How Can YOU Fight HT

Whenever I go and speak, I am asked this question quite a bit. Usually I will refer the askers to different websites because I am getting my info from them.

Human Trafficking.org

Not For Sale

Polaris Project

and a few others

I usually have the inkling to just tell people to "GOOGLE IT" but today, I thought that I would put up a simple guide to help answer some of these questions for what the community can do.

I HOPE THIS HELPS!

1. The way to teach others about the issue, it is important to learn more about the facts of human trafficking and slavery so that you can be more informed. Consider memorizing some of the statistics or some of the facts that you think are most profound. They really come in handy when it comes time to present them in a presentation or to a group of non-believers.

2. Tell others. This is the up-most important aspect of advocacy. Without spreading the word, the mission dies. Mention some of the new info you've learned in conversation with people you come in contact with. This is a basic way to spread awareness. Putting up an informational booth, handing out flyers, and chalking are ways that are easy to do and shows people that the issue is important enough to make the effort.

3. Use whatever talents or abilities you have to promote awareness and challenge others to join the effort. You can use practically any form of creative expression or talent to communicate a message of awareness or state a challenge. Advocating for this issue doesn't have to be depressing. Putting on events, talent shows, art shows, writing contests, and even concerts can be turned into educational events. In fact, making something fun is more effective than drilling a whole bunch of statistics into someone's head. It is better to appeal to your audience...know what the people want =).

4. Volunteer your time or services to help an organization that fights human trafficking and/or helps rescue victims of trafficking. Even if it isn't an actual shelter, any organization that fights on any front of the mission needs help in all kinds of ways. There is always need for people to help promote the organization and help with the events. Where I'm from, we really don't have many resources to get involved in the anti-trafficking movement. In that case, create one. There are several resources on the internet of starting a coalition. Form an anti-trafficking coalition on your college campus. American's for Informed Democracy is an organization that advocates for change on pretty much every political front. Human Rights is a huge political issue and guess what falls under Human Rights? That's right....human trafficking.

5. Buy fair trade products. Oh come on, do I really have to explain this one out to you. All right, so be it. What I mean by Fair Trade is that the products that are being consumed by everyday Americans are NOT being made with slave labor. It is easy to find lists on the Internet to see if the products you are using come from slave labor. Click Here

6. Sign petitions or contact your legislation about the issues that you think need to be addressed. In order for these petitions to appear in your radar, most of the time you have to sign up on mailing lists for different anti-trafficking organizations. Facebook even has certain causes that will send you a notification about a petition that comes up. It is very important to sign petitions because this is one of the most effective ways an Average Joe like you and me can be a direct part of the trafficking movement.

7. Become a member of an existing organization that is already creating positive change and support their efforts. This one is kind of self explanatory. Find one in your area, join! They are everywhere!!

8. Stay alert for any signs of human trafficking in your area. If you see anything that looks remotely suspicious, report it to the authorities. Remember that you can make an anonymous call that will not endanger you in any way. First learn the signs, then you will be able to affectively identify any sort of trafficking behavior.

9. You can financially support an organization that fights human trafficking and/or helps rescue victims of trafficking and slavery. There are tons of wonderful organizations out there that fund rehabilitation services and even prevention services to many at-risk populations in almost every country. Really all you have to do is GOOGLE IT =)

10. And perhaps the most important part. DON'T BUY OTHER HUMAN BEINGS.

That is all. I wish you the very best of luck in your endeavors.

The Deadly Chameleon

I look at the stage and think -
what words are on the brink
of my mind that could show
a glimpse of the foe?

But complexity makes me see
how difficult that can be,
when the foe is a chameleon
and blends in with the millions.

The foe is no respecter
of skin color or gender
and often looks so typical
we've become so easy to fool.

The foe's skin can be light or dark
with no distinguishing mark;
the words spouting from their tongue
teasing and enticing the young...

Looking for those who seem to be
impressionable or unable to see
common tricks in a predator's day,
luring and isolating its prey.

One way is tokens of affection.
A suave and charming grin,
plus appealing whispers of love,
he can slowly draw her in.

