"Demand"

This is a documentary by Shared Hope International. Truly eye opening to what is happening in the world, INCLUDING the United States!

Leia Mais…

Great News!

I just received this email from the International Justice Mission:

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE

Location: Chennai, India
Result: More than 500 people freed in IJM’s largest rescue operation ever

Dear Stephanie,

Today, 522 people are returning to their homes in freedom after being rescued from a brutal brick factory in IJM’s largest operation ever.

Earlier this week, a man reported that his younger brother was being held as a slave in the brick

CHENNAI, India - Rescued from slavery, 143 families prepare to return to their homes. Read coverage of the operation in the Times of India.
factory. My IJM colleagues and the local government partnered to release him and found not just one man, but hundreds of children, women and men desperate to escape. The team quickly moved into action, initiating the biggest rescue operation in IJM’s history.

Conditions in the factory were brutal: A government medical official saw scars that indicated many of the victims may have been tortured. The laborers were forbidden to leave the factory, and did not have enough food. The owner has been placed under arrest.

But today, these families know great kindness and care, due to the commitment of the government officials who not only ordered their release but even held a special ceremony to celebrate their freedom.

These great miracles of freedom would simply not be possible without your support. Thank you for standing with us.

Gratefully,

Gary Haugen
President and CEO
International Justice Mission

Leia Mais…

Justice For IJM Cambodia Clients: Three Perpetrators Convicted

Friday, 17 December 2010
PHNOM PENH – “When you think about victims receiving justice in the courts… most people think of the ultimate sentence, which is part of what justice looks like. But it’s more than that.” IJM Cambodia Field Office Director Patrick Stayton says that seeking justice for Cambodia’s sex trafficking victims involves not only ensuring that perpetrators are sentenced to jail time for their crimes, but that their victims are awarded compensation.

In one recent court ruling, IJM Cambodia’s legal team saw both the fruit of their advocacy – and the need for continued resolve.

"We want our lawyers to skillfully advocate for the perpetrators to be charged according to facts of the case. We want to pursue justice in a full and fair way for each victim." — IJM Cambodia Field Office Director Patrick Stayton

This fall, a Cambodian court sentenced three perpetrators to 10 years in prison following a trial in which three IJM clients testified against their traffickers.

Following the 2009 police operation that freed six victims from a brothel in Siem Reap, Cambodia, IJM staff helped place the victims in aftercare. They also provided legal assistance to the three victims who accepted IJM’s offer of free legal representation.

Despite clear evidence of a felony trafficking crime, the perpetrators were originally charged with a misdemeanor, facing just two to five years in prison if they were convicted. IJM lawyers challenged the charges. “We want our lawyers to skillfully advocate for the perpetrators to be charged according to facts of the case,” Stayton says. “We want to pursue justice in a full and fair way for each victim.” IJM’s advocacy for accurate charges was successful, and the case was tried under the correct article this fall.

At the end of the trial, a teenage victim testified that at the brothel she was regularly locked in a room for hours at a time and exploited by customers.

The brothel owner was convicted under Article 28 of Cambodia’s anti-trafficking law, declared guilty of procuring child prostitution. Two other perpetrators were convicted in absentia of being accomplices to the crime.

While the judges did sentence the three perpetrators to prison, they did not award much-needed financial compensation to the victims. IJM’s legal team is considering what strategies they may use to advocate for the victims’ financial restitution in the future. “There’s no amount of money that would adequately compensate for the kind of abuse the victims suffer,” Stayton says, but “it’s significant for the courts to order the compensation because it hits the perpetrators at the source of their motive for exploiting.”

IJM staff are encouraged that the courts responded to requests for a fair trial. As the clients continue to heal and gain dignity in their new lives, IJM staff will ensure they receive appropriate aftercare, and IJM’s legal team remains dedicated to advocating for the girls for as long as needed.

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Progress is being made! Thank you, International Justice Mission!

Leia Mais…

Know the Facts

Leia Mais…

Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls

These are some screenshots from an article I read in my social issues course last semester that deals with sexual exploitation. This is not the article in it's entirety, but merely segments. (This article was published in a larger work in the form of a book; thus I am unable to provide a link to the full source. I sincerely apologize.)

(Click on screenshots to make them larger.)

Reading this makes me angry, scared, and heart-broken. In hearing the statement about Brazil, all I could think about were the precious little girls I met in Sao Paulo this summer: Julia, Bianca, Rebeca, Jeovana, Ana, Paloma... 

What if this happened to them?

