Awareness Archives - Page 17 of 36 - Shared Hope International

October 2, 2013 by SHI Staff

Washington Delegate Donates Shutdown Salary to Shared Hope

Less than 48 hours after the U.S. Government shutdown, Washington Representative Jamie Herrera Beutler announced her decision to donate 100 percent of her shutdown salary to Shared Hope International.

During a government shutdown, the 532 members of Congress continue to be paid, at a rate of $174,000 annually. While this costs American taxpayers approximately $10,000 an hour, 800,000 government employees have been furloughed without pay. The shutdown is expected to have major consequences on the already fragile U.S. economy. IHS Global Insight, a market research firm, expects the shutdown could cost $1.6 billion a week in lost economic output. The last federal government shutdown occurred in 1995 and lasted 21 days.

Rep. Herrera Beutler, a long-time ally in the fight against trafficking, is using this opportunity for good. Rep. Herrera Beutler serves as a member of the House of Representatives for Washington’s 3^rd District, the same district former Congresswoman and President and Founder of Shared Hope, Linda Smith, served from 1995-99.

“Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, announced on Twitter that she will give 100 percent of her salary to Shared Hope International, a Vancouver-based nonprofit group that seeks to prevent sex trafficking, until Congress ‘gets the government back up and running,’ said her spokesman, Casey Bowman. – The Columbian

On July 8, 2013, Rep. Herrera Beutler, Co-chair of the Congressional Caucus of Women’s Issues joined with a host of Senators and Representatives to help sponsor the 2013 National Colloquium Report Release and Briefing in Washington, D.C. The report, produced by Shared Hope International, represented the responses from over 100 provider, survivor, government, advocacy and funding experts on emerging trends and barriers encountered in attempting to secure restorative shelter and services for juvenile sex trafficking victims and survivors.

September 20, 2013 by Guest

A Father for Freedom

Written by: Marissa Montalvo

Life is one of the most precious things in the world and it takes tremendous courage to save one. Sparsh Founder, Timothy Hirwale, shares what motivated him to rescue and raise dozens of India’s children as his own and how his organization is making an impact.

“There was a time in my dad’s life he was left alone to die on the street of Marathwada, a rural place in Maharashtra, India. An American missionary named Elizabeth Walton picked him up as a malnourished child and cared for him and gave him the name Daniel. Looking at the beautiful lifestyle of my orphan mom and dad I was inspired and thought I would love to care and love these precious children.”

Dedicated to offering that same love and care that Walton gave his father, Timothy decided to create Sparsh, an organization that offers protection and a family to children and orphans.

“For me the thought of a child being left alone without care and protection and without love makes me move in my inner spirit. You can call it a call of God or inner urge to do something for children, but from the age of 18 there was only one aim and goal or ambition and that was to serve the children.”

When he was 18-years-old, he was called “bachelor dad” because he had already taken in two 3-year-old children.

“The first time when we picked up Payal and Sunny from the red light area to Sparsh, there was this tremendous joyful satisfaction in my heart but it took 10 days for Payal to accept me as a father because she had horrific time with her father.”

His mission isn’t easy. Timothy says some of his greatest challenges are overcoming the helplessness he feels when he can’t accept more children because his home is full, caring for the education and development of so many children, and finding the time between fundraising, administration and running the home to offer individualize love and support to all 17 children. Not to mention the logistics of transporting 22 people using one small six-passenger van. Placing his challenges into perspective, he says stories like Nandini’s are worth it.

“We brought Nandini from the street. She was full of mud and carbon all over her body. When we started giving her a bath, all the black water flowed from the bathroom. Seeing that, all rest of the children screamed and ran away saying that she is very unclean. But as the days pass by, when I look back, I thank God for this little life, full of joy and smiles every day.”

Timothy says being a good father means being a good role model, building comfortable communication so children feel free and open to be themselves, finding creative and resourceful ways to provide for the family, and by taking the time to instill values in the children.

“In my opinion, a good father introduces his children to the future and does not try to keep them from world. I feel [parent should] let them see everything, have experiences of their own and when the time comes for them to make the right decision of following any religion or career, it is their own choice. I will rest assured because the values, the love I have showed to them, is genuine and you will get a genuine result. Your love and values will always guide them to be a successful human being.”