When her longing heart falls for him
and other voices become so dim,
his first requests seem so small
and he leads her down an unknown hall.

He stares in her eyes and holds her hand;
she stares back and awaits his command.
He promises protection and love
as her heart soars in the clouds above.

He leads her in the room with a bed
and as she remembers what he said,
she allows his hand to roam
and gets excited by his groan.

After their time together is spent
she learns what he really meant.
His eyes become possessive and cold
and for the first time fear takes hold.

With a warning not to leave
she knows not what he will achieve
by stalking out of the room
and locking the door - sealing her doom.

Her heart pounds and feels confused
wanting love, not to be used.
But fear grips her heart and takes hold
as she wonders if she'll be sold.

The door is unlocked and creaks open
and she sees a line of men -
whose faces will soon blur together -
as more men multiply their sins.

Debbie's Story: Sex Trafficking in American Girls - Part 2

Treated Like a Dog

After the horrifying gang rape, police say Debbie was trapped in one of Phoenix's roughest neighborhoods. In a rundown, garbage-strewn apartment, her captors were trying to break her down.

"They were asking me if I was hungry," she said. "I told them no. That's when they put a dog biscuit in my mouth, trying to get me to eat it."

After a sleepless night, Debbie was tossed back into the car and again driven around Phoenix. She said they talked to her about prostitution, and that one of the men forced her to have sex with him in the car and then later in a park.

The same man took her back to his apartment, and Debbie said, "I ended up in the dog kennel."

Greg Scheffer, an officer with the Phoenix police department, said Debbie was kept in a small dog crate for several days. Lying on her back in the tiny space, her whole body went numb.

"She was subject to various abuses while in there," Scheffer said. "This is all part of the breaking down period where [he] gains complete control of this girl."

Unbeknownst to Debbie, police say her captors had put an ad on Craig's List -- a national Web site better-known for helping people find apartments and roommates. Shortly after the ad ran, men began arriving at the apartment at all hours of the day and night demanding sex from her.

She said she had to comply. "I had no other choice," she said.

Debbie sais she was earning hundreds of dollars a night -- all of it, she said, going to the pimp.

Scheffer said Debbie was forced to have sex with at least 50 men -- and that's not counting the men who gang-raped her on a periodic basis.

Debbie had no idea who the men were. "I didn't know them," she said. "But most of them were married, with kids. And every single one of them, I asked them why they were coming to me if they had a wife at home. ... They didn't have an answer. So, like, I felt so nasty."

For more than 40 days, police say Debbie remained captive, often beaten and forced daily to have sex of the most degrading kind. During that time, she said she did not try to escape because her captors had done what police say so many pimps do -- threatened her and terrified her.

Debbie said that the pimps told her they would go after her family, and they even threatened to throw battery acid on her 19-month-old niece.

"After they told me that, I didn't care what happened to me as long as my family stayed alive," she said. "And that's pretty much what I had in my head. Staying there to keep my family alive."

The Search for Debbie

For Debbie, who police said been held by her captors at gunpoint and kept in a dog cage for more than 40 days, the chances of getting out alive seemed slim. But then police investigating the case heard tips that she was being kept in an apartment in the Phoenix area.

Police searched the apartment but didn't find Debbie.

But they were still suspicious. So on Nov. 8, police broke down the doors to the same apartment and realized with a shock why they'd been unable to find Debbie -- she was there, but she was tied up and crushed into a drawer under a bed.

Debbie said she heard Officer James Perry calling her name but was too frightened to answer. "I didn't know what to say; I was just lying under the bed, stiff as a board, shaking," she said "And then he opens the middle drawer, and he was like, 'Oh my God!'"

Trying to Regain Innocence

When Debbie was finally freed from the drawer, she was sobbing, and said she gave the officer "the biggest hug in the world."

"I was so relieved!" she said. "And then that's when my ... I was standing there, and my knees started ... they gave out."

While it seems unbelievable that these girls didn't try to escape earlier, experts say it's not so uncommon.

