Diana Scimone

4th annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day

2012-01-27T16:07:41-05:00

4th annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day
Free event
Saturday, January 28, 2012
12:00 - 4:00 pm

Lake Eola -- Walt Disney Amphitheater
101 N. Rosalind Ave., Orlando, FL. 32801
Map
Facebook

FREE finger printing & picture I.D. for children - Child Rescue
Educational games and activities for children - Releasing
Anti-Human Trafficking booths - Domestic & International
Memory Exhibit - "Where are all the missing children &
Guest speakers & abolitionists sharing their stories &
NEW - Freedom Walk (around Lake
Raffle
Stand with those ending
Live entertainment, food vendors, fair trade vendors, and MUCH more

Last year more than 1,000 people attended. This free event is presented in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security Blue Campaign, City of Orlando, the Orlando Rescue & Restore Coalition, non-profits combating human trafficking, and many others.

If you live in central Florida and want to know more about human trafficking -- and how to stop it -- this is the place to be.

Part 2: If you're buying children online, buyer beware

2012-01-19T17:32:19-05:00

Yesterday I was in a meeting with one of the detectives responsible for the arrests of 40 men this week in central Florida for attempting to buy children online. (You can read about the arrests in yesterday's post: If you buy children online, we will post your name online.)

He spoke to us about internet crimes against children. I wanted to wash in Clorox after he finished.

Here's what he told us:

Of the 40 arrrested, only 1 was a registered sex offender.

Two years ago in the same county where these 40 men were arrested, traffickers targeted 11 kids at a local karate school.

Child traffickers are professional. He showed us the cover of a professionally produced booklet--a how-to guide for buying children and what to do once you have them. [Bring on the Clorox.]

Most of the men arrested were once victims themselves of childhood sex abuse.

Investigators use sophisticated computer programs that monitor who is trading images and videos of children online. Think Google maps, but click on the red pins and instead of all the nearby Starbucks, voila--the name, location, and IP address of everyone looking for children online. All in real time.

Law enforcement in numerous states worked together on the 40 arrests--members of Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a nationwide network of 3,000 federal, state, and local agencies.

Since 2009, his local department has helped with 188 arrests in state and out of state including:

~High-level executive at a national insurance company
~High-school teacher
~Pastor of a 1,500 member church
~Father of 4, including a child who was the age of the child he was propositioning online
~Federal corrections officer
~Youth pastor
~Doctor

Buyers use a complicated grooming process to lure children and teenagers via Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, and other sites.

Parents can minimize risk by actively and strategically monitoring their children's social network usage.

In a few days I'll post some of the resources he shared.

If you're new to this blog, our goal at The Born2Fly Project is to reach kids before the traffickers do. We do this through an awareness and prevention program that we're testing in 5 countries. You can read more at www.born2fly.org. And you can donate to our work on that site, also.

I know this is not easy reading. Thanks for not turning away.

If you buy children online, we will post your name online

2012-01-18T19:51:18-05:00

This is Part 1 of a 2-part post.

Yesterday the Sheriff's Office of Osceola County, Florida, arrested 40 men for attempting to buy sex with children.

The arrests include a swim coach, a professional golfer on the Senior PGA Tour, an 8th-grade teacher, business professionals, 8 college students, and many others.

I just came from a meeting with one of the detectives involved in the sting and I'll report on that tomorrow. I'm still processing the mind-boggling information he shared.

Meanwhile, to the men buying children, here is our promise: If you buy children online, we will post your name online. And here you are--all 40 of you including your photos and occupations.

(This information is publicly available on the Osceola County Sheriff's Office website here, along with more information about each person arrested.)

Frederick David Adams, Naples, FL. Occupation: High School Student
Samer Japer Al-Hubaydi, Daytona Beach, FL. Occupation: Student, Embry-Riddle
Jason Bacchus, Winter Garden, FL. Occupation: Sales Representative, Cell Phone Distributor
Christopher Baker, Kissimmee, FL. Occupation: Unemployed
Christopher Batman, Wesley Chapel, FL. Occupation: Self-Employed
Marvin Alfonson Bell, Valrico, FL. Occupation: College Student
Dennis Bluemke, Clermont, FL. Occupation: Fencing
Charles James Buffington, Deltona, FL. Occupation: Construction
Sergio Cardenas, Auburndale, FL, Occupation: Unemployed
Lucas Bartholomew Clarke, Winter Park, FL. Occupation: Student, Golf Academy of America
Shane Daniel Cousins, Kissimmee FL. Occupation: Soldier, U.S. Army Reserves
Gary J. Durso, Palm Coast, FL. Occupation: Areole Technician
Josean Javier Gaston, Orlando, FL. Occupation: Student
Carlos Gomez, Winter Park, FL. Occupation: Unemployed
Justin Joseph Hall, Kissimmee, FL. Occupation: Student
Dell Rio Highsmith, DFargo, GA. Occupation: Retired Bee Keeper
Cornellus Eugene Hunt, Orlando, FL. Occupation: Student
Phillip Dale Jones, Winter Haven, FL. Occupation: Unemployed
Roger Dale Mathews, Lakeland, FL. Occupation: Plant Manager
Joseph Matz, Williamstown NJ. Occupation: Unemployed
Carl David Brooks Newsome, Fairhope, AL. Occupation: Unknown
Ryu Nolin, Edgewater, FL. Occupation: Personal Trainer
Craig Alan Parsel, Jr. Occupation: Warehouse Clerk
Eric Dennard Payne, Jr., Orlando, FL. Occupation: Dispatcher
Ahmidullah Popal, Flushing, NY. Occupation: Wholesale Dealer
Nigel Rattan, Mt. Dora, FL. Occupation: Self-Employed
Milton Benjamin Richardson, Palm Bay, FL. Occupation: Engineer
Kegan Ritchie, Port Orange, FL. Occupation: Student
Alexander Roy, Port St. Lucie, FL. Occupation: Eighth Grade Teacher
Kenneth Sinisi, South Daytona, FL. Occupation: Unemployed
Andrew Louis Skinner, Windermere, FL. Occupation: Vendor
Jay S. Soni, Orlando, FL. Occupation: Sales Representative
Frederick Charles Spreng, Windermere, FL. Occupation: Manager
Warren Lee Staples, St. Cloud, FL. Occupation: Public Works
Winston Alexander Stephens, Shreveport, LA. Occupation: Student, Full Sail University
Christopher Stewart, Kissimmee, FL. Occupation: Truck Loader
Ryan Stickle, Sammamish, WA. Occupation: Consultant
Samuel Dean Straitiff, Deland, FL. Occupation: Information Technology
Stephen Wesley Thomas, Meridian, MS. Occupation: Professional Golfer
Bryan Allan Woodward, Gainesville, FL. Occupation: Head Swim Coach, Gator Swim Club

Please check back here tomorrow when I'll post Part 2 -- a report on the meeting with one of the undercover investigators involved in the sting. Or subscribe to this blog by using the "Get email updates" button in the upper left.

The dream is still alive

2012-01-15T21:08:11-05:00

"Administer justice every morning and deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor" (Jeremiah 21:12).

Today is a national holiday in the US to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I wrote this post a few years ago about how he inspired me in my fight to stop child trafficking.

* * *

Five decades ago, my sisters and I set up a little store in the playroom of our house in New York. When we invited our parents to come and shop (i.e. to spend their money), they were aghast to see the sign we had hung in our store:

"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

My parents explained to us the meaning of this sign, which we must have seen in a real store, and why it was wrong--that it was racial discrimination designed to keep out blacks. (As Italian-Americans, my parents had their own encounters with injustice and discrimination, particularly my father.)

I had no clue. I went through the 1950s and, I regret to say, the 60s and still had no clue.

What was happening in the south didn't seem to affect me--Little Rock, Birmingham, Memphis, the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. It was all something on the pages of newspapers, but didn't really involve me.

When I was 17, I moved to Washington to attend college during the years when race riots scarred the streets. The events of the day began to get a little closer to home.

A decade later, I moved to Alabama and met people personally affected by injustice. The struggle for justice got closer.

Then I moved to central Florida, where one morning I looked out my window and saw five men cloaked in white sheets protesting outside the Jewish Community Center across the street, claiming the Holocaust was all a myth. Now the struggle for justice was just outside my front door.

Yet another decade later, I was co-writing a book called The Dream Is Alive about the struggle for racial justice within the Christian church. The title, of course, refers to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. While researching information for the book, I read his speech on the internet and listened to scratchy on-line recordings of many of his other speeches--and they powerfully impacted me. Now the struggle was right at the tip of my fingers.

Today, five decades after taking down that sign, I think I'm finally getting it. Injustice has many forms and faces, and they're all ugly. In my travels, I've seen the injustice of child trafficking face to face--girls in cages, boys sold on streets, and more. As I took down that sign 50 years ago, now I'm working to take down a different form of injustice through The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Dr. King's struggle in the face of overwhelming odds, along with his profound words that documented it, are part of the inspiration that has propelled me.

Here are some of his words from his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." I hope they inspire you the way they inspire me.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"Justice too long delayed is justice denied."

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

"Was not [the biblical prophet] Amos an extremist for justice? 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream' [Amos 5:24] . . . So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

--excerpts from "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To read and hear more:

"Letter From a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 (audio clips)
"I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963 (text and audio versions)
"I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech, April 3, 1968, the night before Dr. King was killed (text and audio versions)
The King Center

* * *

A few more great quotes (hat tip @charlestlee):

“A minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring social conditions in his own community that cause [people] an earthly hell.”

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority.”

13 things I learned about child trafficking from an undercover operation

2012-01-10T14:45:50-05:00

Wednesday, January 11, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

In honor of this day (which I hope we soon don't have to commemorate), I want to tell you about my recent experience as part of an undercover operation in a large US city.

Our focus was Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST). These are minors (under 18) and US citizens.

It was an eye-opening, two-day operation. Here's what I learned, in part from Giselle Rodriguez, state outreach coordinator for the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, who trained us, and in part from my own experiences on the street:

1. We were not in the "bad" part of town but in a area popular with tourists and families.

2. We worked with undercover investigators who regularly monitor DMST happening throughout the city.

3. We saw at least one minor being trafficked, right in the open. We knew there were many more we couldn't see.

4. We talked to hotel owners about DMST and watched their varying reactions. Some said they'd seen girls being trafficked and reported it to the police. Others denied ever seeing anything--but their body language and quick, furtive glances told us otherwise.

5. Girls are controlled by a network of pimps, handlers, and others who are watching her at any given moment from hidden locations. (This is why we were told NOT to try to rescue girls we saw but to get as much information as possible and report to the investigators at our control center.)

6. We must see these girls as victims. They are doing what they do because of force, fraud, and coercion--not because they've made a lifestyle choice.

7. 2,500 children go missing every day--in the US alone. That's 1.6 million a year. Not all of them are trafficked--but they are all at-risk for trafficking.

8. Within 48 hours of running away, a teenager will be approached by traffickers. Most runaways don't bring cash, lunch, or other necessities, so they are easy pickings for traffickers who offer all that and more.

9. Today the average age of a trafficked person is 12 years old. That's the average age, so many are much younger. Traffickers are going after younger and younger children because they are easier to manipulate.

10. One of the common recruiting locations that trafficking recruiters frequent are the halls outside juvenile justice courtrooms.

11. Trafficked children don't call their controllers "pimps" but rather "Daddy" or "Boyfriend." And that's how they really see them. Traffickers work to create a feeling of family because who isn't looking for a family to belong to? Children will ignore the abuse, violence, and control because trauma bonding is so strong. In fact, if you try to rescue a victim of DMST, she will fight you because you have just ruined what she sees as a perfect world.

12. Victims of DMST are trained to lie for their pimps, to take the fall for their "knight in shining armor," and to distrust everyone else (that would be you and me).

