demand Archives - Shared Hope International

May 19, 2014 by SHI Staff

Thank You Chris Gay

The following Blog Post was written by Defenders Co-Chairman, Nick Lembo.

In fighting Sex Trafficking, one man can make a difference. One man heard me speak in Washington DC, and things changed for the Defenders USA in fighting sex trafficking. The smallest of actions can add up to major changes in our culture.

What might appear to be a small decision led to a tipping point for major developments in the Defenders Program. One man was instrumental in leading the Defenders USA in their work with the trucking industry. His name is Chris Gay. He is one of our Defenders and this month we wish to celebrate his actions. He’s an active leader of The Defenders USA who is living in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

At one of my Defender’s classes in Washington D.C., Chris heard me say, “We want to get Linda Smith’s book Renting Lacy into the hands of truck drivers.” Earlier that year one of our Defender’s paid to create an audiobook version of Renting Lacy. Our intention was to educate the trucking industry through the audiobook. There seemed no better way than to provide information that truckers could simply listen to on their long hauls. However, we didn’t have the connections to get the book into the transportation industry.

Chris took it upon himself to work some contacts he had in the trucking industry. It led to a meeting with the CEO of one of the nation’s largest trucking companies. In that discussion, we discovered the trucking industry was beginning to recognize the need to implement training to stop the trafficking of our nation’s youth. They invited us to partner with them in creating materials to inform their employees.

We are now going to help this trucking company in three ways;

Debunk the myths surrounding domestic minor sex trafficking
Teach them how to identify victims
Provide ways for them to respond when they see trafficking occurring

Because of Chris’s actions, things are transpiring in a major trucking company with potentially widespread repercussions. Who knows what could be next?

Don’t underestimate your value in fighting sex trafficking in the United States. The smallest of actions all add up to major changes in our culture. Chris is a living example of that.

THANK YOU CHRIS!

-Nick Lembo and The Defenders USA

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.

December 12, 2012 by SHI Staff

Overcoming the Past: Understanding Through Renting Lacy

Guest Blog Post by Zen Loveall

False beliefs: I use to think that porn, strip clubs, and affairs were all O.K. I thought this was just part of being a guy. I use to think that my wife’s inability to satisfy me sexually was due to a problem with her. I am not hurting anyone. Women in porn and strip clubs want to do what they are doing and I am helping my mistresses by giving them the sex that they need. TV, movies, bars, clubs, advertising, magazines, and the Internet all fully supported these false beliefs.

What was my reality? I was using sex and fantasy for the wrong things and so too much would never be enough. Regular porn, and small amounts use to be O.K., but over time I needed more and more. Eventually, I was a walking dead man that lost total control of his sexual desires, living a fantasy life in my head, destroying my marriage, causing deep harm to the women that came into my life, all while supporting an industry that destroys women and children.

I was afraid of feeling my feelings and I had a lot of bad feelings. I did not understand that you can’t stop the bad feelings without stopping the good ones. I used the objectification of women and fantasy as an escape. Eventually I had no feelings…I was like a walking dead man. I wanted intimacy but bought into the myth that sex with a woman was intimacy. Sure it is a form of physical intimacy, but it is not real intimacy. You cannot have true intimacy with an object and that is what women had become for me. When I was out with my wife or friends I would just check out all the women in the room and spin fantasies in my mind around how these “objects” could satisfy me.

After I started to come out of my delusion, it took me years to turn this around. For over 15 years in my marriage, I made my wife feel less than and defective because she could not meet my insatiable sexual needs. I will have to spend the rest of my life trying to make up for that crime. I spent years in recovery groups around sex and I always use to wonder why don’t I see more strippers and prostitutes in recovery? The book “Renting Lacy” helped me to understand this. Very few of these young women make it into recovery because most of them die. The movie “The Whistleblower” also helped me to understand what I was contributing to.

When I read the book “Renting Lacy” and contemplated all the women and children suffering from this I cried and cried. I can never make that right, but I can support groups like Shared Hope and The Defenders and continue to come out of my delusion, learn to respect women as people, and continue to learn to be present and truly alive.

– Zen Loveall

May 4, 2012 by Eliza Reock

Back to Our Beginning: Rampant Sex Tourism in Jamaica Compromises Youth Safety

In our 2007 report on sex trafficking markets around the world, DEMAND, sex tourism was identified as the major driving force for sex trafficking in Jamaica. Five years later, as we visit our partners in Negril, Jamaica we see not much has changed. Young girls receiving residential services at our partner’s safe house came to Negril from all over the island. The reason: Negril is a major tourist destination and it is believed to be a place where Jamaicans can make money. Unfortunately, traffickers and facilitators also go Negril to make money, by exploiting young girls and boys through the commercial sex trade.

Although some aspects of the commercial sex trade are different in Jamaica compared to the U.S., many are the same. The trauma these young girls have been through presents itself in similar ways, and our partners must invest time and resources to provide them with spiritual and clinical counseling, life skills, and a safe home.

Our partners in Jamaica work hard to provide youth in Negril with vocational skills so they are employable, and less vulnerable to the demand for commercial sex in this beautiful city. Our partners built a relationship with local law enforcement and educate officials on sex trafficking and the resources available to trafficked youth. Whether a child is a resident at the safe house or a student in the vocational program, vulnerable young men and women have access to a staff counselor who is equipped to address the challenges the youth are facing and educate them about the dangers of sex trafficking.

Since the beginning of our partnership in Jamaica, we’ve heard horrific stories of abuse that the young girls in the program have faced. Yet, we cling to hope. Singing and dancing in church on Sunday, worshipping with the residents of the safe house, and listening to their plans for the future in a life free from trafficking, was a joyful reminder of the difference Shared Hope and our supporters are making as we restore the lives of women and girls around the world.

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!