SHI Staff, Author at Shared Hope International

October 17, 2014 by SHI Staff

U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson Receives Shared Hope Pathbreaker Award for Anti-Trafficking Leadership

Shared Hope International honors Brendan Johnson for prioritizing the prosecution of buyers of sex trafficking

ARLINGTON, VA. – Brendan Johnson, U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota has been named a 2014 Pathbreaker Award recipient for his determined leadership in combatting child sex trafficking.

U.S. Attorney Johnson has taken a progressive approach to demand enforcement through broad collaboration and aggressive prosecution of buyers which established broader federal engagement in combating demand for child sex trafficking. At the request of Attorney General Eric Holder, Johnson was one of fifteen U.S. Attorneys selected to serve on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee from 2012-2013. He has prioritized the prosecution of cases involving violence against Native American women and children and human trafficking. Mr. Johnson has overseen the prosecution of more than 25 human trafficking cases in five years, including three life-sentences and the federal prosecution of numerous men who attempted to purchase sex from trafficking victims. His office pursued the case of United States v. Jungers through the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, securing the critical decision that buyers of sex acts with minors are committing crimes of sex trafficking under the federal law, upping the risk of such activity by those who drive the sex trafficking markets.

“Brendan Johnson is a force of determination, initiative and skill that should leave buyers terrified to purchase sex with a minor in South Dakota,” Shared Hope International President and Founder Linda Smith said. “By creating a threshold for buyer accountability, he sets a national precedent that, if applied, will make significant strides in reducing tolerance for purchasing sex with a minor.”

In 2000, the U.S. Department of State engaged Shared Hope International to hold Pathbreaking Strategies Conferences in six countries to energize the global conversation about the issue of trafficking and share innovative approaches to combat the problem. The conferences led to significant change in the global landscape of national responses to trafficking in countries that were behind the global community and enabling an environment that was fostering trafficking with no developed response. During this process, the Pathbreaker Award was established to recognize the pioneering efforts of individuals throughout the world who broke the trend of inaction and initiated proactive responses to prevent trafficking. See all Pathbreaker Award recipients.

The 2014 Pathbreaker Award recipients also include Congressman Frank Wolf (VA-10) and Marian Hatcher, Project Manager for the Sheriff’s Women’s Justice Programs at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. U.S. Attorney Johnson and Ms. Hatcher will accept the award on November 7 during Shared Hope International’s JuST Conference in Washington, D.C.

MEDIA MATERIALS

For media convenience, a variety of video clips and resources, including survivor comments, are available at this location: vimeo.com/sharedhope/albums. Clips are password protected, please contact Taryn Offenbacher at Taryn@sharedhope.org for access.

ABOUT SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL: Shared Hope International was established in 1998, by former U.S. Congresswoman Linda Smith, to prevent, restore, and bring justice to women and children in crisis. We provide leadership in awareness, training, prevention strategies, restorative care, research, and policy initiatives. For more information about Shared Hope International, go to www.sharedhope.org.

For more information contact Taryn Offenbacher at (602) 818-3955 or taryn@sharedhope.org.

September 15, 2014 by SHI Staff

ArtPrize Exhibit Uses Real Suvivor Voices to Bring Awareness to Sex Trafficking

Working with Shared Hope International, artist Pamela Alderman created an ArtPrize exhibit to bring greater awareness to the problem of sex trafficking. Using audio files from Chosen (one of Shared Hope’s documentary video resources), Pamela was able to add real voices from survivors and law enforcement to the exhibit.

“The Scarlet Cord reveals the deception that enslaves innocent children. As visitors step inside a 40-foot storage container filled with thirty doors, they enter a secret world. This dark world crosses religious and social economic borders to sell our children for sex. A twisting scarlet cord depicts the trauma bond that connects the children to their traffickers. The weathered doors represent these abused children whose youthful minds have become knotted. My art—dedicated to these suffering children tethered within the sex industry—calls for compassionate action.”

Set against the backdrop of “The Scarlet Cord” ArtPrize installation, the collaborative music video featured below from artist Pamela Alderman and singer Kelsey Rottiers aims to confront the harsh reality of child sex trafficking and to call for compassionate action.

Midnight Wars & The Scarlet Cord from Pamela Alderman on Vimeo.

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Some important facts the exhibit aims to confront:

There are 100,000 teens trafficked in the USA between the ages of nine and nineteen (FBI)
The average age at which a child is first exploited through prostitution is 12 to 14 (FBI)
Cybersex sells children as young as six weeks old for sex to customers in the USA (Women at Risk International)
Children are sold by their families for drug money and rent in West Michigan (Manasseh Project)

ArtPrize is the world’s largest open art competition and this year’s 19-day event expects to draw over 400,000 visitors. ArtPrize runs September 24 – October 12 at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Learn more about Pamela on Facebook, Twitter and on her website.

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ArtPrize 2014 THE SCARLET CORD http://t.co/ordfPMl3ym @WomenAtRiskIntl #TheScarletCord #ArtPrize2014 #SexTrafficking pic.twitter.com/uLCbzequCU

— Pamela Alderman (@Pamela_Alderman) September 13, 2014

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September 12, 2014 by SHI Staff

Ajay’s Story of Hope

I am Ajay Pun Magar, and I’m 17. I’ve been living at Asha Nepal 11 years.

