It’s easy to find thousands of people that are willing to click a couple of buttons to “show support” for a certain issue. It’s incredibly rare to find someone who is willing to stick around.

This summer, thanks to Love146, I’ve been able to meet many striking individuals who are willing to do that -- to stick around.

Glenn Miles, the head of Asia Preventions, has been living in Cambodia since the late 80′s. He’s committed to the protection of children, and to finding a solution to the problem of child sex trafficking. He doesn’t want to just put a band-aid on the problem, but to dig deeper and work towards true healing. In the brief presentation of his work in Asia, Glenn mentioned that one of his big roles is to ask and answer the difficult questions. Especially in dealing with a dark issue like child sex trafficking, many are too afraid to go beyond the basic questions and none of us are all too eager to expose ourselves to stories of pain, heartbreak, and shocking truths. It’s amazing to meet someone who is willing to struggle with difficult questions, to take the time to actually understand different perspectives, and to stick around long enough to turn that tangled mess into a collaborative solution.

Glenn Miles and his family live in Cambodia but came this summer for a quick vacation to the States. During Glenn’s 50th birthday party, I got to wander around and listen to people talk about what they know and love. One of these conversations was with J, the husband of Stephanie Goins, Love146's VP of Programs. J. works with Native American communities. We got into a conversation about short trips to "help" and what actual benefit or, perhaps more commonly, what harm comes from these trips. When a small team of 10 are just rushed through a community, what change do they actually create? Sure, maybe the trash is cleaned out of the back yard but have the people in that community actually seen a representation of Love?

Often, it seems as though short trips are more beneficial to the travelers than to the people at the “mission site.” I must admit, I have loved my own two short trips to Cambodia. I remember those two summers as times of spiritual growth and of getting a tiny taste of what it’s like to be totally outside my comfort zone. When I think about the way all of the wonderful, adorable children were crying as I left, however, I question the benefits of my trip. I had a great time but what did I put those kids through? Okay, maybe I gave them a week of fun games and singing but I also gave them one more reason to cry, one more reason to say goodbye, and maybe – although I sure hope not – one more reason to think that no one loves them enough to actually stick around.

At Love146, we often talk about Love that protects, defends, restores, and empowers. I'd like to add that Love sticks around.

My time as the communications intern at Love146 has definitely been a process of learning even when I don’t want to go any further. I’m delving deeper and deeper into the current state of child sex trafficking, the broader issues of trafficking and poverty, the creative process, but I know I have so much further to go. I’m blessed to be surrounded by people who have made the commitment to go that distance, and are continuously, courageously, sticking around.

Cheers!

Elaine Kim
Communications Intern, Summer 2011

Elaine & Madeline, two of Love146's amazing interns this summer.

So I snuck on the intern login for the blog because I wanted to brag about one of our interns, Nicole.

I'm amazed every year with the quality of our Love146 interns. They are intelligent, passionate, capable and can roll with the punches (and jokes) that happen here in the office. Every one of them is a jem.

I wanted to highlight a recent project Nicole did. She was (and still is) helping us get ready for the Collective Shout Conference happening this November. She single handedly put together a promo video for the conference!

Ok, I'm admittedly not a "techy" person, it's amazing that I can work my mobile phone so after several attempts of trying to embed a video in this blog I have to give up and just give you a link (I know you're less likely going to visit a link but come on it's worth it I swear!)

Thank you so much Nicole and the rest of the amazing interns! Can't wait to see you back here in November.

Desirea

Yesterday while surfing through news articles, I came across a story linking Joren van der Sloot to sex trafficking rings in Thailand and Asia. Van der Sloot, as you may know, remains the only suspect in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway. With his most recent alleged murder case still pending in Peru, one can only roll their eyes at the thought of this guy still evading prosecution after being involved with two high profile cases. The level of public awareness in these cases reflects the justice that the families and citizens would like to see brought to this character. So who seeks to bring this man to justice? Who seeks justice for any woman or child who has become a victim at the hands of a merciless crime? Of course there will be someone who wants justice, but more importantly, will they receive justice? I wonder about the nameless and faceless women who may have been trafficked into slavery as a part of van der Sloot’s exploits. I wonder why the allegedly trafficked Thai women only receive a mere sentence or two in the news, while other women receive international coverage. What about the girls who do not get a high profile case with media coverage across all corners of the country? I asked myself a question: Do certain people get more justice than others? If not for the Natalee Holloway case, would the world have ever heard about van der Sloot’s murder accusation in Peru or the girls he has allegedly trafficked from Thailand to Holland while posing as a modeling agency consultant? Women and children time and time again have been denied their basic freedoms and rights. Those people who have been denied obtaining justice for all that has been done to them are being denied their freedoms by those in a higher socioeconomic class. Globally, impoverished and invisible people have been cast by the wayside, forgotten as useless growing populations that are deemed “someone else’s” responsibility. These women and girls are the invisible population in our towns, states, and countries that are victims of vast injustices but will remain unknown because their stories were never covered in the media. People become invisible by no fault of their own, but at the hands of those who turn the other cheek. They do not receive justice and bystanders wonder why these atrocities, these crimes against humanity continue. The fact that money, race, class, or education has determined their place in society does not mean they deserve justice any less than someone else. Women and children, a historically marginalized group, encompassing still suffer from the prejudices projected upon them. If more time is devoted to protecting and uplifting women all over the world, we will continue to bring justice to those who are victims of violence. Human rights violations will happen because invisible populations continue to be forgotten. In order for invisible peoples to receive justice for crimes committed against them, they need to be given a face, they need to be given a name, but most importantly, they need to be given LOVE. Women and children who have become trafficking survivors need people to genuinely take interest in their lives and in their hearts. Love makes people feel wanted and known. Love makes the invisible visible. Stories of survivors must be continued to be shared, to be made known, and to be given a voice in their struggle. As abolitionists, we must seek to show the world that despite the lack of attention shown to invisible people, that they are people who deserve justice just as much as the next person. We will refuse to allow them to remain invisible. This question strikes at the heart of what must drive us to end trafficking. It is my life’s devotion to make the invisible visible, to give a voice to those whose voice is not heard. I will continue to give justice and voices to those who have disappeared and been forgotten. I encourage you to not give up the fight until every victim and survivor of trafficking has been given the ability to bring their traffickers to justice and to know that they were not forgotten.