The time and energy Timothy invested in being the best father he can is paying off. He says he has seen an increase in the children’s level of trust and sense of security since coming to the home. They are sharing their feelings, hugging and showing intentional acts of kindness-actions that indicate the children are developing healthy patterns of affection and relationship skills which can be more difficult for children with traumatic backgrounds to develop.

Timothy is a man of prayer, passion and purpose. He says men must step forward with courage and boldness to fight against injustice.

“I feel God has blessed America with everything, what other nations covet. The God given freedom is being taken away by human traffickers all over. Our negligence is bringing the HIV rates high on rampage. Our negligence is seeing our own daughters and sisters being taken away in front of our eyes…Feeling sorry for the horrific act is not just enough. It is the time to act. Many think it won’t happen to me or my family, but greed and pleasure does not know any relation and color. I pray and plead, let’s make human trafficking a history.”

About Sparsh
In 2011, Shared Hope International expanded its impact in India by welcoming a new partner in Pune. Sparsh, which means “touch” is a restoration refuge providing a family environment to women on a journey of restoration after sex trafficking, their children, and children whose mothers are still enslaved in Pune’s red light district.

September 16, 2013 by SHI Staff

Buyer Beware: Legislators Tighten Laws to Target Buyers

Rep. Judge Ted Poe and Senator John Cornyn cross-filed the End Sex Trafficking Act of 2013 on July 24, 2013. The bill has the purpose of clarifying the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and its criminal provision, 18 USC 1591, to include actions by buyers – through the verbs “patronizes or solicits” – as offenses of sex trafficking.

Pending federal court cases in South Dakota ended with the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals decision issued in January 2013 holding that the plain language of 18 USC 1591 includes the actions of buyers through the terms “entices” and “obtains” primarily. Nonetheless, concern remained that the federal law was not sufficiently clear in its intent to include ALL of the actors in the crime of sex trafficking, including buyers. Federal legislators intend to clarify without a doubt that the actions of buyers – demand – is part of the trafficking crime.

This amendment is the product of years of advocacy by Shared Hope and our anti-demand colleagues. Recently, Shared Hope International’s senior policy director Samantha Healy Vardaman and policy counsel Christine Raino authored a law review article published in the University of Memphis Law Review Summer 2013 publication titled Prosecuting Demand as a Crime of Human Trafficking: The Eighth Circuit Decision in United States Vs. Jungers.

The article presents “the case that buyers and attempted buyers of commercial sex acts with minors—including prostitution, pornography, and sexual performance—engage in trafficking activities essential to the crime of trafficking. The Eighth Circuit decision in the Bonestroo and Jungers cases will greatly bolster the ability of prosecutors and law enforcement to combat and deter sex trafficking of minors in America.”

Shared Hope has been undertaking the Demanding Justice Project to emphasize the need for legislation and prosecution that target buyers of sex with children. This research addresses states’ enforcement of laws analyzed under the demand component of the Protected Innocence Challenge. Phase one of the project – a national desk review of buyer cases identified and tracked through the court process – will be featured at Sharing the Hope 2013. The Pathbreaker Awards Gala will also be featured at the event. This year’s Pathbreaker Award recipients are those who have developed innovative strategies to combat demand: Vednita Carter, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Cordes, and Rep. Ted Poe.

To read Rep. Poe and Sentor Cornyn’s End Sex Trafficking Act of 2013, follow the links below.

View the House Bill.

View the Senate Bill.

September 4, 2013 by SHI Staff

Eradicating the Commercial Sex Elephant in the Room

Guest Blog Post by Dale Rylander (Defenders Captain)

When I try to get my head around the scope and complexity of the commercial sex issue I feel like a blind man encountering an elephant (the leg is a tree, the tail is a rope, the trunk is a snake, the ear is a fan and the side is a large rock). Each time I approach the commercial sex elephant from a different direction I feel like I am dealing with a different problem. Then, when I step back I realize its huge size and multiple complex issues. It is also the elephant in the middle of the room that is hard to talk about.

But we need to! The destructive impact of commercial sex in our communities, our nation and our world is huge. Each year 100,000 preteen and teenage girls are victimized as prostituted children in the US. (In 2011 there were 83,425 forcible rapes reported in the US.) If each prostituted child experiences physical sexual contact more than once a month that equals 1,300,000 rapes each year. (In 2011 there were 1,203,564 violent crimes reported in the US.) Commercial sex also has a huge impact in other countries often exacerbated by conflict, culture and poverty.

