Super Bowl Archives - Shared Hope International

January 21, 2014 by SHI Staff

Defenders Super Bowl Campaign

How many of you have heard of the Super Bowl? Alright, who I am I kidding? Everyone has! Great food, the most creative ad campaigns of the year, and great football—it’s pretty hard to miss. Millions of people participate in this day. According to a 2013 Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey, approximately 75% of American consumers planned to watch the Super Bowl in 2013.

According to this survey, about $68 was spent per person on merchandise related to the Super Bowl.

This same survey predicted that in 2013 over $12.7 billion was spent on Super Bowl related purchases.

For me, this raised a question. What if, instead of spending hours of our time and billions of dollars on this event, we spent some time sharing the fact that New Jersey, home of the MetLife Stadium, still has a C grade on the Protected Innocence Challenge? What if we spent some of our time and money sharing the fact that an estimated 100,000 children every year are sexually exploited through prostitution?

At Shared Hope, we want to get 2014 started off right, and I’d like you to participate. 2014 is our year to make a difference in the world. On January 20, we are launching our Second Annual Defenders Super Bowl Campaign, and I’d like to invite you to participate. It’s time that we get men to step up and be true Defenders. It’s time that we end demand. It’s time to get in the game.

There are several ways that you can do this.

If you haven’t already, take the Defenders Pledge. Make a free, public declaration that you are going to let your lifestyle protect the women and children around you.
Share the Defenders Pledge with others. As an added incentive, if you recruit 15 men to take the pledge and they say that you inspired them to do so, we will give you a free Defenders V-neck shirt, while supplies last. We’ll sweeten the pot, if you get 30 men to take the pledge, we will throw in a Defenders polo shirt for FREE!
Spread the word about human trafficking. Gear up with Defenders apparel from our store!
Raise awareness about your state grade on the Protected Innocence Challenge. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Share the link sharedhope.org/stategrades so your friends can see their state score and write their legislator about it!
Engage with us! On the day of the Super Bowl (February 2^nd), we will be tweeting, posting on Facebook, and posting a few blog entries. Your job is to spread the word to your community. Like, share, and retweet our messages! It’s time to get in the game. Use #knowthescore to add your voice to the Defenders conversation on Twitter.

Will you join us? It’s time to get in the game.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DefendersUSA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedefendersusa

Website: www.thedefendersusa.org

February 23, 2011 by SHI Staff

An Earnest Request: Survivor letter to 2011 Super Bowl Host Committee

After working on this issue for over a decade, we’ve read through countless touching letters, describing the horrific events of being sold for sex. This letter hits close to home as the author describes how she was forced to travel to Dallas against her will, in the very same area which will host next week’s 2011 Super Bowl. In hopes of persuading the Super Bowl Host Committee to endorse the I’m Not Buying Itcampaign, A.H. has shared her experiences in an open letter to both the committee as well as the NFL. Should they hear her request, both recipients have the power to discourage the buying and selling of girls who have been victims of sex trafficking during the Super Bowl celebrations next week.

Dear Super Bowl Host Committee & National Football League,

My name is A.H. and I’m a survivor of sex trafficking. I’m not a big football fan, but I’ll never forget my first trip to Dallas/Fort Worth several years ago. It was 2006 when I was dragged there against my will by a pimp. I was forced to dance, strip and sell sex (along with five other young girls) for over a month while he pocketed the cash ($1,000-$3,000/night from each girl) and planned our next gig. I was trapped in a life I never wanted without any hope of escape.

You might be shocked to know that I come from an upstanding, supportive and loving family. I’ve been an excellent student my whole life, earning a scholarship to college. I had dreams, ambitions and the courage to make them happen. Everything changed the day I met the man who would later become my pimp. He was intelligent, attractive and seemed to genuinely care about me. When I lost my scholarship due to an injury, he offered to help me and I believed he would. As soon as I realized what he had in mind, I tried to leave. He grabbed me by the neck, threw me down and almost choked the life out of me. When he threatened to hurt my family if I didn’t cooperate, I knew I was trapped.

This nightmare was my life for over a year. During that time, we traveled to several states where I was sold at nightclubs, bars, and parties — fulfilling a demand for sex nationwide. He was always there, always watching. If I refused to work, I was beaten and tortured.