13. Once a child is trafficked, her average life expectancy is 7 years.

It is very difficult to rescue a trafficked child--not to mention help them heal. That's why our goal at The Born2Fly Project is to reach kids before the traffickers do. Our goal is to cut off the supply line of kids by educating them ahead of time about the lies that traffickers tell.

My other goal is that some January in the future we will not need a Human Trafficking Awareness Day. My goal is that one day the world will be free of child slavery.

Can I quote you on that?

2012-01-02T14:08:55-05:00

I took a blogging break in December (you noticed, right?). This post begins my 6th year of blogging!

Here's my annual first post of the year. All year long whenever I need some quick inspiration, I just look at the top of my daily to-do agenda where I keep a list of motivational quotes I gather. Whenever I find a new one, I add it to the list. I post them front and center to inspire me as I work on The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

When the fight seems impossible, I read what Einstein said. Or Edison. Or Zappos.com.

Today I start a brand-new list, so enjoy these now. I hope they motivate you as much as they do me. Most of these come from my fellow Twitterati, so I've included their Twitter names after each quote in case you want to follow them.

Got a fav quote of your own? Leave it as a comment. I've already begun my 2012 list and could use a few good quotes to start the year right.

* * *

"They didn't know it was impossible, so they did it.”—Mark Twain

“Ending human trafficking is not idealistic or naive. It is audacious. And it is people of audacity who change the world.”—Rob Morris (@RobLOVE146)

“Justice, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”—@jujulee89

"Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair."—G.K. Chesterton (via @RobLOVE146)

"Endure. In the wilderness, either your issue will die or you will."—Casey Doss (via @theramp)

"When I look at the [pruning] work Nancy did with the roses today, I realize that there is a sense of relief. No need to support the branches that will no longer flower. It was good, but now is a burden."—Jon Swanson (@jnswanson)

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."—Milton Berle (via @gailtiv)

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline."—Jim Collins, from Good to Great

"The start and finish are easy. It is in the long middle of the race where preparation and commitment matter most."—Doug Picirillo (@doug_picirillo)

"Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."—Conrad Hilton

"You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea."—Pablo Picasso

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done."—Steven Wright (via @PhilCooke)

"The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done."—Arnold Palmer (via @Jenny_Shain)

"Art is what we call...the thing an artist does. It's not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human. Art is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist."—Seth Godin (@thisissethsblog)

“Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."—1 Chronicles 28:20

“There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”—Nelson Mandela (via @HopeMore)

“A year from now you will wish you had started today."—Karen Lamb (via @JohnStanko)

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”—Mario Andretti

“We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat.”—Queen Victoria (via @BeAuthor)

Can an ebook for kids help stop child trafficking?

2011-11-28T17:20:41-05:00

I hope so! In fact, I'm counting on it.

Each year more than 1 million kids get lured into trafficking all over the world, including in the U.S. Some of them are just 5 years old.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking is smack in the middle of pilot-testing our innovative program to reach kids before the traffickers do.

Now we're hoping to fund expansion of the program through sales of a new ebook for kids:

It's called Born to Fly: The tale of a dream that would not die. And it features the same storyline as in the wordless book that's the centerpiece of The Born2Fly Project.

It's a delightful tale about what it takes to pursue your dream. I like to say it's a novel for children--and adults who can still think like children.

Born to Fly costs just $5.99. What a deal, huh? And proceeds go to The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Blossom shows kids how to go after their dreams

OK, so I'm biased, but Born to Fly is one of the cutest children's books you'll ever read. Here's a little teaser on the plot:

Blossom is in big trouble. Her grandfather warned her not to go beyond the village gates. After all, no caterpillar in Twig Valley has ever ventured there and returned to tell.

For centuries the caterpillars of Twig Valley have lived with a Dark Cloud over the land. For as long as anyone can remember, no caterpillar has ever become a butterfly. In fact, no one thinks about being anything more than a bug that crawls in the dust of the ground.

Until Blossom...

A companion website, www.borntoflybook.com, has games and activities for kids and a free reading guide/curriculum for teachers and schools.

The storyline is by yours truly with 43 charming illustrations in soft pastel by artist Leah Wiedemer:

You don't need an iPad, Kindle, or Nook to read it!

If you don't have an ereader, just download Kindle for PC on your computer (it's free) and you can read Born to Fly (and any ebook).

So click here to order your copy today:

Amazon (for Kindle)
iBooks (for iPad or iPhone)
Barnes and Noble (for Nook)
Sony (for Ereader)
And many other readers

And remember, proceeds go to The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Give a gift for Christmas or Hanukkah

If you know a child who likes to dream big, you can give Born to Fly for Christmas or Hanukkah. Just click the "give a gift" tab on each of the bookstore sites to send a gift ebook.

One more thing...Blossom has her very own Facebook page, so please be her fan, okay? She'll be thrilled. And maybe she'll tell you what in the world she's doing in this picture:

18 reasons why Born2Fly is thankful for YOU

2011-11-23T15:07:29-05:00

It's Thanksgiving weekend in the US and we've got lots to be thankful for at Born2Fly--and you're at the top of our list!

Through your contributions, prayers, reading this blog, and sending lots of encouraging words and comments, here's what you've helped us accomplish in 2011 (and we still have a month to go!):

1. Completed successful test of the B2F anti-trafficking program in Bulgaria this summer with more than 100 at-risk gypsy children.

2. Launched the test phase in Russia at 3 orphanages (continuing through spring 2012).

3. Began testing in Thailand at a safe house near the Myanmar border.

4. Started testing in the Philippines in villages with plans to expand to public schools.

5. Trained parents and teachers in all these locations

6. Translated B2F anti-trafficking curriculum into Spanish, Russian, and one of the largest languages spoken in the the Philippines.

7. Spoke with a translator about a possible Arabic translation of the curriculum.

8. Teamed with an organization to possibly test B2F in India (still looking into this).

9. Networked on Twitter with 200+ local, national, and international anti-trafficking organizations and 2,600 individuals.

10. Posted regular updates on this blog to increase awareness about child trafficking around the world and in the US.

11. Guest-posted or was interviewed on other blogs about child trafficking, particularly regarding the tragic death of the child in the Philippines last month.

12. Continued posting on B2F's cause page on Facebook with nearly 1,000 fans. (If you're not one of them, please like us!)

13. Promoted the prevention work of B2F in many publications and websites including Reject Apathy and others.

14. Profiled in The Dragonfly Effect, new book on using social media to drive social change.

15. Talked with numerous reporters for stories, interviewed on TV and radio, and spoke frequently about the efforts to stop this pandemic.

16. Met regularly with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking to help stop child trafficking.

17. Spoke at Human Trafficking Awareness Day outdoor rally in downtown Orlando attended by 1,500+ people.

This is all possible because of you!

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for you and all that you've enabled us to accomplish this year at The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking. We never could have done it without you.

On behalf of all the children who will never be trafficked because of B2F: Thank you!

* * *

Yes, I said "18 reasons" and only gave you 17! I've got even more good news. Click here for reason #18....

Life in prison for child trafficker--in suburban Washington DC

2011-11-16T12:40:08-05:00

If you still think child trafficking happens in other countries, here's your wake-up call:

In suburban Washington DC, a man was just sentenced to life in prison for prostituting a 12-year-old girl to clients throughout northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

Jose Ciro Juarez-Santamaria, 24, an illegal alien from El Salvador, would take this little girl to locations where customers would be lined up waiting for her. And there's lots more horror that I won't even go into.

Remember, this didn't happen across the globe but across the street And this is by far not an isolated event. He just got caught.

The healing process begins

“With today’s sentence Mr. Juarez-Santamaria will spend the rest of his life behind bars," said Neil MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, "while his child victim will spend the rest of her life working through the pain he inflicted.

"Through aggressive efforts by the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, we’re working together to fight this reprehensible form of exploitation," MacBride added.

Hats off to the coalition of law enforcement and non-profit agencies that got the job done--"the aggressive efforts by the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force."

My organization, Born to Fly, is a member of the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and I know firsthand what a powerful combination it is when local law enforcement, non-profits, faith-based organizations, children's agencies, and just plain interested citizens all work together.

You can read the Department of Justice report here: MS-13 Gang Member Sentenced to Life in Prison for Sex Trafficking a Child.

Child kidnapped, beheaded in village where B2F anti-trafficking program being taught

2011-10-20T16:51:19-04:00

When I tell you that child trafficking is organized crime, I'm not kidding. Trafficking is very, very lucrative with very few risks. Organized crime has made it the 2nd-highest grossing illegal industry on the planet.

So what happens when you threaten the traffickers' livelihood?

Let's say you want to cut off the supply line of kids...

Let's say you start to teach the Born2Fly anti-trafficking program to kids and parents, and you teach them how to stand up to traffickers...

And let's say you do this in an area where kids are regularly kidnapped and trafficked...

What happens?

This is what happened in a village in the Philippines where our brave partners have been openly teaching the B2F Project anti-trafficking curriculum to children and their parents.

First, our Philippines director was attacked by a trafficker who broke one of her ribs. (He was arrested.)

Then this happened, as reported by the Philippines director:

"One of the children who we have worked with for over a year was kidnapped this week and later returned with all his organs gone and head cut off.

"His mother is obviously traumatized and is uncertain where to go from here and to be honest I just don’t have answers for her. My heart is breaking and I feel angry all in one breath.

"We have had so many children taken from our village in the last couple of months that our team is in shock and the government is searching for answers and help.

"Our course is set to expand whether we are ready or not. Prevention is what we are aiming for."

I am outraged and shocked by the murder of this child and I condemn it in the harshest possible terms. This was a warning shot from the traffickers. No traffickers bother to return a body; they did it as a warning to the team to stop interfering with their livelihood.

Did it work? Has the team pulled back?

Here's what the Philippines director emailed me a week after this child was murdered:

"After many setbacks physical and emotional, being run off the road and vandalism, we are still standing and focused probably more than even before. Our team members are more determined than even before to protect these children and youth especially.

"Two weeks ago I was involved in a [trafficking] intervention, which saved several young girls and was an exceptionally rewarding experience.

"Our most recent test of Born2Fly is going great. The kids are loving it and the teachers and parents numbers are increasing too. Thank you, blessings and strength to you as you spearhead this movement. We are with you all the way."

What an absolute honor to partner with brave warriors such as this director and her team who are standing up to the despicable actions of these traffickers.

Please keep this team in your prayers as they continue to fight on the front lines. They are my heroes.

Daughters who work so their fathers don't have to

2011-10-17T14:52:12-04:00

This weekend I went to the Orlando screening of Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, a new documentary produced by Exodus Cry about human trafficking and the sex industry.

The producers filmed in 19 countries in North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

The film includes dozens of riveting interviews with trafficking victims and those who help them--and those who buy and sell them. It weaves a picture of the complex cultural, economic, social, religious, and political factors that can influence trafficking.

I've seen a lot of films and documentaries about trafficking, but I always learn something new. For example, I had no idea that 10% of the current population of Moldova has been trafficked. That's a shocking statistic.

Or that in some parts of Asia when a girl is born it's actually cause for rejoicing (unlike in other parts of Asia where boys are more valued than girls) -- because parents know their daughter will generate a steady supply of income when she's old enough to be trafficked.

"Old enough" means about 4 years old, by the way.

There are a lot of graphic images in Nefarious, but to me the most horrendous was a group of fathers in Cambodia playing cards and drinking--which they do all day, every day--all funded by selling their young daughters to sex tourists.

The fathers don't need to work because their daughters do.

I'm all about getting angry over the issue of human trafficking, and Nefarious will make you angry. I strongly encourage you to see it. The Incurable Fanatics* screening tour dates and cities are here.

* "If to be feelingly alive to the suffering of my fellow creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large." -- William Wilberforce, 19th-century British politician and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.

