September 2011 | Love146.org

26
Sep

'Cause Junk Mail Dignifies No One. Posted by Marilyn de Guehery

Every three months, I get to pause for a few days and work on a project that is purely creative, the quarterly newsletter. I take a few days to reflect upon the legitimacy of the work that's unfolded in the field recently, to decide what story of the many that humble me daily should make it to your mailbox, and figure out what it should look like when it gets into your hands… Designing the newsletter is, without question, my favorite beat in the rhythm of my work with Love146.

After some number crunching a couple years ago, I had an epiphany: for the same budget (or less) as a boring stuffy tri-fold letter, I could make something exciting… something that's, well, not junk. Just cause we're a non-profit doesn't mean we should settle for third rate design! We just have to be resourceful about how we get there…

As a part of the Love146 communications team, I really just want to radically dignify and respect everyone our mailings impact; So we do them on a tight budget to dignify you as donors and the children in our programs. We never buy mailing lists cause we think it's sorta rude-- everyone who gets a newsletter has already engaged with Love146's work. We attempt to never use the children in our programs as tools to evoke guilt or pity... And we try to send you fun designs in moderation because junk mail sucks.

If I get a complex design in mind (which I often do, for example, our Out of the Box newsletter last autumn), I have figure out how to print it within that same simple budget, and then convince my friends and co-workers it's worth their many hours volunteering to assemble it. A handful of times recently, I've overheard (or stumbled upon) the critique that our newsletters are "so fancy they must be wasteful." Rob and I were discussing this recently one morning in the office. I assured him (which he already knew) that our newsletters cost the same as undesigned letters, then he blurted out, "Ahhh…and they should see us all bringing 'em home-- I've got my kids after dinner with an assembly line around our living room,watching a movie and folding. If you get salt in your newsletter, it's from our popcorn!!"

Junk mail dignifies no one: not us, not you, and definitely not the amazing children we're updating you on. We all deserve more than that.

Anything you'd like to see in our upcoming newsletters? Comment here, I'll see what we can do!

Peace and Abolition,

Marilyn de Guehery
Love146 Graphic Designer

ps: I'm excited that soon we'll be dropping another newsletter at the post office! It will also arrive to you via email in mid october. Quarterly mailings go to recent donors, so give here if you want to start receiving them!

19
Sep

Stella Posted by Gaz Kishere

Three years ago, a small group of friends were gathering on the South Coast of England to talk about human trafficking and what they could do to play a part in combatting it. A year later, Escape magazine was launched in the capital city of Moldova to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and heads of education. A Member of Parliament spoke on what a significant contribution the magazine would make. This is why I am a firm believer in the contribution small groups of people can make in addressing this issue.

If I take a step back and consider some of my personal motivations for getting involved, Stella Rotaru’s work comes immediately to mind. Stella has worked for several years with the International Organisation for Migration in Moldova as their Repatriation Specialist. I originally learned of Stella by stumbling across an article about her work in the New Yorker. This article really did a job on me. I was so incensed by the capacity of traffickers to deceive and the regularity with which they changed their strategy while we, as NGOs, sat in a consultation, thinking up a response that may take another year to deliver. I was desperate to see a resource in place that would keep step with traffickers and continue informing the countries’ young people about how they might be recruited.

I remember meeting our partners in Moldova for the first time and asking if they had heard of Stella. I was pleased to hear that they knew her and would arrange a coffee meeting with her. I was so full of excitement in meeting her; the anticipation had built because I realised that in Stella I had a Heroine, someone to aspire to be like. Unlike many of today’s celebrities, I was going to meet and later get to know someone whose life and efforts were worthy of being celebrated. We abolitionists need role models just like everybody else.