Abbe

Two children are sold every minute.  I saw this statistic on a banner today while working at my internship at Love146.  It wasn’t a new statistic to me but it was like I saw it with new eyes today.  I just kept going back to that sign.  Over the course of this summer I have seen an overwhelming share of horrendous statistics but that one seemed to really hit me hard today. It was the first time I looked at the sign and did the math…

UNICEF says that some estimates go as high as to say that 1.2 million children annually are trafficked. Then I thought about the Rent song “525,600 minutes” to help me figure out how many minutes there are in a year (yes, that’s the only way I can remember that number).

1,200,000 children / 525,600 minutes = 2.283 children trafficked per minute

I had never done the math before in my head; I saw the statistic and knew it was bad. But really, think about it. In the time I write this blog a few children will have been sold. They could be sold to be sex slaves, mail order brides, carpet weavers, organ harvesters, domestic servants or anything else.

Don’t close the blog and think, oh but that’s in another country. Let’s break it down statistically for the United States. According to Estes and Weiner (2002) there are approximately 100,000 children who are exploited sexually for commercial purposes annually in the United States and another up to 300,000 at risk of it. Using the conservative estimate, that means a child in the United States (who can come from any socio-economic background) will be commercially sexually exploited every 5.5 minutes. That is almost 2 in the amount of time it takes you to watch the new Lady Gaga video.

I don’t say all of this to overwhelm you, to bring you down or anything else. I say it because people have to know. When apathy grows, evil wins and I’m tired of watching that happen. Do what I did today, after years and years of seeing it, really look at the statistic, think about what that means and challenge yourself to see what you can do to help stop that.
 

- Nicole

Justice. Can it really even be defined by the simple words we’ve come up with in our language? We discussed this around a table today in the Love146 office and while I was overwhelmed with more questions than I had answers, I could not help but feel empowered. I was surrounded by people who cared so much for the same cause that I too cared about. Being there as a collective whole made the seemingly impossible task of defining this word not so defeating when we ended with no specific conclusion.

It was just over a week ago I arrived in New Haven, CT from a distant land, the South. Nashville, TN is where I call home and am currently in the process of getting my Master’s degree in Community Development and Action. When I made it here, I didn’t know what to expect from this foreign city or from my new internship in the U.S. Prevention and Advocacy department at Love146; I walked into that office on Monday morning asking myself a question that I ask often, can I really make a difference? Love is powerful and was felt exuding from the office the moment I stepped in. In my short time I have been here, I have already learned an important lesson from them.

Yes, I, can make a difference but even more importantly, people working together can make an even greater difference. St. Francis of Assisi said, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” Well, imagine how much harder it would be to extinguish several candles; how much harder it is to silence many voices as opposed to one.

In November, Love146 is hosting the Collective Shout Conference where we will be talking about how love changes the story. Love can change any story and has proven to do so over the course of human history. The conference is going to bring together people from all over the anti-trafficking world, from those working against it, to those who have survived it and all in between. This is our opportunity to identify how we can work together to not be a bunch of chatter but emerge as one collective shout against slavery and the injustices that occur far too often in our world. Everyone is welcome, even if you are asking the same question I am faced with often… Can you really make a difference? Come and feel empowered by being surrounded by people who share that same passion and leave fueled and ready to make a difference in your community. Add your voice to the mix and join me and several others in November so our collective shout can be that much louder and we can come even closer to the day modern-day slavery ends!

Learn more and register for the Collective Shout Conference today!

Nicole