Look what I found in my inbox (and no, it's not spam)

2011-09-20T13:30:20-04:00

ПРОГРАММА И ПОСОБИЕ ДЛЯ ПРЕПОДОВАТЕЛЯ

Проект «Рожден летать»
- остановим торговлю детьми

Диана Скимон, Карен Армистед, Джорджия Ана Ларсон

Can you guess what it is? It's the cover of the Russian translation of the Born2Fly anti-trafficking curriculum--our very 1st translation!

In case your Russian is a little rusty, it says:

CURRICULUM AND LEADER'S GUIDE

The Born to Fly Project
to stop child trafficking

By Diana Scimone, Karen Armistead, and Georgia Ana Larson

Pretty exciting, huh? This week Russia joins our test phase as we begin testing B2F at 3 orphanages there (more details here).

Orphans everywhere are extremely high-risk for trafficking, particularly when they age-out of the system. Once they reach 18, they're on their own--and traffickers are all too willing to befriend them.

Remember, you can sell a bag of drugs once but you can sell a child over and over again. That's why organized crime is so involved in child trafficking.

Here's what the Russian director of the group we're partnering with told me:

"It's a relational luring. These kids are easy prey because they're not educated well and [when they leave the orphanage] they're looking for ways to live independently.

"Criminal groups exist in Russia [that are involved in human trafficking] and orphans are extremely high risk.

"Kids with families have a support group that will say, 'Who is this person who's befriended you? Let's check him out. Did you ask him this or that?' Orphans don't have anyone to stand up for them or protect them or even be interested in what's going on."

The team that's test-teaching B2F in Russia is serving as that support group for these older orphans. They'll train them in the B2F program so that they can go back to the orphanages and teach B2F to the younger kids.

That's the model we've built into the B2F curriculum: Trusted adults teach B2F to "junior teachers," who in turn help teach the younger kids. That way the junior teachers learn the material and also learn a skill (teaching).

Our goal is to compile all the feedback from the tests in Russia, Bulgaria (complete), Thailand and the Philippines (going on now). We'll tweak the curriculum and by early next year begin printing and distributing it all over the world along with the companion wordless book.

Thanks for sticking with us through the process and helping us reach kids before the traffickers do.

Blossom is in the Philippines (who knew?)

2011-09-01T14:53:04-04:00

I think I should get Blossom a frequent flyer account. All summer she's been in Bulgaria and Thailand, this month she heads to Russia, and surprise, surprise, she's also been in the Philippines.

Blossom is the main character in the Born2Fly anti-trafficking curriculum and wordless book. We've been testing the materials all over the world to teach kids about the lies traffickers tell and how to stand up to them.

Last spring an NGO in the Philippines emailed me to ask if they could be one of the test places.

Their local school district had already given them permission to teach anti-trafficking in the schools and they were about to write their own curriculum when they found out about ours.

Could they use it? Of course!

We had a few emails back and forth, and then I never heard from them. (This often happens with emails lost in cyberspace, as you know.)

So imagine my delight to receive an email from them this week that the tests have already begun!

Here's what the director wrote:

We have finished the first trial in the Philippines. [It was a small group setting] and allowed us a platform to trial it, along with getting familiar with the program and also train our staff.

Our next trial begins the last week of September and will be right here in our village with children who are 10-12 years of age. The following trial will be in November in a tribal village where the Datu or chief will be assisting us.

We have taken these trials very seriously and debriefed after every session. We want to give you a picture of how it will work in a variety of settings, with a variety of languages.

In addition to that I am almost finished the massive task of registering the program with the government department, which will certainly make the job easier for anyone else wanting to run the program in schools.

Really wonderful, isn't it? I'll let you know how it goes.

We're so grateful to all the people helping with these tests for the time and effort they're putting in to them. Their input will help thousands of others who use the materials after them--and countless children will never be trafficked as a result.

Bulgaria finished...on to Thailand!

2011-08-25T16:15:58-04:00

So much good news to tell you! I've waited 5 years to have information like this to share with you!

We finished our 1st test of the B2F anti-trafficking materials in Bulgaria among gypsies and orphan children of various ages--and the 2nd test is well underway in Thailand at a safe house for very young children.

The reports are all great!

Remember, our goal in this phase is to test the 6-session wordless book (above) and 70-page companion curriculum with kids of all ages to find holes or anything we need to change. Once we get feedback from children and students, we'll make changes and begin printing.

Here's what the kids and teachers have told us:

Bulgaria

From the director: "Last week we finished testing your book and curriculum, and everyone is so impressed with it. Valeria kept their attention well; these children were orphans, ages 6-18. She taught three different classes. Here is a picture of those in attendance last week:

"We are all a part of Born2Fly now. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this process."

From the teacher: This skilled teacher took the story about Blossom [main character in the book], her life and her friends and ran with it! She found so many areas to expand on the lessons we taught in the curriculum and customized it for the specific situations that her children face--exactly what we wanted to happen.

This teacher, who is Bulgarian, even offered to help us expand the lessons if we want to add to the curriculum. She also offered to help us condense the material to a shorter format since she did not have 6 sessions with the kids. We're thrilled by her offer, of course!

From the director just today: "We used Born2Fly again this week as we hosted a new group of orphans from the northwestern part of Bulgaria. A sponsor brought them up here for a week at the Black Sea. They heard the lessons and did not want to leave here. So Born2Fly continues to 'blossom' in Bulgaria."

Thailand

We're testing at one of the safe houses that I visited when I was researching the B2F Project, so it's very exciting to know that the kids I met are now reading about Blossom. This is the home where one of the little boys spoke of the van that goes around the neighborhood taking children.

Here's what the teacher emailed me:

First report: "We did our first lesson last night. The kids enjoyed making up their own names for the characters. I'm telling the story in English. We had 3 kids who seemed to turn their attention elsewhere and I'm thinking it may be the language so, I thought I'd try it again with just those 3 in Thai.

"They were all very interested in the story. So far so good. Thanks again for giving us a chance to participate in this. I really appreciate it."

Second report: "We just completed the second part of the first lesson. When I got to the part where Blossom put the note on the door, I thought the kids were going to rip the book right out of my hands to find out what happens next. They were so interested.

"I spoke in Thai this time and all eyes were fixed on the pictures. I think using their mother tongue really helped the kids who weren't paying attention the first time.

"[Kim] asked me if she could have a copy of the book when I was finished teaching it to them. Some kids have books they like to read over and over again. I think this is one of them. It's safe to say it's going well so far."

* * *

Thank you for making all these wonderful reports possible through your encouragement, prayers, and financial support. You really are helping us reach kids before the traffickers do.

First feedback from B2F testing in Bulgaria (and it's fantastic!)

2011-08-02T20:48:35-04:00

We've gotten the first feedback from Bulgaria from our beta test of the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking--and it's fantastic!

Below is what the teacher wrote us. (She's Bulgarian, and her English is a lot better than my Bulgarian.)

You can imagine how thrilled I am to get this glowing report after 5 years of work on this project. Enjoy it as you read it and see the pictures of these kids, knowing that many of them will be saved from being trafficked because of Born2Fly. Thank you for making this all possible.

* * *

From the teacher:

"I taught three lessons on the Born2fly book between 07.18.11 – 07.21.11 in children camp “Heaven."

"I emphasized on the basic idea – to protect the children from child trafficking but at the same time I tried to help the children to start thinking about:

What is choice? How our mistakes can hurt the others and what is the price we pay when we do a mistake?
How can we ask for wisdom when we have to make a decision?
Why sometimes the fruits of our mistakes are so bitter? (Example: cutting down the moon trees and the decision Blossom made to leave the village when she wasn’t prepared yet)
Why do we have to take our time when we have to make an important decision? What do we gain when we sacrifice from our time on it?
How to recognize your real friends? What do our real friends do when we are in trouble? (support us, help us, let us know they are there for us)
What is a dream? Why do the dream thieves are trying to take our dreams and future?
Why do we have to be patient and work hard for our dreams?
Why waiting is so hard?
What does the school give us? – knowledge, preparation, skills. It’s more difficult for someone to trick you if you have all that. The school teaches us how to live a safe life.

"The second lesson I taught was with older campers. We talked about:

The value system of a young person and what are their goals in life.
We talked about the dream thieves – how they may look (good, attractive), what may they offer us (money, easy life, etc.), what they may want in return; why they want to steal our dreams (future)?
We discuss that a dream thief may an idol in our life like – expensive things, modern technologies, even close friends whom we trust too much, different addictions, etc.
The common thing about all of the above is their purpose – to steal our dream, our future, our life. That’s why the tree in the prison where Blossom is kept is ugly and dead.
We talked about the good friends we have – people who want to give, not to receive. The children were making very smart comments.

"At the end I gave them paper where they were able to write down their dreams. The children think positively and dream beautiful dreams.

"I think that the message of the book worked well and provoked them to be more careful for the dangers in their lives and to know what has real worth. It’s another stage in our prevention work against the evil in this world."

Blossom is heading to Russia

2011-07-12T22:46:27-04:00

Blossom is the main character in the Born2Fly wordless book and curriculum--and this fall she's heading to Russia. It's all part of a program to reach kids before the traffickers do.

In this case, Russian orphans.

We're partnering with a non-profit organization that offered to translate the B2F trafficking-awareness curriculum into Russian and then teach it to teens at 3 different centers for orphans who have "aged out" of the system.

Orphans all over the world are extremely at risk for child trafficking. Traffickers actually wait outside orphanages and watch for kids they'll target.

In Russia as in many places around the world, when orphans reach 18 years old, they have to leave the orphanage. Most don't have any skills that can help them hold down a job, or even know how to look for one.

It doesn't take long before the traffickers introduce themselves to the kids. They offer them the moon, and with no other options in sight, the kids take it. Only to find themselves enslaved.

Training kids to stand up to the traffickers

Two different groups of kids will go through the B2F anti-trafficking program:

1. Orphans who are 17-21 years old and recently left the orphanages--a high-risk population

2. Younger teen-aged orphans who are still residing in orphanages

Several full-time orphan-interns will help teach the program. This is exactly the way we've set up the B2F Project--adults train teens, who in turn serve as mentors to younger kids going through the program.

The program begins this fall. Watch this space for details and photos.

orphans who are aged 17-21 who have recently left the orphanages – high risk population, and (2) younger teen-aged orphans who are still residing in orphanages.

Reaching at-risk kids in Bulgaria

2011-07-05T11:21:52-04:00

Yesterday was Independence Day in the US…and also hopefully the start of independence for a group of orphans and other at-risk kids in Bulgaria who will never be lured into child trafficking because of a summer camp they started on July 4.

Part of their daily activities? Swimming, crafts, and oh yeah, learning how to stand up to traffickers--via The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

About 140-200 kids come to this 6-week summer camp near the Black Sea. The kids are 7-15 years old.

"The Born2Fly wordless book and curriculum will be so helpful for our children at summer camp and in all the surrounding villages and towns," the director of the organization we're partnering with in Bulgaria told me.

The Black Sea is a prime tourist area in eastern Europe and “we know there’s so much damage and abuse here," she added. "Your books will be a big help to us.”

In most of the world, human trafficking is the #2 highest-grossing illegal industry (after illegal drugs). But in eastern Europe—including Bulgaria—it’s #1. Kids, particularly orphans, are regularly lured into child trafficking from which there is almost no escape.

So this is a very strategic place to test the B2F anti-trafficking materials.

I’ll share more information and hopefully pictures as soon as we get them.

Meanwhile if you'd like to donate to Born2Fly to help us continue our critical work of reaching kids before the traffickers do, just click here.

Thank you for the great response!

2011-06-11T22:48:32-04:00

Mega thanks to everyone who left comments on "A plea for help from fellow abolitionists." Julie Taylor Shematz, founder of Beauty From Ashes, and I really appreciate all the great insight.

At Born2Fly, we're still looking into places in the US where we can test the B2F Project to stop child trafficking.

Meanwhile here's what Julie came up with for her program:

Last week we appealed to our fans, partners and fellow abolitionists to help us come up with a creative way to speak about human trafficking to children ages 3-11 for a local church's Vacation Bible School (VBS) program.

