do to stop it.

If you (like me) weren't there, we can watch The Stand this weekend on God TV:

Friday, January 30, 10 pm ET

Saturday, January 31, 9:30 pm ET

Sunday, February 1, 5 pm ET

In the US, you can watch God TV on Direct TV channel 365. Or catch it on www.god.tv where it will be streamed live and later on demand.  If you're outside the US, check God TV's schedule for broadcast times in your country.

The Stand is organized by Hope For Justice and includes music from bands like Delirious?, YFriday, Bluetree, Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Paul Field, thebandwithnoname, and many others. It also includes speakers like Steve Chalke, who's the UN.GIFT special adviser on community action against human trafficking.

"The Stand wasn't an easy event to be at," according to Hope for Justice.  "It took people on a journey into the world of human trafficking with hard-hitting video footage showing the impact it has on innocent lives." 

I'm sure The Stand won't be easy to watch...but then again it's not easy being trafficked either, right?

43 Things You Can Do to Stop Child Trafficking

Last night at 11 pm I was having a conversation on Twitter with a very angry person. She had just watched a Law and Order episode about child slavery in Haiti and the US--and she was livid that such atrocities could be happening right in her own backyard.

She was ready to do something--anything--right then, but didn't know what to do.

I quickly Googled the name of her city and "human trafficking"--and we found that an active anti-trafficking coalition already exists not far from her. They're meeting in 2 weeks, and she's going.

I don't like the phrase "Think globally, act locally," because it keeps people confined within their own borders--but in the fight to stop child trafficking, "thinking globally" is good. There's trafficking right in your hometown and mine--and what we learn about the fight to stop the traffic here can be shared around the world (and vice versa).

Don't know what to do?

I've added lots more ideas to this blog. There are now 43 things you can do to stop child trafficking. Take a look at the list on the left, or click here if you're reading this as an email.

These are practical things anyone can do. You don't have to do all of them, but can you pick one and get started?

I'll be adding to the list--so leave your suggestions in a comment here. Let us know what you're doing to help stop the traffic.

To learn what Born to Fly International is doing, visit www.born2fly.org.

Meanwhile, this Sunday is Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Awareness Day. What will you do to help stop the traffic?

 

Photo of child carpet weaver: Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department

Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men (Women and Children, Too)

MSNBC.com and Telemundo just came out with a new report on human trafficking called Sex Slavery: Living the American Nightmare. 

The subhead says it all:  "Shadowy multibillion-dollar industry far more widespread than expected."

The report highlights the connection between illegal immigration and trafficking. 

Here are a few quotes:

The reality is that human trafficking goes on in nearly every American city and town, said Lisette Arsuaga, director of development for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, a human rights organization in Los Angeles. 

Bexar County [Texas] is considered a crossroads of the cross-border Mexican sex slave trade because two Interstate highways that crisscross the state intersect there, some 150 miles from the Mexican border.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials estimate that human trafficking generates more than $9.5 billion a year. The report mentions trafficking cases in Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Georgia, and Florida--but trafficking happens everywhere in the US.

“We’ve come to learn that cases of trafficking are all around us in plain sight,” says Carmen Pitre, executive director of the Task Force on Family Violence, an agency that supports victims of trafficking in Milwaukee. “Today, you can buy a human being for $200 in any major city in the world.”

During this time of year when we sing about "peace on earth, goodwill toward men," what can we do to help these victims--who are right in our own towns?  Ideas?  Share them here.  In coming posts, I'll give some signs to look for and questions to ask when you suspect someone is a trafficking victim.

1 Million People a Year (and counting)

Last night Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons was interviewed by Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. Below is the rough unedited interview, which includes portions not broadcast. (Here is a link to the transcript of the interview as broadcast; note this is a rush transcript and may be updated later.)

A couple of key points:

• We usually say 1 million people a year are trafficked, but Lagon points out that's just the number of people who are trafficked across international borders. Millions more are trafficked within their own countries (including yours and mine). 

• Lagon gives the definition of human trafficking: "By law and under UN treaties [it] involve[s] force, fraud, and coercion." I'll be blogging more about this definition in a future post, including how human trafficking is different from human smuggling. 

 

To comment, 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. 

3 Cheers for Dr. Phil

I just watched Dr. Phil's excellent program on child trafficking.

Kudos to him for telling the difficult stories.  He focused almost the entire hour on what's happening in the U.S.  As you've read many times on this blog, child trafficking isn't just across the globe but across the street.  This is not just an occasional problem. 150,000 kids are lured into child slavery in the U.S.--every year.  

"I want people outraged by this," Dr. Phil announced--and he was pretty outraged by the stories told by brave young women who appeared on camera. 

"Who are the buyers?" he asked.  

An FBI special agent provided the answer:  "They're everybody's husband, father, and son.  Some of them are pretty high-level guys."  Yet, she said, hardly any buyers are ever arrested.  That, of course, has got to change.

There was a moving story shared by a young woman named Maria.  You can read more of her story here. It falls into the category of "Just when I think I've heard the worst story..."

Dr. Phil ended by giving 5 signs that a young person may be held against their will.

To learn what PawPaw's Pals is doing to stop child trafficking, click here.  Got comments?  Tell us what you think here.

If you went to the premiere today of Call + Response, leave a comment and let us know what you thought.