"These are human beings who are owned by someone else, who lack the ability to walk away, who lack the ability to make a decision in their own self-interest to do something else," said Allen. "If that's not slavery, I don't know what is."

Police arrested two people at the apartment, and Debbie was taken to a safe house for children while her mother was called.

"I remember I got the call while I was driving to work," Kersti said. "That was scary. I had to pull over. But, uh, it was just wild, it was. I drove as fast as I legally could. I walked in and I saw her and we just flew to each other."

Within hours, Debbie was safely home. "I was so happy," she said. "I was so happy to see my mom. I was so happy to be home. I'm able to be with my family. I don't know -- it's crazy."

The two officers who rescued Debbie were so touched by her strength and her story that they visited her this Christmas and gave her a cross -- a token of affection and protection.

"She is a very strong, amazing girl," said Scheffer. "We ran into a few other girls that are like that. I don't know how they have the strength. They are very brave."

Debbie has been joyfully reunited with her family, but they have put their house up for sale. They've decided to leave Arizona and move to the Midwest, where Debbie hopes she can find some of the innocence she lost one grim night in September.

Debbie's Story: Sex Trafficking in American Girls - Part 1

Fifteen-year-old "Debbie" is the middle child in a close-knit Air Force family from suburban Phoenix, and a straight-A student -- the last person most of us would expect to be forced into the seamy world of sex trafficking.

The FBI estimates that there are well over 100,000 children and teens in the United States -- most of them young girls -- being trafficked in the sex trade.

(ABC News)

But Debbie, which is not her real name, is one of thousands of young American girls who authorities say have been abducted or lured from their normal lives and made into sex slaves. While many Americans have heard of human trafficking in other parts of the world -- Thailand, Cambodia, Latin America and eastern Europe, for example -- few people know it happens here in the United States.

The FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11.

And many victims are no longer just runaways, or kids who've been abandoned. Many of them are from what would be considered "good" families, who are lured or coerced by clever predators, say experts.

"These predators are particularly adept at reading children, at reading kids, and knowing what their vulnerabilities are," said FBI Deputy Assistant Director, Chip Burrus, who started the Lost Innocence project, which specializes in child- and teen-sex trafficking.

And, he said, these predators are going where the kids are.

"What you can see, time and time again, is that the predators will adapt their means to whatever the young people are doing -- whether it's malls, whether it's ski slopes, whether it's beaches," Burrus said. "Predators ... are going to do everything in their power to try to convince young girls, young boys, to come with them and enter this particular lifestyle."

Abducted From Her Own Driveway, Teen Says

Debbie's story is particularly chilling. One evening Debbie said she got a call from a casual friend, Bianca, who asked to stop by Debbie's house. Wearing a pair of Sponge Bob pajamas, Debbie went outside to meet Bianca, who drove up in a Cadillac with two older men, Mark and Matthew. After a few minutes of visiting, Bianca said they were going to leave.

"So I went and I started to go give her a hug," Debbie told "Primetime." "And that's when she pushed me in the car."

As they sped away from her house, Debbie said that one of the men told Bianca to tie her up and said he threatened to shoot Bianca if she didn't comply.

"She tied up my hands first, and then she put the tape over my mouth. And she put tape over my eyes," Debbie said. "While she was putting tape on me, Matthew told me if I screamed or acted stupid, he'd shoot me. So I just stayed quiet."

Unbelievably, police say Debbie was kidnapped from her own driveway with her mother, Kersti, right inside. Back home with her other kids, Kersti had no idea Debbie wasn't there.

"I was in the house. I mean, it was a confusing night. I had all the kids coming in and out. The last I knew she had come back in," Kersti said. "It was just so weird that night. I mean, I normally check on all my kids, and that night I didn't. I should have."

Debbie said her captors drove her around the streets of Phoenix for hours. Exhausted and confused, she was finally taken to an apartment 25 miles from her home. She said one of her captors put a gun to her head.

