HUMAN TRAFFICKING NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD Human Trafficking

HUMAN TRAFFICKING NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

Human Trafficking Around the World

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Spiritual Growth • Awakening to the reality of human trafficking is essential for spiritual growth. True awakening breaks our hearts open. Then love is possible. • Acting on the loving impulse to eradicate trafficking can change the world. Knowing the truth can help set the prisoners free. • Jesus spent his ministry serving those forgotten by his culture. We must also serve those the world has forgotten.

Litany About United Methodist Women

United Methodist Women members are: • Followers of Jesus Christ who live their faith through acts of justice and mercy.

United Methodist Women members are: • Catalysts for needed change.

United Methodist Women members are: • Mobilizers of human and material resources.

United Methodist Women members are: • Creators of new areas of participation throughout the church and the world.

What Is Human Trafficking? • Modern-day slavery—the process of enslaving a person. • The recruiting, transporting, and harboring of persons by use of threat, force or deception for the purpose of exploitation. • Laws vary from country to country regarding human trafficking. In the United States anyone under 18 practicing prostitution is considered a trafficking victim. • 80 percent of trafficked people are women and children. 50 percent of trafficked people are under 18 years of age.

Types of Modern Slavery • Bonded labor, forced labor and child labor. • Chattel slavery—those bought and sold. • Sexual exploitation—commercial sex and forced marriage.

Bonded Labor • Most common form of enslavement today. • Accounts for 20 million of the world’s slaves. • Begins when a loan is made and a person is held as collateral against the loan. The person’s labor is payback for the loan, and because the lender determines the loan’s worth the laborer works indefinitely.

Bonded Labor (continued) • This system is found mainly in South Asia and India. A $40 debt can trap a person for life. • Some migrant workers in the United States have fallen victim to bonded labor. They borrow money to come to the United States for better jobs and acquire H-2 workers visas only to have their papers taken by their employers when they arrive.

Bonded Labor (continued) • Bonded laborers are forced to work to pay back their expenses. The Florida Panhandle is another prime area for this. • Child labor is a form of bonded labor. • Victims of bonded labor can be found in sweatshops, commercial agriculture (fields, processing plants, canneries), domestic situations (maids, nannies), construction sites, and restaurant and custodial work.

Chattel • Persons who are bought and sold. One person assumes complete legal ownership over another. • Chattel slavery exists today primarily in Mauritania and other parts of Northern Africa, where slavery is technically illegal but law enforcement does not prosecute slave owners.

Sexual Exploitation • Sexual slavery is the fastest growing and most hideous form of modern day human bondage. • Only drug trafficking brings in more illegal revenue to criminals than human and arms trafficking. • The CIA and U. S. State Department estimate that over 50, 000 women and children are trafficked into the United States each year.

Sexual Exploitation (continued) • An estimated 40, 000 women and young girls from Burma are forced into the sex industry in Thailand each year. • A 2005 UNICEF report estimated that 1. 2 million children are sold into sexual slavery every year. The United Nations International Labor Organization reports this number as 4 million.

Sexual Exploitation (continued) • Sexual tourism has increased in countries such as Thailand, where 7. 3 million unaccompanied men visit the country annually. • 65 percent of all tourists to Cambodia are men. According to World Vision, one-fourth of them travel with the express purpose of having sex with young girls.

Sexual Exploitation (continued) • Sexual tourism feeds the beast of sexual slavery. • Prostitution is not a victimless crime. • Victims of sexual exploitation can be found in massage parlors, escort services, adult bookstores, modeling studios, and bars and strip clubs. • How can men help stop sexual trafficking?

January 11, 2011, is Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Slavery Statistics • An estimated 27 million people live as slaves today. This is more five times the population of Ireland. • In 1850 in Mississippi an agricultural slave cost the equivalent of $50, 000 to $100, 000 at today’s prices. An equivalent slave in India in 1999 cost just $90.

Slavery Statistics (continued) • In India and Nepal, a person can be trapped into a lifetime of hard labor just to pay the interest on as little as $36. • In one area of southern Sudan, 3, 000 children from the Christian population of 150, 000 were abducted during 1998 to work as laborers.

Slavery Statistics (continued) • Slavery was legally abolished in the British Empire in 1838, in the United States in 1865, in Brazil in 1888, in Burma in 1929, in Saudi Arabia in 1962 and in Mauritania in 1980; however, slavery still exists in all of these areas.

Slavery Statistics (continued) • In 2005, about 14 percent of Haiti’s under-18 population were used as restaveks, children working as domestic slaves. These children often receive only one meal each day. Read the book Life is Tough: Children in Domestic Labor in Haiti by Barbara Mc. Clatiche Andrews.

Personal Stories • Take a few minutes and read your personal trafficking story. • When everyone at your table is finished reading, share your stories with one another. • Each table will select one story to share with the large group.