The huge challenge was to not use words like "human trafficking," "sex," "abuse," "victim," "rape," "prostitution," "stripping," etc. Our objective was to come up with blurbs to be read every day for VBS's 'Ministry Minute'.

The church is having Beauty From Ashes (BFA) be their support ministry for VBS and wants to tell the children everyday about us, what we're doing, why, and ultimately educate the children to prevent them from becoming victims of human sex trafficking.

The response was awesome and we thank everyone that contributed. We want to especially thank Sanibel (Florida) Community Church for boldly going, to our knowledge, where no other children's program has ever gone before.

With the the numbers of domestic minors being forced or lured into human sex trafficking an alarming 100,000-300,000 a year and the average age of entry into prostitution being 11-14, they recognized the need to implement preventative educational measures and we applaud them for doing such!

To read the five days of 'Ministry Minutes' for VBS, click here.

If you have additional ideas on how anti-trafficking organizations can teach awareness to very young children, we'd love to hear from you. Just leave a comment below.

A plea for help from fellow abolitionists

2011-05-27T17:29:40-04:00

I just got off the phone with my fellow red-headed abolitionist Julie Taylor Shematz, who is head of Beauty From Ashes. When Julie talks about child trafficking, I listen -- because she was trafficked herself.

Today she heads a strategic outreach and counseling program for women and girls all over the country who are trying to break free from the shackles of trafficking.

So here's the challenge that Julie and I discussed...

...and where we need your help:

Julie was asked to talk to a group of children next month about child trafficking, but the program directors don't want her to mention sex trafficking. Some of the girls are as young as 3, but others are as old as 11.

Julie met with a group of high school kids who put together a riveting drama about human trafficking--but most high schools won't let them present it because of the topic.

Meanwhile I can't find a school or community center in the US that will test the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking. Schools all over the world are begging for it--but no takers in the US. I suspect it's because (1) they don't think there's a child trafficking problem here and/or (2) they don't want to deal with "offensive" subjects.

Okaaaaay.

So it's okay for kids to watch borderline pornographic dancing on network TV, listen to R-rated music and more...but it's not okay to warn them about sex traffickers recruiting them right now in their middle schools and malls?

We have a national crisis in the US. The average age of kids entering prostitution in the US is between 11 and 14. That's the average age. Each year 100,000 minors are trafficked in the US--in your towns and ours.

We know that awareness leads to prevention, intervention, and restoration.

So Julie and I decided to throw this open to you.

"We need strategic and creative ideas," Julie explains. "This is a problem that we as abolitionists, especially educators, are facing. We all recognize the need to deliver this message to children and teens, but how do we do this other than the Internet? And how do we do it without sensationalizing or sanitizing it?"

Would you give us your ideas?

1. How can Julie talk to young kids about trafficking without mentioning sex?

2. What should that high school drama group do?

3. How can Born2Fly find schools and groups in the US to test our awareness program?

Tell us what you've done. Share your ideas with us. Or just vent if you want. Let us know in a comment below or here. And thanks.

BraveGirl: Standing up to con-artists of the child sex industry

2011-05-05T19:48:30-04:00

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times:

Most kids get lured into child trafficking because they don't know the lies that traffickers tell. If we educate kids ahead of time, we'll help shut off the supply pipeline.

That's the goal of BraveGirl, a short about-to-be-produced film exploring con-artists of the sex industry in India through the lens of a young Nepali girl named Bumika.

When a man shows up in Bumika's village in Nepal offering to take her to Kathmandu where there is work, her parents give her permission to go. The journey from Bumika's simple home life in a Himalayan mountain village quickly leads not to the capital of Nepal but to the chaos of urban India. She sadly discovers the rules of this world are different than her own--and that she is a pawn in a much greater game.

You may remember my blog post about the photo that changed my life. I took the photo in Mumbai, India, the exact moment I first learned about child trafficking--when my contact showed me cages that hold 5-year-old girls smuggled across the border from Nepal to India.

Girls like Bumika.

The producers of BraveGirl are in the final weeks of raising the funds to make this important film. "This is about the issue of female human trafficking across the Nepal-India border," explains the film's producer, Stephanie Bousley. "We're working with a local Nepali production crew and are currently trying to raise production funds for the project."

The group is trying to raise $30,000 USD and is a little over 60% of the way there. The campaign ends on May 19 at 8:00 am EST (US). "So we have only have a few weeks left to raise the rest of the money or we won't be funded at all," adds Stephanie.

I've donated and you can too by clicking here. You don't need to donate a lot; the starting donation is just $10, and as I know from the Born2Fly Twitterthons, when a lot of people donate a small amount, we can reach seemingly unreachable goals.

You can read more about BraveGirl here:

www.bravegirlmovie.com
www.facebook.com/BraveGirlMovie
Twitter: @BraveGirlMovie

"Sometimes we must interfere."

2011-05-02T17:33:33-04:00

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. May we never forget.

Here are the words of survivor Elie Wiesel at his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1986. As you read them, think how they apply to the attrocity of child trafficking. I don't know if the boy he is talking about is himself or another child, but it doesn't matter. Weisel's words are as provoking and moving in 2011 as they were in 1986.

"[The boy] asked his father: 'Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?'

"And now the boy is turning to me. 'Tell me,' he asks, 'what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?' And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

"And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

"Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must--at that moment--become the center of the universe...

"What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs...

"Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately."

Sometimes we must interfere. Child trafficking is a very good place to do that.

Negotiating the sale of a 3 year old

2011-04-05T18:22:45-04:00

A colleague who is a filmmaker recently returned from Pattaya, Thailand, where child sex trafficking is not only rampant but often right in the open. She was there to take secret video footage of wanted pedophiles and report them to Interpol.

Pattaya, Thailand

Now I don’t recommend that just anyone does this on a day off while visiting Asia. Child trafficking is organized crime and confronting traffickers is extremely dangerous. But I wanted you to read what she wrote so you can understand the depths of what is happening and feel her emotions at what she saw:

* * *

“Diana Scimone had introduced me to a world of atrocities through her experiences fighting child trafficking. Her stories kept me second guessing. Honestly, I couldn't fathom that this “trafficking” business truly existed. How could humans be capable of such detestable behavior? While preparing for my trip, I purchased a hidden camera to film what I would see. My goal was to locate and report any “wanted” pedophiles and report them to Interpol.

Map of Pattaya

“At first I was worried that I wouldn’t find any possible traffickers or pedophiles to film, but it was quite the opposite. There was an abundance of sex tourists. With such a tiny camera, it seemed impossible to film them all. Amidst all the Caucasian men, I quickly realized that, being the only Caucasian woman, just my presence was a threat to them. In fact, later as I reviewed my film, I realized some of them had even followed me.

“After filming for many days, I took a night off to go to a festival with some friends. The trafficking scene was far from my mind. As I was walking back from a fun, carefree night, I passed a dark parking lot adjacent to an abandoned building where two men were talking. With them was a small girl, possibly European and no older than 3 years old.

"The men looked European as well and they fearfully glanced my way. At a time when I least expected, I found myself witnessing firsthand the negotiation and sale of this innocent little girl. I couldn't help but wonder how she got here and who could be looking for her. How did she get into these dangerous hands?

“While the men’s eyes followed me closely as I walked on, the toddler suddenly ran free. My heart was hopeful as she seemed so desperate to escape from them and was making her getaway. But her legs betrayed her and she ran in zig zags. I knew she had been drugged. The men quickly caught her and stole her away into the darkness. There was nothing I could do. My heart broke as this helpless child's freedom was cut short.

“From behind the street light, I searched for her but the parking lot was dark, quiet, and empty. I never saw her again...but I couldn't forget her if I tried. My heart was officially wrecked. This is exactly what Diana had told me about. Children like these who are at the mercy at those strangers who buy them.

“Quickly I ran to my hotel. Once in my room, I fell to the floor against the door and wept uncontrollably. My doubts were no more. None of what I saw that night made it on film, but it is engraved permanently in my mind. Since that night, I feel haunted by the sick memory of greed that would ravage something so innocent as a means of profit.

“Child trafficking is real. It does exist. It happens everyday...every single day...and it needs to end...NOW.”

—An abolitionist

* * *

Remember, what this abolitionist filmmaker saw is not relegated to Thailand, nor just in Asia, but it is happening all over the world, including throughout the United States.

If you don’t believe me, look at the trailer for the documentary Playground about the child trafficking trade in Atlanta: www.playgroundproject.com.

Is there justice for these children?

Can one person make a difference? (Yes.)

2011-03-28T16:33:47-04:00

A few months ago Jon Swanson (@jnswanson) told his sister Jill Burton-Carr (@NicKicks2010) about the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Jill has shops on Etsy and Artfire.com where she sells her beautiful hand-crafted creations to raise funds for various charities--a neighbor battling leukemia, a friend who adopted a little girl from China who needed several surgeries, and more.

When Jill learned about Born2Fly, she wrote me, "I am horrified by the plight of children all over the world (including the US) who are victimized by power and greed and sin and humanity at its worst" -- and she came up with a way to help.

Jill created 3 beautiful pieces of jewelry to sell on her Etsy site and is donating all the proceeds (minus a little for expenses) to Born2Fly.

You can learn more about -- and purchase -- Jill's beautiful jewelry at www.Etsy.com/shop/NicKicks and at Artfire.com.

Jill took what she knew how to do and turned it into something that will help stop the traffic.

What do you already know how to do that can do the same?

Test phase of B2F Project expands to more countries

2011-03-10T12:14:24-05:00

Great news: We're expanding the test phase of the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking. Many of the organizations around the world that I wrote about here have agreed to test the anti-trafficking curriculum and wordless book in their countries.

So far we have commitments from Bulgaria to teach B2F at a summer camp for kids. Child trafficking is huge in eastern Europe, so this is a great place to reach kids before the traffickers do.

And the safe house in northern Thailand that I wrote about here will also test the materials this summer. This is where the "black van...goes around neighborhoods stealing children."

In the Philippines, an organization will be testing B2F at one school in a city and another in a tribal area. This group has been working with schools and government offices to set up a anti-trafficking education program. They already have access to every high school in the region and have been meeting with a number of governors and mayors to expand the program. They were ready to design a curriculum when they heard about B2F and asked us if they could use it for trafficking prevention in their area.

We're also waiting to hear from organizations working in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Guatemala that have expressed interest in testing B2F in those countries. They'll let us know within the next month.

Meanwhile here's a mom (left) in the Dominican Republic "reading" the Born2Fly wordless book with her daughter.

Yes, the mom is young! She had her daughter when she was 14. She's now a community health care worker and also teaches kindergarten. Her story is a remarkable one in itself, and she wants a much better life for her girls than she has had.

This mom and 6 other community health team members are trial teaching the B2F materials to their own children. Child trafficking is a real problem throughout the DR and these moms are teaching their kids how to spot traffickers and avoid being enslaved.

Watch this space for more details.

"Please don't forget us!"

2011-03-07T14:16:51-05:00

Here's an email I recently received from the director of a safe house I visited in Asia a few years ago:

I've read your recent note about your Born2Fly materials being ready to distribute. I'm so eager to get them to use with our children.

As I was putting P, one of our children, to bed one night, he started telling me about the "black van" that goes around neighborhoods stealing children. The teachers have cautioned them to be careful.

P said, "Mom, I know to be careful but what about N? He's only 2. He doesn't know any better."

I believe our children are ready for your materials and that they can be instrumental in stopping child trafficking here in Asia. Please don't forget us!

I can never forget those children. Because of your generosity, we are very near the day when we can begin responding to requests such as these and send them the Born2Fly materials.

If you'd like to donate to help us reach that day, you can do so here.

Thank you for helping us reach kids before the traffickers do.

PS: Yes, children as young as this girl are trafficked.

"I'd rather not know."

2011-02-26T13:24:08-05:00

"You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know."

"I'd rather not know."