"He goes, 'If I was to shoot you right now, where would you want to be shot -- in your head, in your back or in your chest?'" Debbie said. "And then I hear him start messing with his gun. And he counted to three and then he pulled the trigger. And then I was still alive. I opened my eyes, and I just saw him laughing."

Debbie said she was then drugged by her captors and other men were brought into the room, where she was gang raped.

"And then that's when I heard them say there was a middle-aged guy in the living room that wanted to take advantage of a 15-year-old girl," she said. "And then he goes, 'Bend her over. I want to see what I'm working with.' And that's when he started to rape me. And I see more guys, four other guys had come into the room. And they all had a turn. It was really scary."

US Ranked on Human Trafficking Report for First Time

The United States was ranked for the first time in the 10th annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report documenting human trafficking and modern slavery, released on Monday by the Department of State. The report found that in America men, women, and children were subject to trafficking for “forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution.”

The report represents a “whole decade of work the State Department has pioneered,” said Andrea Bertone, director of Human Trafficking.org, who spoke with the Epoch Times by phone. She said the report is important in her work to prevent human trafficking and each year includes greater detail about trafficking situations in countries around the world.

The report ranks 177 countries based on “the extent of government action to combat trafficking,” with Tier 1 as the highest ranking. A Tier 1 ranking indicates that a state government has recognized the problem of human trafficking, has made efforts to address the issue, and meets the TVPA’s (Torture Victim Protection Act) minimum standards. A country with a Tier 2 rating has not met the standards but has made efforts to do so, while a Tier 3 rating means the country has not met the minimum standards and has not attempted to do so. The United States received a Tier 1 rating.

Andrea Bertone said the rating for the United States is the result of continued requests by NGOs for the United States to rate itself. Bertone said she is not sure how objective the United States could be in rating itself, "Would the U.S. get anything other than a Tier 1 rating?"

Jennifer Bernal Garcia of the Center for a New American Security says including the United States in the report makes sense. Speaking by phone, she said that human trafficking is a transnational phenomenon and the “U.S. is in no way immune.”

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced the release of the report in Washington, D.C., urging governments as well as businesses that profit from human trafficking to take “shared responsibility” for these human rights violations. Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero and Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca also spoke at the press conference.

Important national and international legislation was passed 10 years ago that allowed the report to begin its annual research and assessment of human trafficking across the world. In 2000, the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, establishing the tier ranking system of the report. The United Nations also adopted the Palermo Protocol that year, which provided for “the criminalization of all acts of trafficking—including forced labor, slavery, and slaverylike practices—and that governmental response should incorporate the '3P' paradigm: prevention, criminal prosecution, and victim protection,” according to the report’s website.

Secretary Clinton said that the task of ending modern slavery cannot be simply given to nongovernmental organizations. In order to bring traffickers to justice, “We can’t just blame international organized crime and rely on law enforcement to pursue them. It is everyone’s responsibility. Businesses that knowingly profit or exhibit reckless disregard about their supply chains, governments that turn a blind eye, or do not devote serious resources to addressing the problem, all of us have to speak out and act forcefully,” said Clinton at the press conference.

Ambassador CdeBaca noted that 10 years ago when the report was compiled for the first time, human trafficking was “a little-understood crime that took place in the shadows, cast a darkness over our fundamental rights whether constitutional, international norms, or personal liberties.” Ten years later, it has become a topic of great concern, and there is an even greater need to take bold steps forward, said CdeBaca.

CdeBaca addressed America’s participation in human trafficking. The 2010 report documents the United States not just as a destination or transit country for trafficking, but “we, too, are a source country for people held in servitude.”

Advocates who fought to end slavery and human trafficking in their countries were named heroes and were presented certificates. They came from such diverse countries as Brazil, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and Hungary.

This year marks a year of progress against human trafficking. For example, Argentina made its first conviction under an anti-trafficking law, Clinton said. But there is still much left to do to end slavery once and for all, and Clinton said she hopes “this report galvanizes further action.”

Retrieved from Adapted from: Annie Wu and Nicholas Zifcak. "US Ranked on Human Trafficking for First Time." The Epoch Times. 14 June 2010.