Shared Hope International established the Ambassador of Hope program to educate, equip and connect dedicated activists to meaningful service opportunities so they can impact their community and the movement of sex trafficking.

Shared Hope Ambassador, Wendi Russo, decided to use her skills, talents and influence to make a difference. Wendi Russo has been a host on ShopHQ for nine years, presenting fashion, beauty products, and jewelry. Wendi was named Mrs. Minnesota United States in 2010.

Wendi learned about the prevalence of child sex trafficking through Facebook.

I didn’t understand how laws were just changing to name a child as a victim rather than being arrested for prostitution. I see so many walks for breast cancer and every kind of cancer, but not a lot of publicity and action taken to create awareness around child trafficking and sexual exploitation.

As a mother, Wendi related to the grave fear of losing a child to the violent and consuming commercial sex industry.

Reading the stories of victims, seeing women who were victimized as children stepping forward after horrific experiences to tell their story and help others, broke my heart for all of the children who continue to be abused and manipulated. As a mother to a 9-year old, my greatest fear is for her to be abducted, manipulated or sold. I imagined the pain of a child having their own family use them to produce pornography and physically sell them… I wanted to do something.

Despite Wendi’s desire to contribute towards the anti-trafficking movement, she didn’t always have support in her efforts.

Being a former pageant competitor, I would have pageant coaches tell me that [sex trafficking] was not a topic that judges wanted to hear about in the interview room, but I feel it is one of the most important problems facing our children today. They need protection. They need education on how to avoid being manipulated and laws that also protect them…

Using her experience in the fashion industry, Wendi started an online auction through A-List Treasures to help raise money. Thanks to the help of friends, all expenses are covered, allowing 100% of the proceeds to be donated to Shared Hope International.

 I love fashion and chose to host an online auction with Celebrity Auction Website A-List Treasures (http://www.alisttreasures.com/). I have listed designer or pageant clothing, accessories, makeup artist lessons, makeup, jewelry, and recruited help and donations from national and state titleholders to help bring attention to the topic across pageant systems, with the goal of raising more money.

I hope to make a small financial impact in what Shared Hope International does…but more than that, I hope to raise awareness, help remove the stigma of talking about sexual abuse issues, and give hope to those who feel no one cares about them.  Because guess what?  I do.

If you are interested in participating in the auction, visit: http://alisttreasures.com/Browse/R159831/Pageant_Queen_Auction

President Abraham Lincoln has been herald as one of the early abolitionists, having drafted and signed the Emancipation Proclamation. While this national symbol of freedom does mark early efforts to abolish slavery, President Lincoln recognized its limitations. Here are a few lessons we learned from Abe:

Though Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong, he struggled to identify how to address it within the existing political system. Over 150 years later, we struggle with the same thing. Federal law identifies child sex slaves (rightfully) as trafficking victims; however, in states around the nation child victims fall under contradictory laws that label the child both a victim of trafficking and a perpetrator of prostitution. Their treatment is largely dependent on which label they receive from law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges and service providers working on their case. Some children are identified as a victim of a crime but are charged with a delinquent offense to keep them in the safety of a detention center if therapeutic shelter options are unavailable. This is why we started the Protected Innocence Challenge. We outlined 41 legal provisions every state should have to protect children from trafficking. Check out how your state scored.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves. In fact, the Proclamation specifically freed slaves in only 10 states “in rebellion against the United States,” namely southern Confederate states. Nearly one million people remained in slavery in the United States after the Proclamation was signed. Today, slavery continues to flourish. Sex and labor trafficking is a real and urgent crisis facing America. Experts estimate that at least 100,000 American children are trafficked within the U.S. each year.
Here are a few simple ways to tip your hat to Abe on his birthday by engaging in your own abolitionist efforts:

1. Write your legislator. Send him/her your state report card and ask them to support important bills that relate to human trafficking.
2. Support shelter and services in the United States. Give to Terry’s House, a residential program that offers free housing for survivors of trafficking so they can focus on their education.
3. Teach youth warning signs and indicators of trafficking. Chosen will help this conversation. Order this 20-minute prevention film to show to teens in your community.