If we are going to successfully eradicate this huge commercial sex elephant we need to address all of its multiple different complex issues. There are prostituted girls that need to be rescued, potential victims that need to be educated, behaviors that need to be eliminated and laws that need to be enacted and enforced. All of these are important and all of these must be addressed.

Just as an elephant looks different when viewed from a different angle; so does a presentation about commercial sex look different when I talk to a different audience. The information is always based on the same facts but the presentation is customized to challenge a specific audience to take age and gender appropriate actions. By focusing on the needs and interest of a specific audience I can reduce the duration of the presentation and emphasize relevant content that maintains the audience’s attention.

I look for opportunities to make presentations about the commercial sex elephant to the following different audiences:
• Preteen and teen girls using the Chosen DVD and Training package with emphasis on awareness of their personal safety and the safety of their friends.
• Preteen and teen boys using the Chosen DVD and Training package with emphasis on awareness and personal commitment to respect girls and women.
• Parents using the Chosen DVD and Training package with emphasis on the challenges associated with parenting teenagers.
• Political Action using Protected Innocence Challenge to encourage individuals and groups to become informed and express opinions to their elected officials.
• Adult men using personal testimonial followed by open discussion to challenge adult men to take Defenders Pledge.

Is one of these actions more important than the others? No.
Do I always have an opportunity to do all of these? No.

My goal is to make the most of each opportunity and although my contributions may be small I hope my focus on the needs and interests of specific audiences enable each presentation help eradicate a small part of the commercial sex elephant.

Dale Rylander is a professional technology consultant. He is married with three adult children. His wife challenged him to take the Defenders’ Pledge. Motivated by the enormous scope of this issue, he is working as the first Defenders Captain in Dallas to educate and challenge men in Dallas, in Texas, in the United States and around the world to change their attitudes and actions about commercial sex.

August 29, 2013 by SHI Staff

School’s In Session (Part 2 of Keeping Watch Over Schools)

Kids are heading back to school and jumping into another year of learning. Let’s make sure that they are learning about how to stay safe within the school system as well.

This second post of a two part blog presents ideas for how you can prepare yourself, students, and their schools to fight sex trafficking.

Yellow buses are populating the streets again as children and teens are starting a new school year. Let’s make sure that they, their schools, and you are all armed and ready to defend against sex trafficking. Below are three action steps that lead to a lesson plan for prevention, rescue, and restoration.

Educate yourself: You are already on the right track here. You are reading this blog. Chances are you have explored Shared Hope’s website to learn more about sex trafficking in the United States and around the world. If you have not, then we encourage you to do so. There are plenty of resources to answer your questions on sex trafficking. Shared Hope also has a YouTube channel and a Vimeo channel that feature news clips, our DEMAND. Documentary, and much more. Shared Hope would also like to invite you to attend Sharing the Hope. This event will feature three riveting days of education and celebration. There you will learn from the nation’s top leaders on how you can take action to fight sex trafficking and save one life at a time.

Educate students: The previous blog urged you to talk to children and teens. You can find tips on how to talk to them about sexual abuse here. And, as was suggested before, you can use Chosen to open the door to discussions on sex trafficking. Young people will be impacted by the stories told in the documentary by two teenage girls who escaped the snares of commercial sexual exploitation. When you order Chosen, guides, discussion questions, and action ideas are included in your purchase. You can use these tools to organize a viewing in your church, community center, or even at your local middle school or high school. For those kids that are not yet pre-teens, be sure to broach the subject in an age appropriate manner. And do not forget to talk about solutions! If all we talk about is the darkness, then it can leave young people afraid and overwhelmed. Give them hope.

Educate teachers: The first line of defense against trafficking and sexual abuse is so often the educators, school staff, and volunteers that interact with children on nearly a daily basis. If your local district does not have a program in place that teaches these individuals how to spot and respond to signs of sex trafficking, then push for one. The Department of Education has recognized the need for school employees to be aware of this issue. They created this fact sheet to provide an overview of what trafficking is, how to identify potential victims, and what to do.

It takes an entire community to tackle this issue, to protect our children and teens from traffickers. We all need to work together to continue to save these precious lives.

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