Talking About Social Justice At Your Undergraduate Campus

When I began college in 2006, my main academic focus was on my biology degree and science requirements for medical school. Truth be told, I was unaware of many human rights issues that were rampant in the world at that time. During my freshman year, while in conversation with my mentor at a student organization that I was involved in, I begun to learn about what “human rights” were. She was especially interested in the topic of human trafficking, which subsequently piqued curiosity in me.

The Asian American Human Trafficking Outreach Project (AATOP) at IOFA has had the privilege of partnering with college students to educate them in an academic setting on a more in depth and technical look at human trafficking and to develop outreach materials to Asian victims in the Chicago community. College students are at a very receptive time in their lives and comprise a strategic demographic that can begin fast-growing movements with far-reaching potential.

In my previous job, I worked with an undergraduate campus student organization whose students expressed great interest in issues such as human trafficking and the severe restriction of civilian rights in North Korea. I would often be confronted with questions of “I’m just a student, but what can I do more to tell people about trafficking?” and “I don’t want to just raise money.” My friends, let me reframe your previous statement: yes, you may be a undergraduate student buried nightly in biochem pathways and you don’t have a full-time job to abolish modern day slavery, but you are ambitious and energized, with zealous hearts full of passion! You want to see the real effects of change, and I think that this reason is enough for you to start making a visible difference.

During my time working with the undergraduate organization, I helped my students to spearhead a weeklong campus event called Justice Week, focusing on building awareness of human trafficking. It is now a recurring annual spring event in which the students connect with other campus groups and community organizations, bringing to light issues of injustice and providing ways for students to participate in change. In our conversations with students on campus, we would ask if they knew about human trafficking and were surprised to hear that some of them had not. I still keep in touch with my students and over the years, have seen them grow to become individuals who now lead more socially conscious lifestyles, activists who don’t limit their outreach to the campus, and young adults who get involved in their local communities even when it’s neither convenient nor glamorous.

This is a news story about a collaboration between several student organizations at Johns Hopkins University on Human Trafficking and Awareness Week that brought a panel of speakers, a petition to pass a bill, and fair trade products to their campus. Here, fraternity brothers from San Diego address the impact of trafficking on the African American community at a leadership conference while women from a sorority educate middle school students in North Carolina about trafficking at a youth summit.

I believe that being aware of and being up to date on current social justice issues as an undergraduate sets one up to be a catalyst that sparks a chain of knowledge, reaching far to even the most unlikely recipient.  Building awareness on a college campus is never too insignificant. Learning how to advocate on behalf for those affected by injustice is even better. 7 years later after my freshman year of college, I am not in medical school. Instead, I am on my way to being a social worker. Had I not taken the step to be involved in dialogue about social justice during my time in undergrad, the current trajectory of my career would not have been the same.

Esther Liew
Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project (AATOP) Program Development Intern

IOFA Director, Shelby French speaking at Niagara Forum about Human Trafficking

IOFA's director, Shelby French, will be speaking about human trafficking tomorrow, April 11, at a Niagara Foundation forum. Speaking with her are Rachel Durchslag from Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) and Gregory Wing from the FBI.

We invite you to join us tomorrow to learn more about human trafficking. RSVP for your tickets here! http://traffickingnf-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Voices Behind the Campaign

As part of the Human Trafficking is Our Problem Campaign (HTIOP), IOFA asked participants to submit a photo with a picture holding the HTIOP slogan to show support in recognizing human trafficking as a local issue. In this short series, IOFA would like to share with you voices from the campaign’s participants and why they decided to support HTIOP.

