A Cup Of Tea: Spotlight On Freedom Firm

A few weekends ago I attended an event hosted by Freedom Firm, an organization that rescues minor girls from sex trafficking in India.  It was a great event with dinner and silent auction called Captive No More.  There were interactive booths where you could have a beautiful henna design done on your hand or have your picture taken in an authentic sari. 

There are 27 million slaves in the world and 500,000 of them are in India.  Extreme poverty is a factor in girls ending up in the sex trade here.  Many times they are tricked by false promise of employment.  They are often sold by a family member who thinks they are giving their child the opportunity for a better life and an education when in reality they are being sold to a brothel.

The three part mission of Freedom Firm is to Rescue, Restore and seek Justice.  They actually have investigative teams that do raids on the brothels to rescue these minor girls.  They have an aftercare home which provides holistic care for the girls and they seek justice by prosecuting the trafficker or brothel owner.

The stories shared at this event were hard to hear.  Corruption is rampant.  The police take bribes, look the other way and often times will tip off the brothel owner about a raid.  After a girl is rescued, she is placed in a government run shelter "home" which is actually more like a prison.  According to the 2013 TIP Report:

A number of government shelters were overcrowded and unhygienic, offered poor food, and provided limited services. The lack of adequate security in one government-funded home in Hyderabad made it possible for a nine-member gang to break in and kidnap four trafficking victims; two previous kidnap attempts took place in the preceding months. Some shelters did not permit adult victims to leave,  contrary to international principles on the protection of victims. In some cases, traffickers continued to re-recruit trafficking victims by approaching shelter managers and pretending to be family members to get the victims released to them. NGOs report that government processes to refer identified victims to care facilities are not followed. In investigations, police sometimes treated victims as suspected criminals and subjected them to aggressive questioning.

But the one thing that choked me up more than the stories was a picture of a teacup.  Beside the teacup were a few little white pills and this note: 

Often a girl is offered tea by the traffickers as way to comfort her and gain her trust.  Because she is in a desperate situation, she accepts the tea.  In most cases the tea is drugged.  During the time the girl is not fully conscience, she is transported and sold to a brothel.

A cup of tea is a symbol of welcome, hospitality and soothing.  It brings to mind the image of peace, tranquility and friendship.  This poor innocent child accepts a cup of tea because she is afraid.  She doesn't understand what is happening.  I picture her cold and alone and wanting to sip the tea to warm herself and calm her nerves.  But little does she know that evil lurks in her cup of tea.  An evil that knows no boundaries.  An evil that will take advantage of a little girl to exploit her and make money off of her. 

Just because this evil is happening "over there" doesn't mean there isn't something we can do.  Freedom Firm has opportunities to help wherever you live. 

• Consider hosting a jewelry party featuring jewelry that has been hand made by the girls who have been rescued. 
• Invite your friends over and host a movie screening of their documentary "Horse and Rider"
• Sign up for their real time updates and pray for the team as they are doing a rescue
• Donate to support their mission

Please visit their page to learn more about the amazing work they are doing and how you can be a part of it.  Freedom Firm

Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report 2013

 

The U.S. State Department recently released its annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP)

report for 2013. 

For the full report visit:  US State Department

 

 

 

What is the TIP report?

The TIP report helps to identify countries where trafficking is most problematic.  It rates 188 countries and gives each nation a tier rating based on their compliance with standards outlined in the TVPA. These tiers are:

• Tier 1 Countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards.
• Tier 2 Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
• Tier 2 Watchlist Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND: a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; or b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.
• Tier 3 Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

The 2013 Report:

• There are 21 countries with a Tier 3 rating.  China, Russia, Uzbekistan and 18 other countries that are found not to be taking the affirmative steps necessarty to fight human trafficking.
• There are 44 countries on the Tier 2 Watch List that could lead to sanctions unless their records improve.
• This is the first year a country has been automatically downgraded to Tier 3.  To prevent a country from remaining stagnant on the Tier 2 Watch list there was a time limit established.  When a country is placed on the Tier 2 Watch list they can request a waiver provision if they have a written plan and resources dedicated towards meeting the concerns addressed in the report.  Those waivers were only available for two years. There were six countries that were facing automatic downgrade this year:  Azerbaijan, Irag, the Congo, Russia, China, and Uzbekistan.  Three of them were downgraded:  China, Russia, and Uzbekistan. 