Dr. Phil and Human Trafficking

Dr. Phil will do a TV program on human trafficking Friday, October 10.  The program is timed to coincide with release of the film Call + Response.  Dr. Phil's guests include:

• Trafficking survivors who tell their stories
• An FBI agent who recounts a recent trafficking case in Texas
• Filmmaker Justin Dillon, who made Call + Response
• Actress Julia Ormond, UN Goodwill Ambassador, who's in the film

He'll also talk about the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline.  In the past 10 months alone, the NHTRC has received calls about more than 2,000 potential trafficking victims--in the U.S.

Find local listings for the Dr. Phil Show here. 

To learn what PawPaw's Pals is doing to stop child trafficking, click here.  Got comments?  Tell us what you think here. 

"I'm not selling women so much now. Mainly just children."

Oh great.  "Just children."

Those are the words of a child trafficker in China who shares about his gruesome enterprise on the recent HBO documentary, "China's Stolen Children."  The program is about how China's one-child policy has created a booming trade in stolen children (among other horrific practices).

You can watch the trailer here:

Or you can see the entire documentary here (if you can stomach it).

As many as 70,000 children a year are snatched from the streets in China and sold by organized crime syndicates. The filmmakers worked undercover to put together this report; they even changed SIM cards after every phone call to avoid being detected as they shot the documentary.

I haven't watched all of it, but will.  What I did watch made me realize yet again the value of our Not For Sale child-trafficking awareness project. Once we've completed the Not For Sale materials and start distributing them around the world, we can warn--ahead of time--grieving parents such as the ones on this documentary whose children were snatched away from them.  As in every other area where child trafficking is a problem, we can tell them (and their children) about the dangers of trafficking and what to watch for. 

We have the ability to effectively slash the rate of child trafficking--and keep many more kids and parents from going through this nightmare.

If you'd like to help us complete this project and get the awareness materials into the hands of parents and kids around the world, you can donate by clicking here.

"I Would Like to Get a Child"

If you missed Nightline's riveting documentary last night, How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours, here is the link to read the transcript.  The last portion of the transcript isn't posted right now, but hopefully will be soon.

You can watch excerpts here and here, and see some of the photos here.

Here's one of the portions that jumped out at me:

Slave traffickers use Haiti's poverty and lack of opportunity to their advantage.

"They dangle like a diamond necklace the promise of school," says [E. Benjamin] Skinner, [author of A Crime So Monstrous]. As he explains, Haiti's system of child slavery began generations ago. Poor families from the countryside would give their children to wealthy families in the city.

The children would do domestic work, but they would also be fed, clothed and educated. It was a sort of social compact.

Even though the system has now morphed into something grotesque, traffickers exploit the false, residual glow of altruism.

"You talk to the traffickers about this," says Skinner, "and they'll often say, 'Well, I'm doing a service to the family that's giving up this child.'"

There's nothing altruistic about the scars on the arms of a 10-year-old slave whom Nightline interviewed.  She was beaten regularly and not allowed to go to school.  Her mother, who sent her away to the big city, really thought her daughter was being well cared for and living a better life than she would in her impoverished rural home.

I heard that and once again thought what a difference it would make for these kids and their families if we could warn them ahead of time.

That's the goal of our Not For Sale child-trafficking awareness project:  to produce materials that educate at-risk kids and their families about the dangers of trafficking, and distribute them in high-risk areas around the world.

Imagine what this little girl's life would have been like if she or her mother had access to a Not For Sale book. 

We have a strategic opportunity to prevent more kids from enduring the same nightmare she did. If you can help us, email info@pawpawspals.org.

How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours

Last month, Dan Harris took a 3-1/2 hour flight from New York to Haiti to buy a child slave.  Within 10 hours of leaving his office in New York City, Harris had 3 separate offers to buy a 10-year-old child.

Harris is a correspondent with ABC News and he caught it all on hidden camera for a special edition of ABC's "Nightline," which airs in the U.S. this Tuesday, July 8. (If it's available on the web after that, I'll post a link to it here.)

One broker promised Harris that he would personally train the child.  Another promised a "pretty" girl and offered to provide false adoption documents to allow the child to be taken out of the country.  Prices ranged from $150 to $10,000.

Harris interviews child slaves and their "masters," and explores the dire conditions that drive many rural families to send their children to live in urban households with the often unfulfilled promise of a better life and an education.  He also follows the heroic efforts of one mother to retrieve her child from slavery.

Haiti has 300,000 child slaves. The problem isn't confined to that country, of course.  Each year 1 million children are trafficked around the world--that's in addition to those already enslaved.

Imagine what a huge dent we could make in this pandemic if we could simply warn parents about the dangers of child trafficking and slavery.  That's the goal of our Not For Sale child-trafficking awareness campaign--to educate children, parents, and teachers about the dangers of trafficking, with the ultimate goal of ending it.  If you'd like to contribute toward this effort, click here.

The "Nightline" special airs at 11:35 p.m., Tuesday, July 8, in the U.S.  If it's available on the web after that, I'll post the link here.

Just When I Think I've Heard the Worst Story...

...I hear another human-trafficking story that's even more tragic. 

Last night, MSNBC repeated its gripping report, Se-x Slaves in America.  If you missed it, you can watch it here or read the transcript here.

This is an enlightening and disturbing report about how human traffickers bring their contemptible business right to our backyards--often with little consequence. 

You've read it on this blog before: Trafficking is not just across the globe, but across the street.  This documentary makes that all too real. 

 

To comment, click "comments" below (or go to my blog site and click on "comments" at the end of this post).