16 Days – Day Eight: Trafficking

Taking
a Stand Against Trafficking: Educating, Empowering and Enabling Women to Act!

 

Soroptimist International of Marin County,
California, collaborated with the Jeannette Prandi Children’s Center and
community associations to present an eye-opening program that educated people about human trafficking and child abduction.
With growing awareness that the law enforcement community had an abiding
concern about this issue, SI Marin County President and retired Deputy District
Attorney Linda Witong, SI Marin County Past President and Retired District
Attorney Paula Kamena and SI Marin County Vice-President and Police Chaplain
Jan Heglund organised a high-profile education forum. This event was presented
to educate communities that trafficking is not just an issue for ‘other
countries’ but that it can happen where you live too!

Linda Witong and Paula Kamena write about
the educational forum ‘What Is Human Trafficking?" to continue to raise
awareness during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, and for today,
the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

The aim of this event was simple – to
educate, engage and empower those living in Marin County to be able to act
against trafficking. Victims and survivors of trafficking can be anyone, which
is often either not known or forgotten. It is easy to think that ‘it won’t
happen to me or people I know’. This is why survivors were invited to make
presentations at the Forum. Their stories really brought the issue home. Cody
and Amy, both of whom survived child sex trafficking spoke from the heart. Their heart breaking stories stilled the room other than a sniffle.  Their hope,
tenacity and perseverance were remarkable and courageous. Unfortunately, too
many people believe that those who have been trafficked and are being
controlled in slave-like situations can just walk away. What Cody and Amy
brought was a huge sense of credibility to this problem. Although we hear
phrases like ‘lives have been torn apart’ in the news, the reality of
rebuilding a life is hard to imagine. These women were brave enough to speak
up, and those attending the Forum appreciated and respected that.

 

Photo: Linda Witong, Julian Sher and Paula Kamena

Suzanne Sullivan, an SIA Fundraising
Council member flew from her home in Washington State to attend the
forum. She enthusiastically reported: “During
all the presentations you could hear a pin drop.  The full room included
persons from all walks of life such as concerned citizens, elected officials,
care givers, police and chaplains. 

"Our
work is cut out for us before we end human trafficking, yet just because this
topic is so distasteful, horrific and challenging to stop, it does not mean
that we should ignore it. Human trafficking is not going away. Healing is hard,
very hard. So prevention and eliminating the demand must be accomplished, along
with quality treatment centers to restore a productive life to the victims.”

 

As Suzanne highlights, what is very
important is that while law enforcement is
effective, it can be difficult to create and implement proper policies.
Communities do need to know what the law is and what is being done to enforce
it. That the Marin County District Attorney and leaders of the Marin County
Human Trafficking Task Force (a collaboration of law enforcement leaders and
concerned non-profit agencies) participated in and supported this forum was
exceptionally important to us. It brought significant attention to the event
and demonstrated the importance of collaboration. For law enforcement to be
successful, we need everyone on board. By having
such a broad range of speakers, we showed that collaboration is possible and
what successful collaboration looks like. What was very empowering was to hear
about the different programmes that communities had implemented to deter
trafficking, and attendees took it all on board.

 

Photo: Cheryl Jennings, Linda Witong and survivor Amy

The positive feedback we
received has spurred us on to do more. While our
intent was to educate and not necessarily to fundraise, this program was so
well-received that many sponsorships were obtained and we did in fact raise a
very successful sum. These funds will be used to help eradicate trafficking,
and to further educate on the topic. Based on the forum speakers, we are
producing an educational video on ‘What is Human Trafficking?’ that
should be available by next March. There is an ever-growing movement to end
trafficking, and it is possible to eradicate human trafficking if we all take a
stand against it.