Those two statements were spoken more than 200 years apart. The first was spoken in 1789 by William Wilberforce, who singlehandedly took on the slave trade of the British empire--and helped to end it in spite of all odds.

The second statement was spoken by someone I talked with recently.

I told her why I launched the Born2Fly Project to help stop child trafficking. I told her some of the stories of children who are forced into modern-day slavery (aka child trafficking). Her response was, "I'd rather not know."

Our goal with B2F is to help children and parents all over the world become aware of the dangers of child trafficking--but it's also to help you and me become aware. Sorry, but I don't want us to ever be able to say, "I did not know."

In the 5 years since I've been working on the B2F Project--which is now being tested in the Dominican Republic--I've met children and young teenage girls who've been bought and sold like farm animals. Their faces are fresh in my mind. Should I tell them, "I'd rather not know your story"?

I don't think so.

I'm a reporter, and my job--my mission--is to report what I hear and see. And if you read this blog, you'll hear and see, too. The stories aren't pretty, but I suspect you don't want to live in ignorance.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to learn more about child trafficking and how to stop it, watch this 3-minute video, "Get Angry. Please."

Thanks for not looking the other way.

Lotsa love for B2F on Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T21:48:58-05:00

The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking is getting a lot of love from organizations all over the world that are anxiously awaiting copies of the B2F wordless book and curriculum.

Each week I get another email from a person or group somewhere on the planet telling me about the child trafficking situation around them and asking for copies of the B2F materials to help warn their kids:

Netherlands:
"Do you have an idea when the wordless booklet for your awareness program will be available? It looks fantastic! We could use it for our child work in Eastern Europe."

South Africa:
"I am working with Tswane Childcare in Pretoria and would like to know how can we get the wordless book to distribute and use with the kids. I would like to be part of your team here in South Africa."

Ghana:
"Before most children in northern Ghana reach 12 years old, they are trafficked to border countries and southern Ghana to engage in hard labour and sexual exploitation either by their traffickers or their new supposed 'families.' I will be very pleased to know which ways your foundation may collaborate with us to help these victims and how to end child trafficking."

Brownsville, Texas, USA:
"I'm a student and staff member at the University of Brownsville at Texas. I fight to bring awareness to college students on human trafficking. I also work with children in the poorest area of Brownsville. (Brownsville is the poorest city in the United States.) I'm interested in the children's book Born to Fly. How may I purchase a copy?"

Tennessee, USA:
"Add me to the list of people waiting 'not-too-patiently' for access to the materials! I hope we will be able to use this with a number of our anti-slavery teams around the world."

Chicago, Illinois, USA:
"Do you have training for young North American girls to protect themselves from being trafficked?"

Philippines:
"Our anti-trafficking organization has been granted access to every high school in our region and also recently had meetings with a number of governors and mayors on this topic. We were in the process of beginning to design a curriculum for this when M. told us about you and the amazing work you have already done. If there is any way we could utilize your work, we would like to."

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA:
"We have 2 more trips planned for Haiti this year and one for the Dominican Republic. We're looking forward to making your book be a staple as a learning tool in every country and continent we go to from now on."

Bulgaria:
"I would like the B2F materials for our awareness programs in Bulgaria, especially for children's summer camp. We already have a dedicated retired high school teacher there who is teaching in villages and towns. So we are ready for action and doing what we can do against the epidemic of trafficking of children. Please let me know when the B2F materials are ready for distribution."

Amazing, huh? And remember, we haven't even advertised B2F or promoted the project yet.

We also have strategic invitations and opportunities to get these materials into not only the countries listed above, but also Iran, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Israel, South Korea, Ethiopia, Colombia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Moldova, Germany, and other places that are asking us for them.

We've spent 5 years developing these life-saving anti-trafficking materials. There's nothing like them anywhere in the world. Imagine the impact when we start distributing them all over the world

Our goal is to reach kids before the traffickers do--and we're about to do that!

Test in Dominican Republic nearly complete

Meanwhile we're anxiously awaiting word from the teachers in the Dominican Republic who are testing the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking. The 6-week test should be just about finished and as soon as we get feedback from the teachers and kids, I'll let you know.

Thank you as always for standing with us through your encouragement, prayers, and support. On this Valentine's Day (and always), I'm very grateful for the love you've shown Born to Fly!

The greatest generation

2011-02-09T15:23:35-05:00

This is a great example of how the next generation is taking up the fight to stop human trafficking--a video produced by a group of high school kids:

I'm convinced their generation will be the ones to stop the horror of human trafficking. I know we refer to the World War 2 generation as "the greatest" generation, but I believe these young kids and many like them all over the world will also bear that title.

Hat tip to Jon Swanson (@jnswanson) for letting me know about this video and the young people who produced it. If you know of other kids working to stop the traffic in creative ways, please leave a comment to let the rest of us know about them.

* * *

UPDATE: They raised more than $1,000! The funds will help Tiny Hands International rescue children being trafficked across the border between Nepal and India. You can see the video here. Great job!

Human trafficking at Super Bowl XLV: How to stop the traffic

2011-01-26T17:08:50-05:00

I love football and the Super Bowl and I'm thrilled my 2nd-favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers (2nd only to the Washington Redskins) will be playing in Dallas on Sunday, February 6.

I'm not thrilled, however, about what will also come to Dallas the same week: A huge increase in human trafficking.

I spoke with Tomas Lares (right) about efforts to stop the traffic surrounding the event.

Tomas is president of Florida Abolitionist and was part of the team that trained volunteers and worked with law enforcement to stop human trafficking during the 2009 and 2010 Super Bowls in Tampa and Miami. He partners with Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Orlando Rescue and Restore Coalition, which he co-founded. (Born2Fly is a member of both.)

Here's my interview with him:

* * *

Diana Scimone: What are some of the results of the 2009 and 2010 Super Bowl outreaches that you were involved in?

Tomas Lares: There were immediate results—the rescues we made during the Super Bowls. And there were rescues that came later that were a direct result of the outreaches. For example, at last year’s training and outreach:

163 trained volunteers came together to participate during the street outreach.
6 missing children were recovered.
2 girls were removed from potentially dangerous situations.
3 girls were removed from situations where they were in the process of being recruited by a pimp.
14 leads were generated regarding missing children.
4 leads were given regarding potential child sexual exploitation activity.
4 instances of “direct intervention” resulted in 2 females removed from potential dangerous situations.
3 females were prevented from potential pimp recruitment.

Law enforcement officers in Miami arrested 84 people in a three-day Super Bowl sweep aimed at finding underage girls who were forced into prostitution, including a trafficker from Hawaii. [See Man Charged With Child Trafficking in Miami for Super Bowl.]

Diana: There’s so much more attention this year on the connection between human trafficking and major sporting events like the Super Bowl. Many new groups are now involved with the fight to stop the traffic. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Tomas: Awareness is always a good thing and Change.org has done a great job bringing awareness about the huge increase in human trafficking surrounding the Super Bowl.

My concern, however, is for other groups that have taken it upon themselves to conduct their own rescues apart from working with law enforcement who are trained and know what to look for and how to respond. There are individual groups sending out news releases announcing they’ll be rescuing victims. You don’t announce that you’re going to do a sting operation ahead of time. That would be like telling drug dealers that you’re planning on doing a sting on a certain time and place.

There’s a fine line between awareness and letting the traffickers know what you’re doing. When we did the Super Bowl outreaches the last 2 years in Miami and Tampa, there was a media blackout because we didn’t want the traffickers to take their operations underground. That only hurts the victims of trafficking.

Diana: Is training taking place prior to the Super Bowl this year?

Tomas: Yes. It’s in connection with law enforcement and the volunteers they already know and work with in the fight. Human trafficking is organized crime so people who don’t know what they’re doing put themselves and the whole team in danger when they don’t know how to approach potential victims. It’s dangerous for themselves as well as the victims.

For the past two Super Bowls we were able to keep the operation under the radar, but it seems like this has been exploited by some people and groups who have their own agenda and are not keeping in mind the safety of the victims.

Diana: What are some of the constructive ways we can increase awareness about human trafficking at the Super Bowl?

Tomas: There are many positive things that can be done. You can inform businesses in the city and visitors coming to the Super Bowl about what to look for and what to do if they spot someone they think is being trafficked. That was part of our past outreaches—to train volunteers to let visitors know the signs and the hotline to call to inform law enforcement: 888-3737-888.

Diana: We know that very young children are trafficked during national sporting events such as the Super Bowl, as well as teenagers and adults. Obviously the children are there through force, but what is your response to people who say that teenagers and women voluntarily go into prostitution?

Tomas: There are people who volunteer to go into escorting, but there are also a great many who have not gone into it voluntarily. Not everyone who is prostitituting is a victim, but definitely the ones who are minors are victims. In fact under the law now, minors are automatically considered human trafficking victims. One of our concerns is that victims are under-identified and seen as just promiscuous. And there are many adults who are forced into it as well.

Diana: Change.org has commended Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for publicly stating, “The Super Bowl is one of the biggest human trafficking events in the United States.” But Change.org says the Super Bowl host committee itself has refused to get involved.

Tomas: The bottom line for the host committee and businesses is revenue. The Super Bowl can be a very prosperous time for them and I'm sure their stand is they don’t want to scare away customers. And there’s also the situation of even admitting there is a trafficking problem in connection with these events. But that is a sad commentary that you would allow someone to be trafficked at your hotel or in your city and turn your head away just to gain financially.

That’s why we’re encouraging people to sign the Change.org petitions. This is an example of a positive awareness campaign that can make a difference.

The dream is still alive.

2011-01-17T09:10:28-05:00

Today is a national holiday in the US to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I wrote this a few years ago about how he inspired me in the fight to stop child trafficking.

* * *

"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

I had no clue. I went through the 1950s and, I regret to say, the 60s and still had no clue.

What was happening in the south didn't seem to affect me--Little Rock, Birmingham, Memphis, the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. It was all something on the pages of newspapers, but didn't really involve me.

When I was 17, I moved to Washington to attend college during the years when race riots scarred the streets. The events of the day began to get a little closer to home.

A decade later, I moved to Alabama and met people personally affected by injustice. The struggle for justice got closer.

Then I moved to central Florida, where one morning I looked out my window and saw five men cloaked in white sheets protesting outside the Jewish community center across the street, claiming the Holocaust was all a myth. Now the struggle for justice was just outside my front door.

Yet another decade later, I was co-writing a book called The Dream Is Alive about the struggle for racial justice within the Christian church. The title, of course, refers to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. While researching information for the book, I read his speech on the internet and listened to scratchy on-line recordings of many of his other speeches--and they powerfully impacted me. Now the struggle was right at the tip of my fingers.

Today, five decades after taking down that sign, I think I'm finally getting it. Injustice has many forms and faces, and they're all ugly. In my travels, I've seen the injustice of child trafficking face to face--girls in cages, boys sold on streets, and more. As I took down that sign 50 years ago, now I'm working to take down a different form of injustice through The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Dr. King's struggle in the face of overwhelming odds, along with his profound words that documented it, are part of the inspiration that has propelled me.

Here are some of his words from his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." I hope they inspire you the way they inspire me.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"Justice too long delayed is justice denied."

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

"Was not [the biblical prophet] Amos an extremist for justice? 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream' [Amos 5:24] . . . So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

--excerpts from "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To read and hear more:

"Letter From a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 (audio clips)

"I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963 (text and audio versions)

"I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech, April 3, 1968, the night before he was killed (text and audio versions)

The King Center

* * *

What do you think of when you think of "Orlando"?

2011-01-13T16:43:30-05:00

Ask any kid about "Orlando" and you'll hear about Mickey Mouse, Disney World, Sea World, Universal, and other kid-friendly places.

Who thinks of child slavery happening in the "happiest place on earth"?

But children are trafficked right here in Orlando (where I live) just as in cities all over the world.

