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March 15, 2012 by Shamere

Unavoidable Destiny | Introducing Shamere McKenzie

Shamere McKenzie once believed her hopes of becoming an attorney were shattered. However, as the Policy Assistant at Shared Hope International she is now empowered to pick up the broken pieces and is determined to be an attorney.

Have you ever had something fall from your hands and shatter to pieces? You loved this thing; but as you stare on the broken pieces it’s clear that you can never put it back together. That is how I felt taking a plea to something I had no control over. I felt all my hopes and dreams were unachievable now that I had a felony conviction.

I was forced into the life of sex trafficking where fear was the number one thing that kept me enslaved to a guerilla pimp. Being physically and psychologically abused was one thing; but seeing others being physically and psychologically abused was another, as there was no way I could intervene. My experiences may be too gruesome for your stomach but the reality is it happened and I had no control over it. What would you do if a gun was placed to your head? What would you do if you were beaten to the point of unconsciousness? What would you do if your family was threatened?

Formal education or socioeconomic background does not exempt one from becoming a victim of sex trafficking. I was a 3rd year college student when this happened to me. A naïve 21-year-old girl who members of society may say is old enough to know better. Question is, at what age is one no longer naïve to ALL things? Yes, at this age there are some things I have a vast amount of knowledge on but this subject I knew nothing.

Standing in the courtroom listening to the judge say, Ms. McKenzie you are smart enough to know better, you are a college student. I believed her for that moment. I should have known better. Trying to justify that the judge was correct I asked myself, why did you go back to that monster after running away three times?

Then I remembered the fourth and final time I ran away and why it was permanent. The click of his gun and the one bullet that stood between life and death for me. The fear of him killing me or my family was gone and I went back home to my family. I obtained a job, an attorney and was in the process of enrolling in school when I was arrested by the FBI for being an accomplice in his criminal enterprise. Once I was his victim. Escape made me a survivor. But the justice system meant to protect me now called me a criminal. That’s when I felt my life was shattered into broken pieces and there was not enough super glue in the world to put it back together.

I could not understand how the FBI could not see that I was innocent. But they didn’t. So I was charged for driving minors across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. For driving! They didn’t understand how many times I told my pimp I didn’t want to drive and was beaten for it. At one point he even put a gun in my mouth and pulled the trigger—luckily the gun was unloaded. Now, I had to suffer. I thought ‘My life is over I might as well give up. What was there to live for? I told the truth and am still being severely punished. I might as well slice my wrist and just get it over with.’

My best friend chose to intervene and is one reason I am the Policy Assistant at Shared Hope International today. I found my super glue to put the pieces back together. Though the road may have been very rocky and I was faced with much adversity, I strongly believe my sex trafficking experience was a part of my destiny. I found the strength to live out my destiny, turning that negative situation into something positive. Once a victim – now the Protected Innocence Initiative Policy Assistant.

Check back every Friday for my weekly column as I share an insider’s perspective on today’s biggest anti-trafficking policies.

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

March 6, 2012 by SHI Staff

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 24, 2012 by Guest

Holding Online Facilitators Accountable: Campaign Targeted at Backpage.com

Since Shared Hope’s December 2011 release of the Protected Innocence Initiative, many states have had a torrent of new bills going out addressing the gaps in their laws which leave minors vulnerable to sex trafficking. As part of this initiative, Shared Hope evaluated the laws of each state in regards to their punishments for facilitators. Facilitators are those people or entities that knowingly enable domestic minor sex trafficking or benefit from sex trafficking in any way. While our analysis did not specifically focus on online facilitators, law enforcement and service providers have identified it as an increasing concern.

President and Founder of Shared Hope International, Congresswoman Linda Smith, explained in testimony before the Washington Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, January 27^th, it seems illogical to believe that these sites should escape accountability because they happen “in the cloud”. (Click here to listen to Congresswoman Smith’s testimony.)

Traditionally facilitators were thought of as a taxi cab driver or hotel employee assisting or turning a blind eye away from sex trafficking. However it is increasingly becoming apparent that there are many forms of facilitation of child sex trafficking. While a few states currently hold facilitators responsible by holding them to criminal or civil penalties, there are still barriers when it comes to online facilitators.

Backpage.com is an online classifieds site owned by Village Voice Media Group where many so-called “adult” ads are placed. Backpage.com has been identified by law enforcement and service providers as a hub for child sex trafficking. News outlets in states across the country have been reporting cases confirming Backpage.com is being used by traffickers to place ads offering minors for commercial sex. For example, in Florida, Leighton Curtis was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for bringing a 15-year-old girl into the state where he took sexually explicit photographs of her and advertised her for commercial sex on websites including Backpage.com. Another case involved Theodore Briggs of Connecticut who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sex trafficking a 14 and 17 year old. He used Backpage.com to advertise the girls for sex to buyers.

Backpage.com profits each time a minor is advertised for commercial sex on the site. An independent study by Advanced Interactive Media Group found that the adult section of Backpage.com is expected to earn Village Voice Media Group $24.8 million this year. While the act of profiting from child sex trafficking could lead to criminal charges for on-the-ground facilitators, Backpage.com has been left relatively unchanged throughout this process. Village Voice Media has claimed that their website is protected by the Communications Decency Act. They have been unwilling to close down this section of their website or even though they have been made well aware by law enforcement, policy officials and the victims themselves that domestic minor sex trafficking is happening there.

Shared Hope International is leading a national campaign inviting mayors across the nation to join our efforts to encourage Village Voice Media to stop facilitating child sex trafficking on Backpage.com. In addition, 51 state attorney generals, 53 anti-trafficking experts and organizations, and nearly 3,000 faith leaders of different denominations are publically calling on Backpage.com to shut this section down. We will not stop our efforts until children are no longer advertised online for sex.