We spent an entire month in Dallas/Fort Worth, where my pimp said the “real money” was. We were all young (some as young as 14-years-old) and that’s what the men wanted. No one asked if we were being forced to work, or if we enjoyed it. No one cared. While we were being sold for sex every night, our pimp was recruiting other local girls – from the Galleria, the clubs, concerts, and even McDonald’s.

I lived in fear every day, hoping I’d survive to see the next. It wasn’t until I heard him loading his gun to kill me that I finally mustered the courage to escape. Today, I’m a survivor. I share my story with you in the hopes that you’ll realize sex trafficking is real. It happens to young girls across America every day – girls as young as 13. With the Super Bowl quickly approaching, you have a choice to help stop it. Dallas/Fort Worth will soon become the nation’s biggest party – and every pimp’s center for business.

Please join me, Dallas Cowboy Jay Ratliff, and 65,000+ fans who’ve signed the Change.org petition in taking a stand against the exploitation of women and children during the Super Bowl. Every victim deserves the chance to become a survivor. And every young girl deserves to be protected and live a life free from slavery and exploitation.

I’m asking you to endorse the I’m Not Buying It campaign. By placing posters and billboards in and around the stadium you can deter men from engaging in the commercial sex market and save the lives of countless victims. You can make a difference – please, what would you do if it was your daughter?

Thank you,

A.H., Survivor of Sex Trafficking

A.H. was provided support and assistance through the anti-trafficking organization Courtney’s House, and her letter is supported by Courtney’s House and Shared Hope International. You can support A.H. and the many other trafficking survivors who have been sold in Dallas/Ft. Worth by joining the campaign to fight sex trafficking at the Super Bowl.

January 30, 2011 by Guest

I’m Not Buying It – Promoting Zero Tolerance for Buying Children for Sex at the Super Bowl

An American tradition since 1967, the NFL Super Bowl can easily be described as the biggest, wildest, most passionate, most glorified, and most flamboyant display of team loyalty of the year. On February 6, 2011, the play off of all play offs will be held in Arlington, TX at the infamous Cowboy’s Stadium which can hold up to 110,000 people. Between the crazy parties, the swarms of football fans, and the weeks of chaos leading up to this grand event, there is little room for error when it comes to protecting innocent children from being commercially sexually exploited by Super Bowl fans.

Traffick911, Shared Hope International, and other advocates have partnered for the national I’m Not Buying It Super Bowl campaign, launched on January 7, 2011. The campaign aims to raise awareness and deter the purchase of children for sex during Super Bowl XLV.

While throngs of football fans are looking for a good time, some seek to commit the heinous crime of purchasing sex with a minor. This demand drives traffickers to recruit and transport women, teens, and children to the area to be used by fans for commercial sex acts—producing millions of dollars in profit for the trafficker. Local groups are already seeing the effect of this market dynamic as thousands of prostituted victims are being transported to the area with even more expected to arrive for Super Bowl XLV, according to recent research by The Shapiro Law Firm and the Dallas Women’s Foundation. They released a study this month revealing that as many as 740 underage minors are trafficked statewide every month.

We’ve issued a zero tolerance policy for child sex trafficking at the Super Bowl this year. Thankfully, a few other organizations have joined us in this stance, including local law enforcement.

The area is uniting over this cause as billboards go up and police crack down. One billboard targets buyers by showing the mug shots of four convicted men who tried to buy sex in Arlington above the words “Dear John, You Never Know! This Could Be You.” If the prospect of being publicly humiliated doesn’t deter potential buyers, then perhaps they’ll run into one of the many police stings set up by Arlington Police Department.

With February 6 just around the corner, America’s youth need us to unite more than ever and take a stand for their freedom because pimps and “johns” certainly won’t. Join the I’m Not Buying Itcampaign to spread awareness and protect children from being enslaved in the commercial sex market this Super Bowl season. Get started by signing a petition to ask the Super Bowl Host Committee to endorse the I’m Not Buying Campaign. Your signature makes a difference.

*If you see a child in danger, dial 911 or contact the police immediately. You can also call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.