Hello dearly beloved!

Yesterday I went to an (excellent) round table discussion type thing run by an (excellent) international organisation called ECPAT (with excellent biscuits).

Over the last while, ECPAT have been researching the issue of trafficking for forced marriage in young people. This is not to say that all forced marriages involve trafficking, rather there are a large number of occasions where the two issues collide. I will get back to what they found next week as it is jolly interesting.

So, here’s the thing, there were a couple of comments made during the session that I found particularly interesting and one in particular I would like to open for debate….

We at STOP THE TRAFFIK try to avoid statistics as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong, they can be useful but don’t mean anything – numbers cannot be trafficked and exploited.

Numbers do however seem to be important to those in power and those making big decisions.

A recent study on racism in rural England found that there were a few instances of extreme racist behaviour. I believe it was either a reporter or politician who then said something along the lines of ‘yeah, but the numbers are small, they are insignificant’.

So my wondering is this: where’s the line? At what point do people take notice, when do governments – and even us as community members – feel responsibility to step in?

Over the time scale of their project, ECPAT found 48 instances of trafficking for forced marriage in the UK.

48.

Now, 48 isn’t hundreds but 48 is still 48. Does 48 require money and resources and law changes?

Would 4 be enough to get our attention and money or would we be more likely to care if it was 408? Does it matter? Would it matter if there were 1, 10 or 1000 people if they were being hurt and abused? If there were 10000000 would we become desensitised and be so overwhelmed that we see it as a losing battle and an eventuality that cannot be changed? Who draws the number line? Is there such thing as a number line? What do you think about the number line? Why does my head hurt?

Please discuss (not the bit about my head, the bit about numbers)

Hello lovely readers.

I have a little quiz for you today.

Our fabulous intern just found this quote, all you have to do is fill in the blank. The winner will receive (wait for it) a STOP THE TRAFFIK postcard and an out of date fair-trade chocolate bar (you can’t say we don’t reward your passions!)

 

‘Corruption and bribery were mentioned by a range of interviewees involved in smuggling and trafficking as a means of smoothing the passage into _____________ ‘

I love these new logos so thought I’d share them with you.

My favourite is the pink one but my colleague only likes the black one, I wonder if it’s a boy / girl thing. Maybe boys feel they cannot like pink things.

In fact, if you like, you could insert one as a signature to your emails. You don’t have to. Just an idea. No pressure ……

Hello everybody!

Below are two letters (one for adults and one for young people) which can be copied into a word document or email and sent to schools in your area. remember to delete as appropriate! If you would rather write your own letter, no worries! It’s your campaign!

You can translate at will – the resources are in 8 languages! If you have the letter in another language, I would love to put it up so others can use it.

For adults

Dear [insert name of relevant teacher or department]

Did you know that human trafficking is the fastest growing international crime and most of the victims are under 18?

[My son / daughter attends your school and] I am writing to ask if you have heard about a new school campaign called START FREEDOM run by an NGO called STOP THE TRAFFIK and the UN.

By using specially designed education resources, START FREEDOM will bring people together to teach and inspire the world’s young to become social advocates and help keep those at risk safe.

4 simple steps to START FREEDOM

1. Sign up online www.startfreedom.org

2. 14 October 2009: START FREEDOM launch
STOP THE TRAFFIK will broadcast an exciting, exclusive short film in collaboration with the United Nations to be streamed into schools around the world.

After the broadcast, registered schools will have privileged access to education kits, packed with creative lessons and activities focusing on

What trafficking is

Trafficking and commodities: responsible consumerism

Gender issues and trafficking (global and local)

What you can do

All resources are translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Dutch and Hindi.

3. The Challenge

As part of the final lesson, young people are challenged to creatively express their response to trafficking and take the message into their community. This can be through street theatre, film, dance, art, writing, photography…. you name it, the stage is yours!