 (Voices correspond with individuals from left to right)

"People whom I have spoken with are constantly surprised that human trafficking happens in their cities, but they are willing to learn more about it and bring awareness to this issue. I think that in realizing that domestic human trafficking happens closer to home, people will take more ownership of this problem and acknowledge that it is NOT OK. The campaign is a way that we can rally people toward this goal." –Esther Liew

“From the suburbs of Illinois to the streets of Uganda, human trafficking is a global issue that touches communities and individuals across the globe. I support this cause because the denial of basic and inherent human rights to individuals and groups is a tragedy, which this campaign seeks to change. By raising awareness new groups can join with old to mobilize against this vastly growing issue and contribute to the global movement against human trafficking.” – Alyse Shields

“I support the HTIOP campaign because of its’ potential to bring people together on an issue that cuts across race, gender, and faith to recognize a social problem within our own communities and work with one another to do something about it. To take part and have an active role in a locally grown campaign that is a unifying force on a human issue is quite unique and frankly, awesome.” – Aatifa Sadiq

“I support HTIOP because it is just that, our problem.  Many people don't realize the impact that trafficking has on the global community.  I hope that by supporting HTIOP more people will become aware of this global issue and do their part to support anti-trafficking efforts in their own communities.” –Laura Horner 

The Human Trafficking Is OUR Problem campaign videos are up!

Hello friends of IOFA!

In January, many of you took part in IOFA's Human Trafficking is OUR Problem campaign by submitting pictures and taking videos of yourself holding signs. We have compiled your submissions and have made two videos!

The first is a call to action to raise awareness that human trafficking does not just happen overseas - it happens in our states, cities, and towns.

The second video is a short narrative on human trafficking in the U.S.

Please help us to spread the word by sharing the videos with your friends and families. Perhaps they will help to generate discussions about this issue! Thank you all for your participation in helping to raise awareness of domestic human trafficking!

- IOFA team

Can Educators Prevent Human Trafficking Of Their Students?

In the neighborhood of Little Village in the southwest side of Chicago, a woman was found to have operated several brothels in the community. Rubicela Montero, a 38-year old mother, had not been able to find young girls to meet the demand of her clientele. However, she met a 16-year old girl student at the Roberto Clemente Community Academy through her son, and hired her into prostitution. Montero even picked up the 16-year old girl at her high school and transported her to the brothel while still donning her school uniform.

Perhaps if the student’s teachers had noticed signs of change in her behavior, this transaction between trafficker and victim could have been avoided. Even if there were no noticeable signs, would students be cognizant of the ways in which traffickers target them?

In 2011, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimated that 100,000 American children were at risk of being trafficked into commercially sexually exploitative acts. Girls are being targeted at as young as 12 to 14 years old, and boys, 11 to 13 years old.

Traffickers exploit school children because of their vulnerability and because the market demands young victims. Traffickers target children on the way to and from school and at school-sponsored events. They also use teenagers who have already been solicited to recruit their peers and friends or seduce girls with the “loverboy” approach. A particularly insidious way that traffickers recruit is through skip parties.

Educators and the school staff are in strategic positions of influence to address domestic human trafficking because they spend considerable amounts of time daily with the same students and are able to build relationships with them, if they so choose. They also have the responsibility to report suspected exploitations of their students to law enforcement. The importance of school teachers, administrators, and staff to know how to identify signs of vulnerability for trafficking and how to address them is undervalued.

Some identifying signs of trafficking include:

• Truancy
• Runaway behavior
• Mentions of frequent travels to other cities
• Signs of physical trauma, withdrawn behavior, depression, or fear
• Limited control over one’s schedule or identification documents
• Hungry, malnourished, or inappropriately dressed for the weather and school
• Sudden change in behavior or material possessions (owns and displays expensive items)
• Referencing sexual situations or terminology of the commercial sex industry that are beyond age-specific norms
• Having a “boyfriend” who is significantly older (10+ years)
• Engaging in sexually promiscuous behavior

Schools can collectively respond while also inviting their communities to participate in awareness. With an increase number of community members who can identify warning signs, traffickers will be more wary of their actions, which could lead to a decrease of trafficking activity in that area.