Sharing of Stories • Which example of modern slavery did your story show: bonded labor, chattel or sexual exploitation? • Where is the person in your story from? To where was he or she trafficked? • Who recognized the situation as trafficking? Who shared the person’s story? • What about the person’s circumstances made him or her a target for trafficking?

Documentary: Stolen Childhoods • View Stolen Childhoods, written, produced and directed by Len Morris and co-directed by Robin Romano.

Stolen Childhoods • What types of slavery were shown in the video? • Why does slavery still exist? • What industries use child labor? • What is microfinance? How could it help end bonded labor? • How do you unknowingly support these forms of slavery?

How did you support the slave trade today?

Some Industries That Support Slavery • • • Gold mining Diamond mining Mahogany and steel producers Fireworks Chocolate Carpet producers Sport equipment manufacturers (e. g. , soccer balls) Service industry Agriculture Commercial sex industry

Suggested Reading • • • The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam Free the Children by Craig Kielburger Not For Sale by David Batstone The Slave Next Door by Kevin Bales The True Cost of Low Prices by Vincent A. Gallagher

Online Resources • • • www. unitedmethodistwomen. org www. faastinternational. org www. freetheslaves. net www. polarisproject. org www. state. gov/g/tip www. gems-girls. org www. sharedhope. org www. traffickingresourcecenter. org www. womenforpeaceinternational. org www. endhumantraffickingnow. com www. protectionproject. org

World Map • Using the straight pins on your table, place pins on the world map on locations where you have traveled or lived. • View the following two maps and compare the concentration of pins to the concentration of trafficking in the same areas.

World Map (continued) • Foreigners are trafficked into the United States from at least 35 countries but most often from China, Mexico and Vietnam. • What steps can be taken to eliminate human trafficking to and within the United States? • Why are undocumented workers easier victims?

Quiz Review • Pull out your quizzes from the beginning of the session. • Compare your answers as a group and discuss any differences. Find answers for questions still unanswered.

Bible Study • As a table choose one facilitator to lead the “Human Trafficking Awareness and Action” Bible study by Glory E. Dharmaraj (provided) • Together study Judges 19: 1 -30: Woman From Bethlehem using the provided guidelines.

Documentary: Not for Sale • View Not for Sale, based on the book Not For Sale by David Batstone, produced and directed by Robert Marcarelli.

Activity • Take time to create refrigerator magnets on which the National Human Trafficking Resource Center phone number will be written: 1 -888 -373 -7888. • Use this time to reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

Indicators of Trafficking • Live on or near work premises. • Large number of occupants for living space. • Lack of private space, personal possessions and financial records. • Kept under surveillance when out in the community. Trafficker may act as a translator. • Bouncers, guards or guard dogs present.

Indicators of Trafficking(continued) Signs of torture (e. g. , cigarette burns). Brands or scarring indicating ownership. Signs of malnourishment. Signs of rape or sexual abuse. Sexually transmitted diseases Posttraumatic stress or poor psychological health. • Other untreated medical problems. • • •

Indicators of Trafficking(continued) • • • Large amounts of cash and condoms. Customer receipt book. Sparse rooms. Men come and go frequently. Barred windows, locked doors, isolated location, electronic surveillance. Women never leave unescorted.

What You Can Do • Join the United Methodist Women Social Action Network: www. unitedmethodistwomen. org/act/networ k. • Be aware. Ask and act. • Research, rescue and restore. • List what you plan to do in your town and share your plan with others

What You Can Do (continued) • Buy fair trade. • Support education and business opportunities for women and girls. • Report suspected human trafficking to the U. S. Department of Justice 1 -888 -428 -7581. • Host a training session on the topic of sexual trafficking.

What You Can Do (continued) • Write articles and Op-Ed pieces for local papers and church newsletters about the need to abolish slavery and reaffirm the inherent, God-given dignity of the human race. • Arrange a screening of the films Stolen Childhoods, Girls Are Not for Sale, and The Dark Side of Chocolate in your church or community center.

What You Can Do (continued) • Join the United Methodist Women in their Intercept the Traffickers campaign (www. unitedmethodistwomen. org/act) by 
printing the downloadable fliers and hanging them in designated public places and handing them out at meetings, get-togethers and at Super Bowl parties. Send the bulletin to your pastor or church secretary to include in the bulletin on Super Bowl Sunday.

Call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center to report human trafficking: 1 -888 -373 -7888

Closing Worship • The Starfish Story, adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley (New York: Harcourt, 1978).

Silent Prayer • Reflecting on your personal story of human trafficking and other information you’ve learned, take silent time to pray for the persons who touched your heart today. • Pray for the victims of human trafficking and the strength and knowledge to help end it.

Closing Prayer Closing prayer based on the crippled woman in Luke 13: 10 -13. May the Lord watch between you and me while we are absent one from the other. Amen.