When I was young, my mother was taken from Nepal and sold into the brothel in India. From that time on, I lived with my uncle and aunty in Nepal. Those times were very hard for me. I was not sent to school; instead I was sent to work in the fields, to graze cows and goats. My mother did not forget me, though, and after a few years she arranged for me to come to India. I was sent to India and stayed with her for some years. I was still very young and unaware of the life my mother was suffering. Though I stayed with my mom, I was not given proper love and care. She seemed busy with her work all the time, unable to give me the attention I needed. I came under the influence of the bad people in the brothel, and I became a street kid, wandering here and there. Later on, I came to know about my mother’s profession, and it made me very sad.

Fortunately after a few years, my mother and I were rescued by Bombay Teen Challenge and we went to Ashagram, outside Mumbai. I was very happy to arrive there. I felt like I had a really big family. Eventually, we were able to go back to Nepal, and we were sent to live at Shared Hope Intenational’s Village of Hope Asha Nepal, where I was even happier. Aunty Bimala [the director] was very supportive, loving, and caring. Unfortunately, my mother died in 2004. I was very sad and depressed. But again, I was loved by everyone, and they helped me overcome my sorrows. I used to think I was alone — that nobody understood me, but God showed and reminded me of His promises and always lifted me up when I was down.

Now, I have completed the 10th grade and am enrolled in a high school course in Hotel Management. In the future, I want to open a fine restaurant of my own and treat people with good food and service. But my dream is also to be a football player (which Americans call soccer). I play football for renowned clubs here in Nepal — and I am good at it! — so I want to utilize my talent and share the Gospel through sports ministry.

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Manisha’s Story of Hope

My name is Manisha Sunuwar. I am 20 years old. Asha Nepal has been my home since I was 7.

I knew nothing about myself — I didn’t know where I came from, who my parents were, where my home was, nothing. I learned the bitter truth from another resident at Asha Nepal, Renu. I call her “Aunty.”

Born in a small village in central Nepal, my mother grew up very poor. At 16, she fell in love with a man who offered her a job and a better life in the city. But she was betrayed and sold in India. She soon got pregnant with me, but she did not want a baby: a boy was destined to be a criminal, a girl a sex slave like her. She wanted to get rid of me, so she started neglecting me.

That’s when my dear Aunty Renu, also trafficked to the same brothel, began caring for me, while encouraging my mother to send me to someplace I could be saved. But both of them were helpless until the wonderful day my Aunty was rescued by Shared Hope International’s local partner organization. She urged my mother to take me, to seek shelter there, but my mother was not convinced. Instead, she sent me to a relative in Nepal while she stayed to work. I am told that I lived there for three years.

Eventually, my Aunty Renu came to Nepal and searched for me. When she found me she saw that I was miserable and was being used by these relatives as anything for money. She immediately arranged to bring me to Shared Hope International’s Village of Hope, Asha Nepal. Asha Nepal gave me the parental love and care I had never had; they gave me a family! The best part is, I know Jesus. I was living in a dark cage, but He used many people to rescue and restore me. I believe that God had a plan for me from the beginning, and He allowed these things so I could testify that He is the one true God!

I am now a second-year college student pursuing a degree in Social Work. My dream is to bring change to my country in the area of Human Trafficking. Having gone through this bitter experience, I want to restore trafficking victims trafficking back into society and see sorrowful lives transformed to joyful ones.

Pooja’s Story of Hope

My name is Pooja Ghimire. I’m 21. I’ve been living at Asha Nepal since I was 8.

My mother, Shoba, was from the same rural village in Nepal where I was born. She was the eldest of seven; when her father died, she and her mother raised the younger children. At 16 my mom married, and soon I was born; but when I was five months old, my dad married another woman for her dowry and left us without food or money.

Mother desperately struggled to care for me, but life was hard. I was very sickly. Just to survive, she left me with my father and his mother and returned to her own mother. Then a woman offered her a good job in a Kathmandu factory. That woman’s “sister” arranged the trip and gave my mom some dry meat — it was drugged. She awoke as a slave, thousands of miles away in a Mumbai brothel — where she spent five miserable years in pain and darkness, without hope.

Meanwhile, I was also in severe distress. My cruel stepmother beat and threatened me, forced me to do all the housework and take care of my stepbrother. I had no education, proper food, or clothes, while my stepbrother did. I couldn’t even remember what my own mother looked like.

My mom was finally rescued by the team from Shared Hope International’s local partner organization, and went to Nepal to stay with Aunty Bimala [the director] at Asha Nepal. They formed a plan for rescuing me. When she came to my village, my stepmother hid me — she wanted to keep her slave. But one day my mom grabbed me and ran! We fled to Shared Hope International’s Village of Hope, Asha Nepal. There I got everything I had been denied — good education, food, clothes — and lots of love and care.

At 9 I accepted Christ as my Savior. All my painful experiences have helped me realize that God is there for me. Jeremiah 29:11 became real to me: I know that God has a good plan for my life; whatever He does is to prosper me, to give me hope and a future. I’m pursuing a degree in Business Administration, to become a banker and build my own business. I want to glorify God and encourage women who have gone through the same pain my mom experienced. I believe that God will help me achieve those dreams.

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