That's why I'm part of Orlando Rescue and Restore Coalition, a partnership of non-profits, government agencies, faith-based organizations, corporations, and concerned citizens all working together to stop human trafficking in our borders.

Join us this Sunday for our 3rd annual Freedom Rally (where yours truly will be speaking):

Freedom Rally
Join the fight against human trafficking
Sun., Jan. 16, 2011
1-5 pm (Rally at 3 pm)
Walt Disney Amphitheater at Lake Eola
195 N. Rosalind Ave.
Orlando, Florida

Map

Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs will issue a Proclamation Against Human Trafficking and several abolitionists will speak.

You'll also hear from human trafficking survivors from central Florida who'll tell their stories.

I always say that whatever I know about domestic human trafficking, I learned at Orlando Rescue and Restore Coalition meetings. ORRC is a model for other anti-trafficking coalitions throughout the US--a partnership of groups like these all working together to stop human slavery in our area:

Non-profits like The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking and many others
Local law enforcement like Orlando Police Department and Florida Highway Patrol
State agencies like Department of Children and Families
National agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement
International organizations such as embassies and consulates based in Florida
Faith-based organizations
Corporations like The Body Shop
And many more

The Born2Fly Project will have a booth, along with my fellow abolitionists Leah Wiedemer with the Fair Trade Mission, and Jane' Gautier~Shadoin with the Butterfly Project.

Join us this Sunday as we proclaim "freedom" over Orlando. For more information: OrlandoRRC@gmail.com, (407) 495-5846, Facebook.

I hope I don't have to do this again...

2011-01-11T10:40:03-05:00

...Be part of Human Trafficking Awareness Day, that is. That day is today -- 1/11/11. Here are some sad facts about why we need such an event:

1.2 million
Number of children trafficked each year for sex around the world. (UNICEF)

11
Average age of sex workers around the world. Some are as young as 5 years old. (CIA)

100,000
Number of children and young women who are trafficked in America today. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11. (FBI/ABC News)

200,000
Number of U.S. children at risk for commercial sexual exploitation. (US Department of Justice)

$9.5 billion
Amount of money generated annually by human trafficking. (FBI)

2nd
Ranking of human trafficking among all income-generating syndicates (illegal drugs are #1; illegal arms are #3) (Stop the Traffic)

We can change these statistics.

“Given all the power and resources that God has placed in the hands of humankind," writes Gary Haughen, president of International Justice Mission, in his book Terrify No More, "I have yet to see any injustice of humankind that could not also be stopped by humankind."

My goal is to work myself out of a job.

I really don't want to be fighting this horror the rest of my life. The only way that will happen is for all of us to work togther to end it now.

Audacious, you say? Yes, it is. In the words of my fellow abolitionist Rob Morris, director of Love 146, "Ending human trafficking is not idealistic or naive. It is audacious. And it is people of audacity who change the world."

So on this day, 1/1/11, I ask you to be a world-changer and work to stop human trafficking in your city. If we all do that, we won't have to have a Human Trafficking Awareness Day ever again.

* * *

To learn what The Born2Fly Project is doing to stop child trafficking, visit www.born2fly.org.

Here's a guest post I wrote for Safe4Women about how I first learned about child trafficking: The Day My Life Changed.

Can I quote you on that?

2011-01-03T11:07:16-05:00

All year long whenever I need some quick inspiration, I just look at the top of my daily to-do agenda where I keep a list of motivational quotes I've gathered. Whenever I find a new one, I add it to the list. I post them front and center to inspire me as I work on The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

When the fight seems impossible, I read what Einstein said. Or Edison. Or Zappos.com.

Today I start a brand-new list, so enjoy these now. I hope they motivate you as much as they do me.

Most of these come from my fellow Twitterati, so I've included their Twitter names after each quote in case you want to follow them.

Got a fav quote of your own? Leave it as a comment. (I've already begun my 2011 list and could use a few good ones to start the year right.)

"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music."—Angela Monet (via @zappos and @yuho123)

"In every generation it has, without exception, been those who dared to live with an irrepressible dream who changed history."—P Greig (via @JeremyAffeldt)

"Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first."—Frederick B. Wilcox (via @BriarcliffManor)

"Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?"—Proverbs 24:11-12

"All of us want to preach like Martin Luther King. We don't want to die like he did. The two can't be separated. They are the same sermon." (via @MikeGlenn)

“A minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring social conditions in his own community that cause [people] an earthly hell.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority."—Martin Luther King, Jr.

"All mankind is divided into 3 classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move."—Benjamin Franklin

"211ºF is hot water. 212ºF moves a train. Keep the fire burning. Don't lose a degree. There's power in your passion." (via @theRAMP)

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."—Albert Einstein

"The moment of enlightenment is when a person's dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities."—Vic Braden

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”—Neale Donald Walsch

"If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."—Frank A. Clark (via @CoryBooker)

"Everything you believe to be impossible is."—Seth Godin (via @Sarah_Stuart)

“All you need to know is that it’s possible. Somewhere in the world, someone is doing something that you decided couldn't be done.”—Seth Godin

"If you don't like change, you are going to like irrelevance even less." (via @Just_Shane)

"How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."—Trina Paulus

"Things fall apart so that other things can fall together." (via @OhMyDelisa)

"Is anyone laughing at your goals? If not, think bigger." (via @caroljsroth)

"Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations."—Ralph Charell (via @gailtiv)

"We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all: the apathy of human beings."—Helen Keller

"You've got to win in your mind before you win in your life."—John Addison (via @gailtiv)

“Human traffickers have just little bit more info than victims.”—Ambassador Luis CdeBaca

"It's not too late, just later than it was."—Seth Godin

US Senate passes domestic minor anti-sex trafficking bill

2010-12-13T10:19:09-05:00

The US Senate unanimously approved the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act. The bill would aid victims of modern sexual slavery and give law enforcement the tools to investigate and prosecute sex traffickers who exploit underage girls and force them into the sex trade.

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives.

Sponsored by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act would create a 6-state pilot program to help law enforcement crackdown on pimps and traffickers and create shelters, provide treatment, counseling, and legal aid for underage girls who are forced into sexual slavery.

According to the FBI, more than 100,000 underage girls are exploited for commercial sex in the U.S. each year--including underage girls who are forced into the sex trade.

“Senator Cornyn and I have long believed that sex trafficking is modern day slavery and the poor young women forced into the sex trade are victims of the real criminals--the pimps and traffickers,” Wyden said. “Today, the United States Senate agreed with us. Not only will this bill create a working model to help these young women break the cycle of exploitation for good, it will provide new tools for law enforcement and prosecutors to put these modern-day slave owners behind bars.”

Added Senator Cornyn, “Our nation must remain committed to ending the scourge of human trafficking. This legislation will provide valuable assistance to state and local governments on the front lines of battling organized criminal syndicates and violent gangs that traffic humans for labor and sex.”

The Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act would authorize block grants to 6 locations deemed to have significant sex trafficking activity, require a workable plan to provide comprehensive, wrap-around services to sex trafficking victims--including the establishment of a shelter facility--and require demonstrated participation by all levels of law enforcement, prosecutors, and social service providers.

Each grant will be funded at $2-2.5 million per year with the option of renewal for 2 more years. Some of the items that can be funded by these block grants include:

A shelter for trafficking victims
Clothing and other daily needs to keep victims from returning to the street
Victims' assistance counseling and legal services
Education or job training classes for victims
Specialized training for law enforcement and social service providers
Salaries for police officers and prosecutors
Investigation expenses--wire taps, expert consultants, travel, other technical assistance expenditures
Outreach, education, and prevention efforts, including programs to deter offenders

The bill will help encourage and boost prompt reporting of missing and abducted children to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. With the help of more timely reporting, law enforcement will be able to identify repeat runaways who are statistically more likely to be lured into prostitution.

"Now it’s time for the House of Representatives to go to work and not leave Washington before this job is done," said Sen. Wyden. "I’m calling on all of you to contact your Congress member as soon as possible and let them know that they need to stand up for all the children who are being exploited for sex.

"Tell them not to leave Washington without passing the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act (S. 2925)," he adds. "Call 202-224-3121 or email your member. Sex trafficking is slavery pure and simple. Let’s end it now."

You + 1 phone call = help for victims of child trafficking

2010-11-17T12:37:29-05:00

What happens when a child is rescued from human trafficking in the US?

If they're foreign, there's funding to help them and places for them to heal.

If they're US citizens, however, there's almost nowhere for them to go and no money to help them. In fact, in the entire US there are only 80 beds available for domestic minor sex trafficking victims.

Each year in the US at least 100,000 children are victims of commercial sex exploitation--some as young as 5.

You have an opportunity to help these children today with a simple phone call. Today is the National Call-In Day to urge Congress to pass the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking and Victims Support Act (H.R. 5575). It would provide child victims of human trafficking access to services and shelters, and also provide grants to train law enforcement and increase investigations.

Here's how you can help:

1. Go to www.house.gov and find your congressional representative; just type your zip code in the top left “Find Your Representative” section.

2. Call the House switchboard TODAY to support the bill at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your representative's office. Once connected, tell them you'd like to urge your congressional rep to support H.R. 5575. Here's an example of what you can say, courtesy of the Polaris Project:

"Hi, my name is________ , and I am a constituent living in [town/city]. I'm calling to urge Congress(woman/man)______ to co-sponsor and support H.R.5575, a bi-partisan bill that seeks to combat and address the sex trafficking of children in America. I'm very concerned about this issue because children are being trafficked across the U.S. by the thousands each day and there are only a handful of beds and shelters in the country to serve their many needs as survivors of such a heinous crime. It's time for Congress to act. Will the Congress(woman/man) co-sponsor and support this important legislation?"

I called my congressman, and sadly I must have been the first because the person I talked to was not aware of this legislation--although as he put it, who could be against it?

It took about 5 minutes. Even if you read this after the call-in date, your phone call will still be effective. Please call today.

Butterfly Tea Party for B2F Project to stop child trafficking

2010-11-08T13:10:28-05:00

UPDATE: We're sold out!
We're so sorry, but watch for more events!

4-course afternoon tea
for adults and children
To benefit The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking

Featuring beautiful jewelry made by women and
girls rescued from human trafficking

Sat., Dec. 11, 2010
2:00 pm
The Garden Gate Tea Room
142 East 4th Avenue, Mount Dora, FL 32757
(just outside Orlando)
map

Advance: $25 adults, $15 children under 12.
Limited seating available so please reserve today.

Menu
~Petite salmon soufflé salad
~Butterfly sorbet
~3-tiered tray of afternoon tea sandwiches
~3-tiered tray of desserts including scones
with Devonshire cream and jam
~Pot of hot tea or sugar-rimmed iced tea
~Special butterfly-themed menu for children

Featuring
~Butterfly Project jewelry made by women and girls
rescued from human trafficking
~Fashion show of international costumes
~Gift bags and silent auction
~Lots more surprises!

Each year millions of women and girls are sold into sex slavery around the world including in the US. A small percentage are rescued and support themselves and the shelters where they live by creating beautiful jewelry and other handmade products.

The Butterfly Project markets this wonderful jewelry in the US to support rescued women and girls and the shelters where they live. On December 11, you can purchase this special jewelry (think Christmas and Hanukkah gifts!) at this fun event co-sponsored by The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking and The Butterfly Project. Limited seats are available and we expect to sell out, so please don't delay. Reserve today!

For more information: The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking, Diana Scimone, diana@born2fly.org. The Butterfly Project, Jané Gautier~Shadoin, gautieronfire@gmail.com

Model wearing jewelry from The Butterfly Project made by women and girls rescued from human trafficking:

Jané Gautier~Shadoin, director of The Butterfly Project, with jewelry at the Garden Gate Tea Room:

There's limited seating available for this special event, so reserve your spot today!

UPDATE: American Eagle's inflight magazine, Latitudes, has an article about the Butterfly Tea Party in their December issue. You can read it here.

We're underway: Testing B2F in the DR has begun!