If you want to learn more about what human trafficking looks like globally this is a great place to start.  Choose a country (they are all listed alphabetically) and read what trafficking looks like in that country.

 

 

Documentary "Nefarious"

This week our church hosted a screening of the award winning film Nefarious.  This hard-hitting documentary travels across 4 continents and 19 countries to expose the disturbing trends in

modern day slavery.  This was my second time viewing the movie and it was just as emotional for me as the first time I saw it.  The film really gives you a sense of how ugly this crime is.  Here are some of the countries highlighted in the film.

Eastern Europe is referred to at the Frontier of Failure.  In Moldova, 10% of the popluation is trafficked.  A large percentage are orphans.

In Amsterdam prostition is legal.  In the red light district girls wearing little clothing move suggestively behind glass windows trying to sell themselves.  However 60% of prostitutes report being physically abused.  Clearly legalizing prostitution is not the answer. 

In Thailand the extremely poor social conditions remove personal choice from the equation. Young girls go the the city looking for work.  The Thailand government won't grant them citizenship so they are unable to get a job.  It then becomes an exploitation of vulnerability.  The government actually had a billboard advertising the young women of Thailand.  Many times young girls are actually bought from their parents. 

In Cambodia  80-90% of parents are selling their daughters into the sex trade.  They will sell their own kids in order to get better things.  Meanwhile, the men sit around and drink beer all day. Girls are groomed to enter the sex industry and conditioned to do this to honor their parents with the money they make.  In Cambodia, when a girl is born, the parents are told "A girl - you scored the jackpot" because they know the girl can be sold.  Don Brewster of Agape told the story of visiting a "Karaoke bar."  There were 200-300 girls with #'s on their chest so they could be chosen by their #.  Sadly, there were 80 rooms in this karaoke bar and this particular owner owned 8 of this same type of karaoke bars. Even sadder was the receipt he received:

Beer $4
Grapes $5
Girl $3

He talked to 3 girls and tried to get them to leave, but before they could he had to get permission from the mothers.  All 3 moms said no because they needed the money.

Las Vegas girls are lured in by the illusion of glamour, but quickly find out otherwise.  There is actually a published "tricks of the trade" which in reality is more of a "stay alive guide."  The girls are told things like never wear scarves because you can be choked with them; when you enter a room drop your keys on the floor so you can look under the bed and see if there are handcuffs or a gun; don't wear high heals because you won't be able to run.

Sweden is the model for ending trafficking.  Here the law is aimed at stopping demand.  They arrest men for buying sex and the sentence is equivalent to a US felony.  This has changed the market for sex because buyers are afraid to get caught. Sweden has chosen to value the sanctity of human life over fueling the sexual appetite of men.  As a result Sweden has the lowest rate of trafficking. 

Here is the movie trailer:

To purchase Nefarious  Click Here.  The film cost $20, but the education you receive is priceless.  Consider purchasing the film and hosting a movie night for your neighborhood or church group.  If you are showing to less than 30 people you do not need a license.  100% of ALL proceeds will go directly toward combating the global crisis of sex slavery

The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam

The Road of Lost Innocence is the heart breaking memoir of Somaly Mam.  Somaly was born in the Bou Sra Village of North East Cambodia in 1970 or 1971. The Phong people there are part of an old tribe of mountain people living in primitive conditions. Abandoned by her parents and then her grandmother, she raises herself by foraging for food in the forest and a little help from the other villagers.  When Somaly is about 9 or 10 and older man shows up and promises he will help her find her fathers family.  She is instructed to call him "Grandfather" out of respect.  Grandfather takes her to Thlok Chhrov and makes her his domestic servant.  He beats her and rents her labor out to others as well.  She finds some refuge in the local school teacher there and his family becomes sort of her adoptive parents.  She stays with them as much as she can to avoid Grandfathers beatings.  One night grandfather sends her to get some oil from the Chinese merchant in town.  The merchant rapes her and she later learns that grandfather sold her virginity to him.  At age 14, grandfather forces her into marriage to a soldier who violently beats her.  With her husband gone fighting for long periods of time she runs out of money for food and begins working at the clinic.  The doctors there preyed upon the girls and she is raped again by the chief doctor.  Grandfather shows up a few times to request money from her.  The last time he comes he tells her to pack her things they are going to visit an aunty in Phom Penh.  .

