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March 14, 2012 by SHI Staff

Ari’s Story of Hope

Ari’s story begins in Secundrabad, Andhra Pradesh. As an infant, her mother ran from her unfaithful husband and took Ari to live on the streets of Pune, surviving only by begging at the railway station. When Ari was five years old, tragedy struck as the hard street life claimed her mother, leaving Ari alone and desperate.

Ari was adopted by her mother’s friend but was soon sold to a brothel. At first, Ari was used for housework, but at eight years old she was forced into the sex trade. When she refused customers, she was beaten with an iron rod. Her fragile body was not able to tolerate the pain and she became paralyzed on one side. With this condition, she was unable to satisfy the demands of her exploitation and was sent to the hospital for treatment.

Ari recalls a pimp saying:

“If she recovers bring her back if she dies throw somewhere and don’t mention it to anyone.”

While in the hospital, Ari met a social worker who took great pity on her and placed her in a shelter once she recovered. What could have been reprieve proved dangerous. After witnessing the death of three children due to poor care, Ari and a young boy fled the shelter. Ari learned the boy had a 10-year-old sister enslaved in the red-light district of Pune. Ari helped rescue the sister and, with the help of police and a social worker, was able to rescue three other young girls from the brothel.

Alone again, Ari survived by begging on the streets. At 13 years old, she married a street boy, with whom she endured a dangerously violent marriage. When she gave birth to their daughter, Nan, her husband attempted to kill them by dousing them with kerosene and trying to burn them. Her mother-in-law rescued Ari and Nan but they quickly fled to the streets of Pune. With a child and no one to care for them, Ari became desperate and was forced to do what she despised the most, sell sex to survive. During this time, Ari married again and gave birth to a second daughter, Sajni.

In her darkest hour of desperation, help arrived. Our partner in India met Ari and Nan and brought them home to a loving community where they receive spiritual support and education. Though Ari was born into poverty and sold into slavery, she was rescued into freedom. Today Ari and Nan are thriving with the help of Shared Hope and our partner in India.

March 14, 2012 by SHI Staff

Media and News Coverage, February 2012

  • Feb. 21: Huffpost – Real Life Lessons From Real Life DoGooders: If You See Injustice, Don’t Ignore It
  • Feb. 2: Fox News – Indiana Passes Human Trafficking Law In Time For Super Bowl
  • Feb. 2 : Forbes – Sex And The Super Bowl: Indianapolis Puts Spotlight On Teen Sex Trafficking

March 6, 2012 by SHI Staff

Maelie could tell you how it happens…

Maelie could tell you how it happens…

She wasn’t grabbed and thrown in the trunk of his car.  She hadn’t run away from home in search of thrills on the street.  No, she was lured away…charmed away…friended away.  For him, it was easy enough, with a bit of patience–a promise of something she needed, or something she wanted bad enough to take a chance.  Her body, young as it was, would bring in lots of cash; she was worth the time it took to recruit her.  For her anguished parents, distraught and desperate to locate that “normal” child who disappeared into a dark relationship, the nightmare had begun.  

You see, there is an insatiable market for sex with children and there is a lot of money to be made off eager buyers–it’s a matter of supply and demand.

But it’s also a matter of evil. This evil is thick and rank along the crowded brothel allies; it smirks as it describes the ‘high’ of taking away a child’s innocence; it slashes her with a box cutter when she refuses;  it tells her what happened to her was all her fault; it reminds her that she is nothing but trash.   The sheer weight of such evil is stunning and threatens to immobilize us…but for the stories of those that have overcome, like Maelie and the family that loved her and brought her home again! 

Together we must act to protect our children and take back those who have been lost. Please go online today and download your state’s Protected Innocence Challenge Report Card, then share it with your state legislators. You have a powerful voice for change. Use it!