2010-10-25T16:33:10-04:00

"We know what you're doing and
we're not going to let you have our children!"

Imagine a group of women going door-to-door inviting their neighbors to a community gathering to stop child trafficking.

That's exactly what happened last week in the Dominican Republic. A group of brave women who are passionate about stopping the child trafficking that's happening all around them took the lead in inviting people to the 1st-ever Born2Fly community rally.

It's all in preparation for the 6-week B2F campaign to educate kids, teens, parents, and the entire community about how to stand up to traffickers. What a great way for these brave women to serve notice to the traffickers that their time is up.

Words I've longed to say for 5 years:

Last week they translated some of the B2F materials into Spanish and trained the leaders who'll teach the teenagers and younger kids. Today the actual training begins--after 5 years of working on this project!

Here's more from one of the coordinators:

We'll start with two groups of older kids (one an after-school boys' group and the other a typing class for girls who also do an outside study project together and then practice their typing about it) and the women's group who will promote the B2F Project in the community.

The women are very excited about getting their hands on the B2F anti-trafficking materials so they can reinforce this information with their children and neighbors.

The B2F Project will get started in an area on the edge of Santo Domingo, the capital city, in 2 towns called Cielo and Nazarete.

The plans are to extend the women's group campaign into Los Alcarrizos, a larger city just a few kilometers to the west where many of these families have relatives. Several of the women are already concerned about Los Alcarrizos. There is quite a large prostitution circle there [which means girls and women are being trafficked].

When some of the leaders are well trained in B2F in the smaller settings, I'd like to see them teach it in Los Alcarrizos and also among the street kids who live in the garbage dumps and under the bridges inside Santo Domingo.

What a great need for these strategic materials!

Once we complete the test program in the Dominican Republic, we'll make necessary adjustments and send The B2F Project to groups all over the world who've heard about what we've written and are not-too-patiently waiting for copies of everything.

You've made this success story possible through your donations, prayers, and words of encouragement. Thank you for helping us keep thousands of kids, teens, and even adults from the dark world of trafficking simply by reaching them before the traffickers do.

Want to see a sample of the entire B2F Project, including the cover of the wordless book? Just click here.

You did it!

2010-10-24T16:44:00-04:00

Thank you for helping us raise more than $6,300 on 10/10/10 and during the weeks after the Twitterthon.

All funds go to The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

You tweeted, you emailed, you blogged, you told people about the Twitterthon--and you donated. Here's what you helped us raise to stop child trafficking:

Donations via ChipIn:             $3,789.88
Donations via other PayPal:     1,250.00
Donations via check:                1,295.00
TOTAL:                               $6,334.88

Even though it's not 10/10/10 anymore, you can still donate to help stop child trafficking. Just go to www.born2fly.org. Or mail your donation to "Born to Fly International, Inc.," PO Box 952949, Lake Mary FL 32794. Born to Fly International is a 501c3 non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible in the US.

Thank you for your generosity as together we work to reach children before the traffickers do.

"Something beautiful has come out of disaster."

2010-10-19T14:37:14-04:00

My friend Jané Gautier~Shadoin is a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. And many other life crises that would have stopped the average person. But they didn't stop Jané.

About 3 years ago I came home from a research trip to Thailand with a notebook full of information—and a bag full of jewelry made by women and girls rescued from human trafficking.

I showed the jewelry to Jané. Her immediate response: "If we package this right, we can help them market it."

Jané has been involved in fashion her entire adult life, so when she spoke, I listened.

She's been a stylist, in sales, and entertainment/fashion event planning in the US and France, where she lived for 15 years.

With the events of 9/11, she returned to the US and lived in Biloxi, Mississippi, where her family is. When Katrina hit, she lost everything.

That and many other life crises did not stop her but instead fueled her passion to do good. She took what she knew how to do and launched out in an entirely new direction—founding The Butterfly Project to market jewelry made by women and girls rescued from human trafficking.

Each year millions of women and girls are sold into sex slavery around the world including in the US. A small percentage are rescued each year, and many support themselves and the shelters where they live by creating beautiful jewelry and other handmade products.

“The Butterfly Project purchases directly from safe houses all over the world where rescued women and girls live and work,” explains Jané. “That helps them with living expenses as they heal and build new lives.”

Jané also donates part of the proceeds from jewelry sales to The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

“Purchasing this beautiful jewelry is a powerful way to help these women and girls experience the dignity, hope, and freedom to create something beautiful,” explains Jané. “It’s a small step that makes a big difference. Something beautiful has come out of disaster.”

The Butterfly Project is based in Florida. You can contact Jané at gautieronfire@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @SireneduMississ.

Photography by Karen Sandvick.
Special thanks to chihuahua Annabelle Coco Chanel.

* * *

Watch for information soon on a special Butterfly Tea Party featuring jewelry from The Butterfly Project. Saturday, December 11, in Orlando. Proceeds help support The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking. Details coming soon!

DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk is this Saturday

2010-10-18T15:25:57-04:00

Countdown to the big anti-trafficking march in Washington DC this Saturday:

Sat., Oct. 23, 2010
National Mall - Constitution Gardens
Constitution Avenue and 19th St. NW
Washington DC

www.walk.stopmodernslavery.org
walk@stopmodernslavery.org

The SMS Walk is a united effort to bring attention to the fact that human trafficking is the 2nd-largest illegal industry on the planet--and to raise fund for organizations that are working to stop it.

The Born2Fly Project has a "virtual" team for the walk. You can join us without having to walk a step. :-) Just go here, scroll down the list of teams til you find Born2Fly, and make a donation to "walk" with us.

The SMS Walk is organized entirely by community volunteers who are passionate activists. 100% of the contributions go directly to organizations in the US that combat human trafficking and care for victims:

Provide emergency, short-term, and long-term care and services for victims of human trafficking
Create, strengthen, and implement anti-trafficking laws
Operate the national human trafficking hotline
Train law enforcement to identify victims
Rescue victims
Raise awareness about all forms of human trafficking

For more information or to help sponsor this event, check out www.walk.stopmodernslavery.org or www.meetup.com/wdcsms. And don't forget to join the Born2Fly Project "virtual" team; just go here, scroll down the list of teams til you find Born2Fly, and make a donation to "walk" with us.

Blog Action Day: The link between water and child trafficking

2010-10-15T03:05:00-04:00

October 15 is Blog Action Day when thousands of bloggers all over the world write about the same subject. This year it's water.

And you're wondering how in the world I'm going to connect water with child trafficking. Oh yes, there is a connection.

About 5 years ago when I knew Born to Fly wanted to get involved with the fight to stop child trafficking, I talked with Rob Morris, head of Love 146. Rob told me about some villages on the border of Cambodia and Thailand where little girls walk a long distance from their village to the nearest well.

Child traffickers know their routes. It doesn't take much planning to find a little girl walking by herself. And voila--another innocent child joins the worldwide trafficking trade. Her destiny is to be raped for profit 30 or 40 times a night for the rest of her life. All because she had to walk to find water.

Rob told me how Love 146 was working to dig wells in these high-risk villages so that little girls didn't have to walk far to get water. In the villages where they'd dug wells, the rate of trafficking was going down. And girls could spend time in school instead of lugging water jugs.

No water = child trafficking.

Water = No child trafficking.

This isn't just a problem on the Thai/Cambodia border, of course, but all over the world.

There are so many things we can do to help stop child trafficking. Who knew that digging a well would be one of them?

Now you do.

UPDATE from Rob Morris at Love146: "Thanks Diana. The children in those communities are now in school & getting an education. No longer prey for traffickers." Pretty awesome!

* * *

A big thank-you to everyone who donated to the 10/10/10 Twitterthon to stop child trafficking. We've raised more than $5,600. Even though 10/10/10 has passed, you can still donate by clicking the orange "ChipIn" button above (or here if you're reading this by email).

Thanks Diana. The children in those communities are now in school & getting an education. No longer prey for traffickers.

The 10/10/10 Twitterthon is here!

2010-10-10T00:01:00-04:00

The 10/10/10 Twitterthon to stop child trafficking has arrived! Here's our goal:

Every penny raised goes to The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking. Here's how you can help:

Click on the orange Chip-in button above (or here if you're reading this by email) and donate $10 via PayPal or credit card.
Email 10 of your friends about 10/10/10. Just send them to this site (www.dianascimone.com)
Tweet about 10/10/10 to your followers.
Post on Facebook about 10/10/10.

A big thanks to the many people all over the world who couldn't wait to donate and already sent their contribution. Donations have come in from all over the US, from England, New Zealand, and elsewhere--and we're starting 10/10/10 with more than $3,800. Thank you!

* * *

Here are some of the many articles and blog posts you've written about child trafficking and our fight to stop it. A huge "thank you" to all of you! (And if I missed your blog post, please let me know.)

Blog posts:

Just Let Me Vent (FC Kibler and Janie Graziani): Begging
Virtual Moxie (Anasticia Brice): Crazy, Foolish, Ridiculous
Heading Home (Lynn Mosher): 10/10/10
Kathy McGraw: Something to Do When You Want to Make a Difference
Kathy McGraw: Squidoo Lens on Child Trafficking
Levite Chronicles (Jon Swanson): 10 bucks on 10/10/10 is a safe bet
Beth Kanter: Lessons learned from a Twitterthon
Monday Memo (John Stanko): Born to Fly

Jamie Ayre's blog: Born2Fly
Black Africa: Fighting child trafficking one tweet at a time

News stories:

Breaking Christian News -- Stopping Child Trafficking One Tweet at a Time
Yahoo News: Stopping child trafficking one tweet at a time
Christian Web News: Taking a stand against child trafficking

I'll be updating this blog all day on 10/10/10 so keep watching for the latest totals.

Countdown to the 10/10/10 Twitterthon...Updated plans for Dominican Republic test

2010-10-04T22:32:24-04:00

6 days and counting to the 10/10/10 Twitterthon to stop child trafficking! Our goal is 10,000 people giving $10 each on 10/10/10. All the funds go to the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking

We're moving forward on plans to test the B2F anti-trafficking curriculum and wordless book in the Dominican Republic in just a few weeks. Here's an update I received today from the educator organizing it:

I'm meeting on Wednesday with some of the people who'll be delivering the curriculum to the teaching teams in the D.R. next week.

All is looking good for delivery and implementation. I'll keep you advised as things progress.
My daughter is going down on a medical/dental project on the 16th and will be able to see the first B2F community rally--which may be more like a door-to-door march by a women's group.

If they design a t-shirt to go with the B2F groups, I'll get you a copy. This is all in the works and dependent upon stretching the finances.

They're going to start teaching 2 groups of older kids: 1 is an after-school boys' group and the other a typing class for girls who also do an outside study project together and then practice their typing about it.
I'll probably do a couple of conference calls with the teachers after they see the material to help with any initial adjustments.

Once they train the older kids,they're thinking of using the materials in a sort of big-brother/big-sister way and in family groups to teach the younger children.
The women's community group will promote the project in the community through the clinic-school connections already established. The women are very excited about getting their hands on this material so they can reinforce this information with their children and neighbors. I think this is going to be very exciting.

I agree--very exciting! After 5 years of work, the Born2Fly wordless book and curriculum will be in the hands of at-risk kids in a matter of weeks. The Dominican Republic has a huge problem with child trafficking, so this is a strategic place to begin training kids, parents, and teachers.

Remember, the 10/10/10 Twitterthon will help get these amazing materials into the hands of even more at-risk kids around the world. Our goal is 10,000 people giving just $10 each on 10/10/10.

You don't have to wait until then to donate, of course. Just click the orange ChipIn button above and donate by credit card or PayPal.

If you agree that no child should be bought and sold like an animal, please respond today.

10/10/10 Twitterthon to stop child trafficking

2010-09-22T03:01:00-04:00

Many of you emailed or tweeted me on September 9 in honor of last year's 09-09-09 Twitterthon for The B2F Project to stop child trafficking -- and asked if I was doing another one on 10/10/10.

