A Conversation on Human Trafficking
Editor’s Note: This is one article in a series of reflections on the United Methodist Women-organized seminar, “Hands that Heal: Human Trafficking Training of Trainers” in August 2009.
By Anna Noble*
I attended the United Methodist seminar Hands that Heal: Human Trafficking Training of Trainers in August 2009. I’ve intentionally avoided this topic for quite some time as the very notion of it disturbed by spirit and filled me with distress and despair as I felt powerless to make a difference.
On Saturday, August 8, 2009, I was on a plane headed home from the seminar and making the usual small talk with a woman seated next to me on the plane. We said things like: “Where are you headed?” “Were you visiting or was it a business trip?”
She volunteered that she was a nurse returning from a conference on diabetes. “And you?” she asked.
“I attended a Train-the-Trainer seminar on human trafficking,” I replied.
“What’s that?” she inquired.
Fortunately, I had my thirty second elevator speech prepared but not quite perfected, so I said: “It is the exploitation of vulnerable people through force, coercion, fraud, or abduction usually for profit. It could take the form of prostitution, forced labor, slavery or even organ purchasing.” Then I hastily added, “Child soldiers would be included in human trafficking.”
The conversation was no longer a cursory conversation between two random travelers. We were engaged in a heavy topic and I could see her body language change. She told me she heard of human trafficking, but she thought it was only a problem overseas. “Like maybe…” She tried to think of a country and couldn’t.
“It’s a problem overseas, but we have a significant problem with it here in the US also,” I told her. I shared with her one of the stories that Sergeant Ernest Britton, Supervisor of the Atlanta Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit shared with us.
To learn more about the definitions of human trafficking, how to recognize trafficking and to find resources and Bible studies, click here. Contact your social action coordinator to find out how you can organize a training program in your community. |
A fourteen year old girl was lured from Texas through a popular website by a thirty-five year old man who promised her a modeling job with a famous female designer and MTV reality TV mogul. Upon her arrival in Atlanta, she was offered up sexually (against her will) to ten to fifteen men at a time to “break” her. Apparently this is a tactic similar to an old practice used to break horses. The philosophy is that when she stops fighting, she is ready to be “used” for prostitution, or, put differently, rape for profit. The pimp went on to tell the child that she owed him for expenses such as travel, room and board, photos etc. However, all money she earned in sex acts were turned over to the pimp and not used to reduce the so call debt. Apparently the debt ceilings are raised at the whim of the pimps so that the girls can never get out. This pimp was sentenced to six years in a federal prison.
Similar stories repeat themselves again and again with only slightly different twists. The Internet has become the gateway to drawing teenagers away from home. In some instances the pimps keep the girls in bondage by threatening to hurt their siblings or parents if they report to an authority figure or attempt to free themselves. Kids who feel especially devalued or humiliated may never feel worthy of going home to their parents again.
“I don’t know if I want to know this” she said, “but what is the average age of the girls?” She let out an audible gasp when I told her it was between eight and fourteen.
I shared with her how inspired I was by the people who courageously work on behalf of exploited women and children and the survivors of trafficking in people (TIP). I mentioned Rohida Khan, Director of the Network of Emergency Trafficking Services (NETS) and Anti-Trafficking Coordinator for The Salvation Army’s Western Territorial Headquarters. Rohida did an outstanding job presenting the material for the seminar.
I spoke of Mrs. Claire Underwood Hertzler, Director of the National Coalition Ministry in Atlanta who works on restoration of the broken. Claire has been a leader of the anti-trafficking-human trafficking movement in Atlanta since 2000. I told her of Melba Robinson, Program Manager for the Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation (CEASE). Melba oversees the only safe-haven in the US that provides intensive treatment for girls ages eleven to seventeen who have been victims of sexual exploitation. Lisa Williams, founder of Circle of Friends Inc., is a spirit-filled woman of God who has devoted her life to the restoration of women and girls who have endured mental, physical and sexual abuse and neglect. Lisa will soon open a ten-bed facility called Living Water for Girls, which is a residential program for girls aged twelve to seventeen who are survivors of the commercial sex trade. I especially appreciated Lisa’s council that we do not allow our Christian sensibilities to be put off by the way these children dress or their course language, but rather to focus on their
circumstances and how we can be of service.
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▲ Photo by Susie Johnson.
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I relayed to my nurse friend that the seminar was targeted at caregivers and I felt there was great value in the nursing community getting this education. After all, they are on the front lines of encountering these girls if or when they drop in for emergency care. They are in the best position to recognize the signs of control. I watched my airplane companion as she sat there, arms folded across her chest, furrowed brow and deep in thought. I decided that perhaps I’d talked too much and as a captive audience perhaps she had heard enough.
I turned away and looked out the window for a while. Minutes later she said to me, “So what are we going to do to help these girls?” It somewhat startled me because I was not expecting to hear from her. She had a sense of purpose and urgency in her voice. Having just finished my action plan in the seminar less than two hours earlier, I quickly rattled off the things I plan to do in my area and recommended she do the research in her area to develop her own action plan. I offered to share with her my videos, contact information and checklist of signs to look for to recognize sexual exploitation. My materials were in my bag stashed in the overhead compartment. When we landed I thought perhaps she would run from this topic like I did in the past. She deplaned before I did, and inside the terminal there she was – waiting. I shared my literature and recommended that she reach out to The Salvation Army in her area for assistance.
The seminar was outstanding despite the heavy subject matter. On more than one occasion I found myself wiping tears from my cheeks as I listened to heart-wrenching stories or mind-blowing statistics of people who are affected by human trafficking. There were times when I sat with my arms across my chest, furrowed browed, seething in anger at the cruelty human beings heap on other human beings.
I never got the name of the lady sitting next to me on the plane just like we’ll never get the names of all those who are in bondage to human trafficking here in the US and around the world. But I was able to open the eyes of one person on this topic and hopefully each one will teach one and each one will reach one until the scourge of human trafficking is no more.
*Anna Noble is a United Methodist Women member representing the California Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church.
See Also:
To learn more about the “Hands that Heal” conference and United Methodist Women’s work on ending all forms of human trafficking, click here.