The aunty it turns out is a brothel owner and grandfather has sold her to the woman.  There she is beaten, tied up and locked in the cellar and had snakes poured over her to break her will.  She manages to escape once, but is found and brought back to the brothel.  Her punishment is to be beaten, locked up and covered with maggots. 

Somaly writes:  "The clients were horrible.  To them we were meat...Some of them like hurting us and did it for sport.  They were dirty.  They stank.  In my memory, their dirtiness is the most repugnant thing.  That and the smell"

Somaly eventually meets a humanitarian worker who gives her money and helps her leave the brothel. 

The injustice that occurs in robbing a young girl of her childhood is horriffic. In this book Somaly Mam brings up a couple of issues related to human trafficking that just wreck me.

1. Men believe that they will be cured of AIDS by having sex with a virgin.  This is why girls are being trafficked younger and younger.  Brothel owners can get a much higher price for a virgin because that is where the demand is.
2. Because a virgin will fetch a higher price it is common practice that after a young girl has had been victimized, she will be sewn up so she can be sold over and over again as a virgin.
3. In Cambodia, it is not uncommon for a young girl to be sold into sexual slavery by their own family.  

I can't even begin to imagine the horror of these things that happened to Somaly Mam.  Many people would lose their will to live.  But she has fought back and gone on to save over 4,000 women from sexual slavery through AFESIP (her organization in Cambodia) and the Somaly Mam Foundation which she co-founded.  She is an incredible woman and such an inspiration.

Book Review: Sold by Patricia McCormick

 

I put off reading this book because it wasn’t a true story.  I mistakenly thought, “How can they portray the horrors of the sex trade industry in a work of fiction?”  I could not have been more wrong. 

Sold is a painful look at what happened to a young girl from Nepal who was smuggled into India and sold into sexual slavery.  While this is a fictional story it is based on the truth that thousand of young girls are actually living this nightmare every day.  Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal.  The story is told through her eyes and conveys the innocence of a child trapped the horrible world of human trafficking.

Even before Lakshmi is sold into slavery, your heart breaks for her.  The living conditions are so harsh compared to the blessings we have in the United States.  She dreams that one day they will have enough for a tin roof for their little hut. 

“She is looking down the mountain to the village below, at the neighbors’ tin roofs winking cruelly back at her.  A tin roof means that the family has a father who doesn’t gamble away the landlord’s money playing cards in the tea shop.  A tin roof means that when the rains come, the fire stays lit and the baby stays healthy”

Lakshmi grows cucumbers to sell and dreams of her tin roof.  But her stepfather continually gambles away what little they have and when he looks at the cucumbers he sees cigarettes and rice beer, a new vest for himself.  After he has gambled away everything they have he tells Lakshmi that she must go to the city and earn her keep as a maid.    The next morning he takes her to a shop in the city and sells her for 800 rupees.  That is roughly $15 US.

Lakshmi has no idea and thinks she is going to live in a glamorous house where she will work hard for a rich woman and send home money to her family.  Instead she is smuggled into India and sold again to a brothel owner for 10,000 rupees.  After she refuses to do what Mumtaz (the brothel owner) is requesting, she is locked up in a room, beaten with a leather strap until there is no part of her unmarked by the strap and starved for 5 days.  Then Mumtaz sends her some tea.  Lakshmi drinks the tea and begins to feel funny. She is seeing double and can’t get her arms and legs to work. 

 “In the days that follow, many men come to my room.  They crush my bones with their weight.  They split me open.  Then they disappear.  I decide to think it is all a nightmare.  Because if what is happening is real, it is unbearable.”

She is eventually let out of her locked up room and told that she can go home once she has earned enough to pay Mumtaz back.  One day she overhears a customer talking and learns that they pay only 30 rupees for her each time, which is about the same price as a bottle of coke.  And which Lakshmi has never even tasted.  

I won’t tell you how the story ends.  My hope is that you would read this book and give yourself an understanding of what life is like for these girls.  Sold is written in free verse and is a very quick read. 

Authors Note:  Each year nearly 12,000 Nepali girls are sold by their families into a life of sexual slavery in the brothels of India.  Worldwide, the US State Department estimates that nearly half a million children are trafficked into the sex trade annually.