4. March 2010: GLOBAL START FREEDOM WEEK
Via the START FREEDOM website, young people over the world will connect, engage and share the varied and creative ways they marked their objection to human trafficking

[I / my son / my daughter] would be delighted if you could consider running the START FREEDOM project in your class. Generally speaking, slavery is discussed in the past tense but human trafficking, modern day slavery and the human rights it abuses are very much present in our life time, in our commodities and in our communities.

You can find out more at www.startfreedom.org

Yours sincerely,

For young people

Dear [insert name of teacher]

My name is [ .......] and I go to [ ............. ] school.

I have learnt a bit about human trafficking and how it affects us as young people both here in [town] and all over the world.

An NGO called STOP THE TRAFFIK is running a new school campaign with the UN and it sounds really interesting.

Please can we do these lessons at school?

You can find out more at www.startfreedom.org

Thank you

When I first went to Bogota Colombia in 2005, I heard from different organisations that Colombia as one country is dealing with every single problem the UN is dealing with all over the world. One of the biggest problems I came across was internal refugees.

After 40 years of an ongoing war, the government has a hard time keeping track of its inhabitants. On top of that the country has one of the highest numbers of internal refugees. (I think currently the estimated number is around 3 million, actually, only Sudan has a bigger amount). I believe the high number of internal refugees is a result of several issues such as natural catastrophes and poverty, etc. As you can imagine, many of these refugees are easy targets for human traffickers.

As an activist working against human trafficking, I would like to see more co-operation and dialogue between countries/organizations dealing with refugee problems and those dealing with human trafficking issues.

When I was working in Colombia for a refugee organisation, I was repeated told that the movie Lilja Forever which is about a trafficking victim (a girl trafficked from Eastern Europe into Sweden) was not worth seeing. The reason they gave me was that they are based in Colombia and the girl in the movie was a victim in Europe and therefore had nothing to do with a organisation based in Latin America. I hope today, a couple of years later they understood how wrong they were, that this case  wasn’t unique for Europe, the same horrible story is repeated everyday all over the world, . The only way to beat the human trafficking issue and all other human rights issue is about to fight it together, no matter what country, what organisation, what issue we are fighting against! 

Please, check these brilliant, photos that are taken by a photographer who documented for 7 years in Colombia amount of different human rights issue.

http://fotoserrano.blogspot.com/2007/12/desplazados-hacen-toma-en-bogot.html

Secret Diary writer airs her frustrations.

Now, I know I have now started two of these posts of late having a bit of a moan but this is something I feel I have to get off my chest…

I know all countries around the world are feeling the impact of the current global money madness (am bored of writing and hearing the words rece**ion, cru?ch, dow!-turn and have banned them from my vocabulary) BUT, the following is ridiculous.

You know, I don’t think I need to actually write anything, I’ll just show you two headlines and maybe you can guess why I have come to the conclusion that someone out there has got their priorities all mixed up.

Hello and good afternoon to all of our avid blog readers! I’m a new intern at STOP THE TRAFFIK and here is a conversation I just had with our regular blog poster:

Regular blog writer (in slightly demanding voice); “write a blog post”

Me; “on what?”

Regular blog writer; “whatever”

So here you go! I think I’ll use this podium opportunity to tell you about my experiences thus far in my new role here. Having done a couple of other previous internships, I can happily say that STT is the best I’ve been involved with. Firstly, the guys are an interesting (and interested) bunch of dedicated activists and it’s hard for their passion and commitment not to rub off. So that’s great. Secondly, and this is without doubt the best bit of working here, they actually seem to trust me, appreciate me and genuinely listen to my input and point of view. This may seem insignificant but trust me, being listened to and taken notice of is a scarce condition in internships, so cheers guys!

I’ve been sent on workshops, attended meetings, met activists and collaborators, written letters, sent merchandise out, done research…..everything really! Thirdly, and on a more somber note, I’ve learned a whole load more about the abhorrent modern day trade in human beings and I’ve had my desire to help STOP THE TRAFFIK solidly stirred up. So I’m going to use my last words here to thank you for visiting this website and reading this blog…..and urge you to think about something you can do today, tomorrow or next week to help end the misery experienced by so many people in the UK and world wide. Just a little something, anything, that might help in the fight against trafficking.