By popular demand, yes, there WILL be a Twitterthon on 10/10/10. And no, you don't have to be on Twitter to be part of it!

Here's our goal:

Every penny we raise will go to The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

And here's how you can help:

Click on the orange Chip-in button above (or here if you're reading this by email) and donate $10 via PayPal or credit card.

Then email 10 of your friends about 10/10/10. Just send them here.

If you're on Twitter, tweet about 10/10/10 to your followers.

That's what made last year's Twitterthon a success. YOU got behind it and told people about it--and it went viral. Let's see if we can do it again, okay?

Why we're doing this

Each year more than a million kids are lured into modern-day slavery where they’re raped for profit 30 or 40 times a night—night after night. Some of them are just 4 years old. Many are right in the U.S.

If that makes you angry, there IS something we can do about it.

Most kids are tricked into sex slavery because they don’t know the deceptive tactics of traffickers. What if we could warn children and their parents ahead of time?

What if we taught them about the lies traffickers use—and how to stand up against them? The rate of trafficking would drop and millions of kids would never enter the dark world of trafficking.

Reaching kids before the traffickers do

The B2F Project educates at-risk children and their parents about the dangers of trafficking through a strategic 6-week community campaign. The project's centerpiece is a wordless book that teaches kids to make wise choices—wordless so we don’t have to translate it into hundreds of languages. A 70-page companion curriculum reinforces the important concepts in the book.

The B2F wordless book and curriculum are complete and ready for testing next month in the Dominican Republic.

Once we have feedback from teachers and kids, we’ll begin distributing these amazing materials all over the world. The 1-day fundraiser will raise money to do that—and prevent millions of kids from ever being trafficked.

What you can do

Donate: Use the Chip-in widget above (or here) to donate $10. (You don't have to wait til 10/10/10 to donate of course.)
Email: Tell 10 people about 10/10/10 and send them to www.born2fly.org or this blog.
Blog: Post about 10/10/10. Include the Chip-in widget (see code below).
Facebook: Talk about 10/10/10; include the Chip-in widget.
Twitter: Tweet about it. Follow me, @DianaScimone, director of The B2F Project.
Updates: Check my blog for the latest: www.dianascimone.com
Show: Add a Twibbon to your Twitter and Facebook photos: http://twb.ly/9Hccsi
Paste: Copy and paste this code for the Chip-in widget onto your blog and Facebook:

<embed src="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/fff5a4bf4be4bb24" flashVars="event_desc=10K%20people%20donating%20%2410%20each%20on%2010/10/10%20to%20stop%20child%20trafficking.%20All%20funds%20to%20go%20The%20Born2Fly%20Project%20to%20stop%20child%20trafficking.%20www.born2fly.org&color_scheme=blue" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="220" height="220"></embed>

Traffickers think kids are commodities. On 10/10/10, tell kids they’re priceless.

All it takes is $10.

The B2F curriculum is FINISHED!

2010-09-13T18:20:26-04:00

This is huge news! After 1 year of solid work, we've FINISHED the curriculum for The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Can you see me jumping for joy? Dancing? Spinning? Doing cartwheels?

I wish I could show you this amazing curriculum that gives teachers all over the world the tools they need to teach the important concepts in the B2F wordless book. Our goal is to reach kids before the traffickers do -- and this curriculum does that.

The team has worked on it for a year and they did a brilliant job. Mega thanks to educators Karen Armistead and Georgia Ana Larson for sharing their expertise and heart on every page, and to artist Leah Wiedemer whose illustrations make it all come alive.

Georgia Ana, who's taught at-risk kids in 3rd-world countries, told me, "If you want to make a change in a community, you have to involve every level of that community in what you're doing."

That's what we've done.

She helped us create a 6-week community program to stop child trafficking. It involves not just kids, parents, and teachers, but the entire community.

It's nearly 70 pages and includes age-appropriate teaching material, games, posters, activities, and more. Adults mentor teenagers to be "apprentice teachers," and they work together to teach the younger kids in their community. That way we reach everyone.

There's NOTHING else like this anywhere.

That's why dozens of people all over the world have written to us and are waiting for copies of everything.

But first we have to test it.

And here's more good news.

Someone has offered to cover the costs to test the B2F program in the Dominican Republic -- starting THIS MONTH. They're even taking care of printing costs. Awesome!

Once we get feedback from these teachers, teens, and kids, we'll tweak everything and begin distributing these amazing materials around the world.

So watch this space for details!

"Why don't they just leave?" The mindset of a trafficking victim

2010-08-20T17:56:29-04:00

Why doesn't a trafficking victim just leave?

Traffickers teach victims to distrust outsiders, especially law enforcement.

Foreign victims are afraid of the government and police because they think they'll be deported (whether they're in a country legally or not).

Victims often feel it's their own fault that they're trafficked.

The Stockholm syndrome kicks in; they develop loyalty to their captor as a coping or survival skill. Sometimes they even protect them from authorities.

Even if they're being raped for profit night after night, it may still be better than what they came from (unbelievable but true).

Victims, whether domestic or foreign, probably don't know their rights.

Their captors have lied to them about their rights.

They don't see themselves as victims or trafficked.

They don't have a cell phone, and their captors took away their ID, visas, and passport

They never heard of calling 911, and they distrust police anyway.

Their captors may threaten their families, and say if they try to escape, their families will pay the price.

Remember, if you see someone you think is being trafficked, call the National Human Trafficking hotline at 888.3737.888 (US) or here (other countries). Someone will direct you to people in your community who can help.

For information on how The Born2Fly Project is working to stop children from being trafficked in the first place, visit www.born2fly.org.

One Day, One Place, One Voice: DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk

2010-08-16T11:33:00-04:00

If you're in Washington DC in October, make plans to be part of the DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk:

Sat., Oct. 23, 2010
National Mall - Constitution Gardens
Constitution Avenue and 19th St. NW
Washington DC

www.walk.stopmodernslavery.org
walk@stopmodernslavery.org

It's organized entirely by community volunteers who are passionate activists. 100% of the contributions go directly to organizations in the US that combat human trafficking and care for victims:

Provide emergency, short-term, and long-term care and services for victims of human trafficking
Create, strengthen, and implement anti-trafficking laws
Operate the national human trafficking hotline
Train law enforcement to identify victims
Rescue victims
Raise awareness about all forms of human trafficking

For more information or to help sponsor this event, check out www.walk.stopmodernslavery.org or www.meetup.com/wdcsms.

UPDATE: The Born2Fly Project has a "virtual" team for the walk. You can join us without having to walk a step. :-) Just go here, scroll down the list of teams til you find Born2Fly, and make a donation to "walk" with us. Pretty cool, huh?

Zoom-Zoom-Zulma + Berto's photographs = one creative way to stop child trafficking

2010-08-11T09:03:54-04:00

A few months ago I spoke to the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking about The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

After I finished, Zulma Velez-Estrada came up to me practically in tears and said she wanted to help.

Honestly, the help we need involves funding, and within a week Zulma called me back with a plan. She and artist Berto Henriquez offered to host a silent auction of Berto's beautiful architectural photographs of old San Juan, Puerto Rico--all to raise money for The Born2Fly Project.

Berto and the tireless Zoom-Zoom-Zulma (as we lovingly call her) have put together a great event. If you're in Orlando next week, I hope you'll join us:

24 Moments in Old San Juan

Silent auction and exhibit of
24 photographs by
artist Berto Henriquez

To benefit The Born2Fly Project
to stop child trafficking

Thursday, August 19, 2010
5:00 - 9:00 pm

Offices of La Prensa Newspaper
685 S. Ronald Reagan Blvd.
Longwood, Florida 32750 (suburb of Orlando)
map

50% of sale of each framed photograph
will be donated to

The Born2Fly Project
to stop child trafficking
www.born2fly.org

Craigslist: The evidence just keeps coming

2010-08-04T14:59:19-04:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Craigslist is involved with child trafficking:

Dear Craig: Quit selling sex with kids

Craig himself (Craigslist president Craig Newmark) read my post and immediately tweeted me to "please stick with honest info."

CNN's special investigation unit has a story on this connection:

Sold on Craigslist: Critics say sex ad crackdown inadequate
By Steve Turnham and Amber Lyon, CNN Special Investigations Unit
August 4, 2010

This video of Craig squirming silently in the face Amber Lyon's questions--and then finally walking away--is priceless. And it says more than any words could say:

Not surprisingly, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster also denies any connection:

Craigslist vigilant in barring child sex ads
By Jim Buckmaster, Special to CNN
August 4, 2010

So what do you think? Share your comments here.

* * *

UPDATE #1: Took only 30 minutes after I posted this to get a Twitter response from @craignewmark himself: "Folks, get honest, help stop traffickers!" with a link to Jim Buckmaster's article above.

Uhh, gee, Craig, I think that's what we're trying to do.

UPDATE #2: Another tweet from Craig Newmark to me: "Folks, please check facts & honestly help children!"

Uhh, you mean like you're doing? Help them by selling them on your site?

"How can I stop child trafficking?"

2010-08-02T16:29:33-04:00

I hear that question a dozen times a week.

People think they have to travel overseas to a 3rd-world country and raid a brothel to rescue kids.

You can if you want, but really -- just look in your own community. Kids are waiting to be rescued around the corner from your house.

In my city of Orlando, Florida, for example, our unfunded human trafficking task force, the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking (FCAHT), just had its first successful domestic trafficking prosecution using Florida Human Trafficking State Law.

It involves a young woman and her 5-month-old child--both of whom were rescued. I've posted the details below if you want to read them and be inspired.

So what can YOU do to stop child trafficking?

Google the name of your city and "human trafficking" to see if you have an anti-trafficking coalition, like the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking that helped with the recent rescue, arrest, prosecution in Orlando.

If you find one, get involved. If you don't find one, start one.

It doesn't take experts.

"A lot of people sell themselves short," stresses Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, director of the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking. "They say, 'I'm not the attorney general, so I can't put together a task force in my state.' You can do a lot more than you think."

Read the case below...be inspired...and then go help rescue someone.

You can do it.

Really.

* * *

Lori's Story

Here are the highlights of the case involving an underage woman and her 5-month-old child. Remember, the rescue and prosecution were done with the help of a city-wide task force that included not just police officers but individuals like you and me who chose to get involved.

This case involves a college-educated young woman we'll call Lori and her child.

Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation and the Osceola County Investigative Bureau conducted a joint prostitution/escort detail in Orlando. They called out an escort advertising on either Craigslist or Backpage and made a prostitution case on Lori.

During the interview with law enforcement, Lori told them she'd borrowed some money from a man (we'll call him Greg) to help her fix her car. She was slowly paying him back when she got arrested for shoplifting. She called Greg to help bond her out and he did -- but he said she had to work for him to pay him back.

Greg already had a juvenile whom he had been prostituting. Now he posted Lori on the internet and sent her to prostitution calls.

To make sure Lori would comply, Greg and his "colleagues" made her drop off her 5-month-old child to them as collateral while she went on prostitution calls.

At the end of the day, she had to bring the money to them and they would return her child to her.

Lori felt she had no choice but to comply with Greg and the other men.

Once she told law enforcement officers her story and showed them text messages confirming it, they set up a team at the hotel where the suspects were staying. The men noticed something was wrong and told Lori not to come, but she convinced them to meet at a Walmart parking lot to exchange the money for the child.

Agents set up in the parking lot, arrested the suspects, and rescued Lori's child.

Lori, who was a victim of force, fraud, and coercion (the signs of human trafficking), was not arrested.

Greg and the other men were charged with sex trafficking. One of them was a juvenile himself and made a plea deal for lesser charges.

A jury found Greg guilty of sex trafficking. Lori chose to speak at sentencing. The state prosecutor asked for least 5 to 8 years time for the crime, but the judge was so moved by Lori's testimony that he sentenced Greg to 12 years.