Photograph by Bela Doka, www.newyorker.com

Stella and the team at IOM have advised on content for Escape and continue to participate in its distribution. Stella shared these thoughts about the magazine:

“I remember the first time I was given a copy of Escape magazine. Although my work wasn't focused on youth prevention, I knew this was an area that needed attention. Everyday we are bombarded by content – from online advertisements to print ads in magazines. A major challenge we face in preventing human trafficking is cutting through that clutter, getting out our messages of hope. And what I noticed about Escape was that by combining pop–culture with social issues, this magazine had a real opportunity to reach the youth of Moldova. It's bringing much needed issues to light and opening avenues for the youth of Moldova to discuss topics from relationships to human trafficking. The youth are the future of Moldova and it's vital that they are reached in a way that is appealing to them. And by supporting the work of Love 146 in Moldova, you are supporting an organization that is working to empower Moldova's future leaders.”

I wanted to give you the opportunity to meet Stella and hear about the work of IOM in Moldova by watching this short film from Witness Al Jazeera. The film mentions government camps for at-risk youth to which the Escape Moldova team have been invited in order to distribute Escape magazine. This enables the team to input trafficking prevention content into the camps nationally. We would value your help in increasing our circulation and capacity. Please visit the Europe Prevention page and choosing your appropriate currency.

-Gaz Kishere
European Operations Director

15
Sep

Accountability and Transparency Posted by Stephanie Goins

“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”

–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Love146’s vision is the abolition of child sex slavery, nothing less. The degree to which we wholeheartedly “feel capable” of being honest workers towards this vision is the degree to which we often “judge ourselves” within the organization. However, those outside of our organization, donors and peers, serve us best to “judge us by what we have already done.” This involves calling Love146 to honest account for our projects and programs.

Accountability and transparency speak of a consistent theme I’ve wrestled with over the past few months, and especially since I have taken the position of Vice President of Programs with Love146. Accountability implies giving an honest account of what you are up to, and that, in turn, implies openness and transparency. From a professional and legal perspective, we at Love146 have to give account for what we are doing, how we are spending our donors' funds, and what our investment of time and money is actually producing, all of which - at best - speak of transparency. Additionally, accountability and transparency help us move forward and grow our programs both in breath and depth. We must be courageous enough for self-evaluation as well as open enough to allow others to see our flaws and errors as well as our strengths and successes.

In the USA, the standard is being raised for non-profits, all of whom are being more closely scrutinized. Charity Navigator has set this in motion, officially, with a new rating system for the non-profits in their portfolio. In fact, the language they use to describe their updated system of review is the “Accountability and Transparency” rating dimension. On September 20th we - Love146 - will find out how we “score.” This is a tremendous step forward in improving the culture of world changers and we’re excited and proud to be a part of it.

And yet, I feel a tremendous tension around the concept of an evaluating system. While I believe in being accountable for what we produce and being completely transparent in that process, I also struggle with having to evaluate a program / an effort / an activity through a results-oriented filter. Some programs, efforts, and activities do not seem to fit that grid very well, at least not to the extent that one can determine their validity as an effort towards eradicating child sex exploitation. For instance, how do we capture changed attitudes on paper, in the form of quantitative, statistical data? Anecdotal evidence only goes so far in terms of validation but it often expresses the heart of what we are doing. How long does a change in worldview take and how do we quantify this? Except through some sort of historical review, we do not know if a significant paradigm shift has happened in which impoverished families see other alternatives to sending their children to beg; sex buyers respect that children are never really giving consent; little children know what parts of their bodies belong only to them. Nevertheless…

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. –Edmund Burke

Because this is true, I believe wholeheartedly that we must be professional – as much as is possible – in all our Love146 programs, efforts, and activities. Professionalism has (at least) these three non-negotiables with which we must engage ...
1. critical feedback and assessment
2. direct and oft-times challenging questioning
3. the consistent and courageous use of the positive and the negative as opportunities for learning and growth

If we, as Love146, are brave and humble enough to embrace these non-negotiables, the tension surrounding evaluation can yield some very positive results. It will cause us to become more balanced in what we are doing and I believe we will find ourselves on a very promising journey in which accountability and transparency yield growth and flourishing.

Stephanie Goins, PhD
Love146 Vice President of Programs