Cheers guys! Have a happy afternoon.

Is it just me or is it immensely frustrating that the high street stores are still selling their suspiciously low priced t-shirts which we all know deep down inside have been made inhumanely, unethically and at the expense of innocent peoples’ welfare? We all love a bargain but how much longer will we line the pockets of the ‘fat-cats’ instead of the people who actually deserve it?

Recently I heard about a company called Freed Fashion. They were established in 2007 to raise awareness of the issues of the sex industry and human trafficking in Cambodia whilst employing and training disadvantaged women affected by these issues. Love it.

The founders, Rosie Dobby and Jen Graham, travelled to Phnom Penh in Cambodia to work in partnership with an NGO called Daughters of Cambodia. Daughters assist women in voluntarily leaving the sex industry, provide them with counselling and employs them to make things like such as cakes, jewellery and bags.

Rosie trained 4 young women in t-shirt production and provided them with necessary equipment and training… Freed Fashion was born!

The t-shirts retail at £10 and can be bought through their website www.freedfashion.com. There are two main designs, I’m torn between the irony of walking round with ‘Made in Cambodia’ on my clothes (I am a pasty, red head) or wearing the message ‘Freed’ with pride as a reminder of how free I am and how my t-shirt has set someone free from slavery for life.

So, I’m convinced. This kind of work makes the sort of difference to peoples’ lives that you and I will probably never fully be able to get our heads round but I don’t think £10 is an unreasonable amount to pay for a t-shirt that has set someone free as opposed to worked them senseless for no money at all. No brainer really.

Sadly, the high street stores have been winning until now – production has had to be stopped due to a lack of funding but any profit made on the t-shirts will be donated to Daughters so the welfare of the women is still being put first. How refreshing.

I had to write a piece for a girls teen magazine so thought I’d share it with you….

Trading lives

How much does it cost to buy a new summer dress?

How much do you think it would cost to buy the person making the dress?

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Surely you can’t buy a person? What may seem ridiculous is actually a sad reality: you can buy a person and they’re not that expensive.

Buying and selling people – know as human trafficking – is the fastest growing global trade. Every year hundreds of thousands (some say millions) of people are up for sale, on the market, available to the highest bidder. And like a summer dress, when it’s been worn or the owner becomes bored, it is sold to someone else and replacement.

Human trafficking is to be taken, tricked or forced into leaving your home and being exploited and treated like a slave in places like a factory, someone’s house or the sex industry. You can be trafficked to another country or just another part of your own city.

Every single day when you’re at school, 420 people will be trafficked internationally.

This story is not unusual. All over the world people are being transported into lives they didn’t choose. From being trafficked onto a cocoa plantation in Cote D’Ivoire to an older boyfriend in Northampton forcing you to work as a prostitute, from a country far away to your own high street – it’s happening and 80% of victims are girls and women.

Why women and girls?

Countless facts show that women and girls are more likely to be affected by poverty, more likely to be left in conflict zones, more likely to be in refugee camps, more likely to be economically discriminated against, less likely to go to school and less likely to have absolute control over their own lives, bodies and futures. Women are also objectified, much more than men, in pretty much every society.

OBJECTified. Object. Something you can you buy something you can own.

It’s in these conditions that traffickers select their victims and sew their lies. In a culture where women and girls are worth less, seen as objects and have limited workplace skills, a trafficker doesn’t have to promise the world, just something better with more options, like a job selling ice-cream in London (the 15 year old who took that job was sold in Heathrow airport for £4000 and forced into prostitution).

To learn about issues connecting girls and trafficking, as well as finding out how your story can meet Roshni’s, join STOP THE TRAFFIK’s new campaign START FREEDOM.

If we don’t unite globally to combat trafficking, next to the dress stand at your local market you may soon be able to buy a 13 year old dress maker.

Sign up, get on board: you have the power to make a difference, it’s time to use it.