February 16, 2012 by SHI Staff

Two States Take the Protected Innocence Challenge Head On

Last year, Shared Hope issued failing grades to over half the states for their legal provisions to protect America’s innocent against domestic minor sex trafficking. We challenged each state to raise their grade. They heard us! Taking this challenge head on, more than 30 states have introduced a total of 90 bills (and counting!) that will help combat human trafficking in their states. Kentucky and Louisiana have taken a notable lead in the movement to end human trafficking by introducing a package of Protected Innocence bills.

In Kentucky, 22 legislators are sponsoring HB 350 which will address more than 10 key components of the Protected Innocence legislative framework. If passed, this bill will expand provisions pertaining to asset forfeiture, will require human trafficking training for law enforcement, create a human trafficking fund, improve the definition of human trafficking to accurately identify victims, increase victim protections, establish a dedicated department within the police department for human trafficking investigations, and more. Kentucky received a “D” on the 2011 Protected Innocence Report Card—we commend the leaders championing this cause to raise the grade in Kentucky.

Louisiana continues taking aggressive action to combat child sex trafficking in the state. House Bill 49 addresses more than half of the legal components outlined in the Protected Innocence legislative framework. HB 49 contains 20 distinct provisions that would tighten the legal framework in this “C” state, including: increasing penalties for human trafficking, providing an affirmative defense, authorizing wiretaps, training law enforcement, providing victim restitution, requiring reporting of rescued children, allowing expungement of juvenile records, extending statutes of limitation, permitting policy decoys in investigation operations, preventing a consent defense, raising the penalty for buying sex with a minor to a $50,000 fine and 15–50 years in jail, establishing DMST victim eligibility for the crime victim’s compensation fund, removing prostitution from the definition of delinquent acts, and much, much more. If passed, Louisiana could emerge as one of the most dangerous places for those who buy and sell children for sex and raise the state’s grade even higher in the 2012 Protected Innocence Challenge.

We’re thrilled to see Shared Hope’s advocacy tools impacting change in states around the nation. Has your state taken the Protected Innocence Challenge?

February 10, 2012 by SHI Staff

WA Senate Passes New Bill to Fight Child Sex Trafficking

SB 6251 Increases Online Accountability to Deter Commercial Sexual Abuse of Minors

The Washington state Senate unanimously passed a raft of Protected Innocence bills targeted at tightening the state laws against child sex trafficking, including the pioneering SB 6251, aimed at stopping the online facilitation of child sex trafficking. The bill sponsored by Seattle Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-WA) establishes a new crime of advertising commercial sexual abuse of a minor in Washington. Senator Kohl-Welles’ bill is a part of a series of eight bipartisan bills to combat human trafficking that passed in the Senate yesterday and are headed to the House of Representatives for approval.

Shared Hope International is a leader in the national initiative to bring greater accountability to online facilitators by rallying 17 activist organizations to call on over 60 mayors to encourage Village Voice Media to stop illegal forms of commercial sex advertisements on its website Backpage.com, the online classified giant. We have challenged mayors in every city where Village Voice media is operating to publically hold one of the nation’s leading source of online sex escort ads accountable to ensure that children are not sold for sex through Backpage.com.

“Backpage.com executives are hiding behind the protection of the Federal Communications Decency Act, claiming no responsibility for the hundreds of documented children that have been sold for sex on their site,” said Shared Hope International President and Founder Linda Smith and former U.S. Congresswoman. “Shared Hope International’s Protected Innocence Challenge reinforces the importance of state laws in reaching this facilitator of child sex trafficking. We will not continue to allow this grave omission to cause injustice for America’s children and we are in full support of Washington’s national leadership on this issue.”

Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn requested Village Voice Media, owner of online classified site Backpage.com, take a stronger, more transparent action to protect women and children from being exploited through advertisements on their website. Shared Hope International’s mayor’s campaign was initiated to encourage others to follow Mayor McGinn’s leadership on this issue. According to an independent study by Advanced Interactive Media Group, Backpage.com’s adult services section is expected to earn Village Voice Media $24.8 million, accounting for over two thirds of the $36 million in revenue projected to be earned by all tracked online classified sites facilitating commercial sex. Despite pressure from religious groups, advocates, and state officials, Backpage.com is not responding with solutions.

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