Fact: Human trafficking brings in $32,000,000 annually; that's more than Google, Starbucks, and Nike combined. 

Just take a second to really think about that... 

Leia Mais…

Mya's Story

Human trafficking is making modern-day slaves out of millions of vulnerable children. Mya is a young girl from Myanmar who was sold by her mother and forced into child labor. This is her story.*

My name is Mya Islam and I am 11 years old. When I was 7, my mother asked me if I wanted to sell flowers. I said “yes” because I wanted to help earn money for our family. That’s when she sold me to a stranger for 3,000 Baht [about $96 US]. He promised my mother he would send her more money from my earnings every three months.

The man put me on the back of a crowded truck and drove me from my home in Myanmar all the way to Bangkok, Thailand. Of the 20 people on the truck with me, I soon realized I was the only child. Terrified, I crawled to the furthest corner to hide. Finally, too tired to keep my eyes open, I fell asleep.

When we arrived in Bangkok, I was taken from house to house until I finally met my employer—a woman who told me she had paid 10,000 Baht for me.

My job would be to sell roses in a popular bar in Bangkok. Night after night I would leave the house at 9, sell about 100 roses all through the night, and return home around 6 the next morning.

The nights were long and I would get very tired. I cried a lot. I missed my family. Sometimes when I would go to the bar, people would buy all of my flowers at once. They said that children shouldn’t have to work and that I should go home. The first time this happened I was shocked. I thought it was normal for children to work. But others told me I was lucky. While boys who were sold would be put to work in a job like mine, most girls who were sold were taken to brothels in Malaysia.

In spite of what they said, I didn’t feel lucky. I thought about trying to escape, but I didn’t dare...


Four years passed and I was still in Bangkok, worlds away from my home.

One day when I was on my way back to the house, I was arrested by the police for being an illegal immigrant. I was frightened about what would be done with me. But it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened!

I was brought to the World Vision Foundation of Thailand’s (WVFT) Mae Sot Anti-Human Trafficking office. The people there made me feel safe and promised to help find my family. Four months later I was finally able to visit my family again.

World Vision has worked with my parents to help them understand why it’s important for me to go to school. My mother says she doesn’t want me to work anymore. Now instead of selling roses, I go to a special school where I study Burmese, English, Thai, and other subjects. I’ll never forget my ordeal in Bangkok, but all of that is behind me now.

*This story is based on interviews with Mya Islam. Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

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Leia Mais…

Masood's Story

Human trafficking is making modernday slaves out of millions of vulnerable children. Masood is a young boy from Pakistan who was exploited and defiled. This is his story.*

My name is Masood. I am from the Galliat region of Pakistan, in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is beautiful there—so green and peaceful.

My mother died when I was young and my father remarried not long afterward. My stepmother constantly mistreated me. As I got older, living with her became unbearable. Finally, I boarded a bus and left on my own. I was only 15. I didn’t know where the bus was going—I just got off at the last stop. It was a busy bus terminal in the huge, crowded city of Rawalpindi.

I didn’t know anyone in this strange city. I was hungry, so I asked a hotel owner if I could work for him. I thought I could wash dishes to make money. He said yes, and told me I could stay in a room with some other children.

My first night there, a man came into the room and forced me to have sex with him. I was terrified, but what could I do? The second night another man came and did the same thing. Fighting back my shame, I went to the hotel manager and told him what was happening. I was stunned when he told me not to bother him. He said that kind of thing happened all the time. When I told him I wanted to leave, he said the police would throw me in jail and I’d be killed by strangers.

Afraid of what he’d said, I stayed. I washed dishes during the day, and served “customers” at night. Every customer paid about $.50 or bought me dinner. All of the boys at the hotel did the same thing. I hated what I was doing, so I began to use alcohol and drugs to try to block it out. After awhile, I became numb—I had no other choice. My family didn’t care about me, and I had nowhere else to go.


At one point I tried to get a normal job, but I had no skills. I had only been to school up to fourth grade. Nobody would give me work without abusing me, so I decided I would start charging every customer myself. I became a prostitute—and that’s how I made a living.

I have learned a lot since I started working as a prostitute. There are networks in the city that sell boys to wealthy older men who use them as companions. These men keep the boys for a while and then re-sell them when they get bored. Of course, once a boy has had one or two owners, his value drops. He is re-sold for less and less money each time.

I used to have dreams, but this is how my life turned out. Sometimes I still imagine what it would be like to have a real job, a family, a house of my own … to be normal. But there’s no way I could have any of that now.

*This story is based on interviews with Masood. His name has been changed to protect his identity.

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