Here are ways that schools implement protective and preventative measures:

• Find out the reasons for each student’s decrease in school attendance & engagement
• Train school staff on how to identify and report warning signs
• Train counselors and social workers on how to educate students on the subject of trafficking and work with student victims through creative and supportive outreach
• Implement protocol on computer and cell phone use in school
• Ensure that the campus structure is secure and safe for students
• Inform the community surrounding the school and coordinate a community response
• Incorporate restorative and transformative justice

Esther Liew

Program Development Intern 

Sources:

Chicago Tribune. Little Village House Becomes Home to Brothel.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 2011 Annual Report.

 Education Week. Schools Can help Combat Sexual Exploitation, Trafficking of Children.

 U.S. Department of Education. Human Trafficking of Children in the United States: A Fact Sheet for Schools.

Littrell, Jenee. Protecting Children: The Role of Schools in CSEC Prevention and Intervention.  

Should a Minor Engaged in Commercial Sex Be Labeled as a Prostitute or a Victim?

            On December 13, 2012 a 17 year old girl in Iowa was arrested after she solicited an undercover officer for sex on Backpage.com.  This girl told police that she was being forced into prostitution by her abusive boyfriend who has allegedly beat her and threatened to kill her.

Now, the Polk County, Iowa attorney’s office wants to prosecute her for prostitution as an adult.  The girl’s attorney, Paul White, has tried to argue that she should be protected by Iowa Code 710A which gives “an affirmative defense” to human trafficking victims who could not escape due to threat of injury.  The law is supposed to target pimps and others who have forced someone into the sex trade for financial gain.

A prosecutor’s job is to seek justice.  If the girl is prosecuted as a prostitute in this case, what justice is being served?  Charging this girl does nothing to prevent other people from being forced into the sex trade.  It does nothing to help improve this girl’s life and get her out of the sex trade.  Wouldn’t justice best be served here if the prosecutor, John Sarcone, focused his efforts not in prosecuting this minor who has been forced into commercial sexual activity but in prosecuting the pimp who forced her into the sex trade?

Iowa’s neighbor, Illinois, has passed sweeping legislation when it comes to minors in the sex trade.  The Illinois Safe Children’s Act was signed into law in 2010.  Instead of placing minors who have been found to be engaging in commercial sexual activity in the criminal system, the Act places these minors in the child protection system.  Illinois has recognized that minors (anyone under the age of 18) do not have the capacity to consent to their own commercial sexual activity.  The law also states that these minors are victims of exploitation and not perpetrators of prostitution.  Iowa has tried to come up with new human trafficking legislation, but it needs to go further, as do many other states The Illinois Safe Children’s Act should be a model for the nation.  It is only through protection not prosecution of minors, that justice can truly be served for those forced into the sex trade.

Laura Horner

Intern

Want to End Modern Day Slavery? Join IOFA's "Human Trafficking is OUR Problem Campaign"

Join IOFA's Human Trafficking is OUR Problem Campaign!

Want to be directly involved with building awareness about the crime of human trafficking? 

 It only takes three easy steps:

1. Download and print out one of the attached signs: "Human Trafficking is OUR/MY Problem" - click the download button at the bottom of the two signs below and just send to your printer.
Human Trafficking Is OUR Problem by sfrench44
2. Use your IPhone, camera, or computer camera to take a picture of you and anyone else you can fit in the photo holding the HTIOP sign. 
3. Upload your photo(s) and send as an attachment via email to sfrench@iofa.org.

Your image will be included with hundreds of others in a new IOFA video to be distributed to the public and our anti-trafficking networks. Recruit your friends, family members, pets, and everyone who wants to end modern day slavery.  Post the sign and these instructions to to your FB and Twitter pages.  

All of us are a part of the fight against human trafficking and modern day slavery.  It happens in OUR neighborhoods - in the city, suburbs, and farmlands. Many of us still think that human trafficking is a problem that happens far away, to non-U.S. citizens, to the "other."  Few realize how human trafficking directly affects us as individuals and how it is an issue the we all need to solve in our immediate communities.  

Please help us out!  Let us know if you have any technical difficulties or need assistance.

Thank you for your support!

The IOFA Team