Price of Life NYC

Aug 21

“

Savoeun had become entranced with a woman at the factory named Srey Pich. Srey Pich was a newcomer who took a job at the sewing factory and took a shine to Savoeun. The two would sit together and talk, often retreating to a quiet place in the factory. Srey Pich was not a pretty woman. She had one big eye and small eye. She was nasty to her co-workers and to her husband—to everyone, in fact, but Savoeun. She told Savoeun she loved her.

“I heard she was a prostitute,” says Savoeun’s sister Simean. But what no one realized was that Srey Pich was something far more dangerous—a broker who seduced young girls with lies about promising jobs and then sold them into the sex trade or child labor.

” Read this thriller of a story by our partner, World Vision, about how one Cambodian village banded together to save a 12 year old girl from being sold into slavery.

May 10

“Having had a few years experience with these two laws … we’ve learned that there are some gaps and inconsistencies in the law that we need to address to improve our response.”

New York law maker, explaining why she is sponsoring the Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act, a bill to better protect trafficking survivors and hold pimps and johns accountable.

This article describes a recent advocacy day supporting the TVPJA, and includes a video of a survivor’s testimony.

Join the next advocacy day! See here for details, and join the conference call today at 3 PM.

Apr 19

Child sex trafficking victims receive money from sale of former brothel

In one of the first cases nationwide to provide such restitution, a federal judge in Texas recently ruled that the victims would benefit from the sale of the traffickers’ “ramshackle real estate empire,” 10 buildings and lots valued at just over $600,000.

The funds will be divided equally among five underage victims … but older women commercially sexually exploited in the same brothels are not eligible for assistance:

[The judge] excluded nine other women in their 20s and 30s from benefiting in his decision, though federal officials had argued they too had been beaten, threatened and used by the same criminal group. [The judge] said he was unable to determine how much each woman had collected in cash as a prostitute - willing or not.

“Some of them may have had horrendous experiences, incredible pain and economic deprivation - others may have profited substantially - I have no way of determining that,” declared [the judge], who said he was troubled by evidence that some government “victims” married or had children by traffickers.

Click through for more info.

Apr 12

Why doesn’t she just leave?

Have you ever wondered why a trafficking victim would stay with her trafficker? Why someone who is being abused doesn’t run away? Why a victim may find it difficult to testify against her abuser?

Read this first person account by a trafficking survivor for a fuller picture of this complex question.

By the time the trafficker spotted me in that New Jersey shopping mall, I had already been broken down.

As traffickers are skilled predators, they look for girls that are withdrawn and quiet. They prey upon minors with emotional brokenness as my trafficker did in late June, 1992, soon after my eighth grade middle school graduation.

Child sexual abuse paralyzes many children with the inability to differentiate a healthy relationship from an exploitative one. I, too, thought that exploitive relationships were the norm. Prior to meeting my trafficker, I was already used to relationships based on deception.

Many victims do not understand their fundamental right to say “No.” They often fail to understand ownership over their bodies. I didn’t run away when my trafficker demanded that I agree to prostitute.

This was not because I wanted to stay but rather because I didn’t understand that I had another option.

Apr 5

{Polaris Project public service ad targeting Backpage.com and Village Voice Media (VVM), its owner.}

Click through to read more about the controversy, the money, the victims, and VVM’s counter-attack. {Article written by a retired Chicago police officer!}

“Currently in the state of Oregon, you do less time for selling women than you do for selling drugs.”

Jeri Sundvall-Williams, former trafficking victim now running for Portland, OR City Council. Read her inspirational story here.

She goes on to explain that because drugs get more jail time than pimping,

gangs have taken [selling human beings] as a moneymaker. They’ve been doing it for years but it’s really become more popular. Gangs will trade women across Blood-Crip lines or whatever because women are worth less than drugs to them, but they also will do less time in jail for selling women than they will for selling drugs.

If laws reflect a society’s values, what does this say about us? What kind of laws would we have if we valued the lives of human beings of all backgrounds as priceless, made in the image of God?

“It’s great to be a small piece of a puzzle that is this huge movement to stop human trafficking.”

Myles Laroux, master of ceremonies for an LSU student group’s annual 5K race to raise funds for a safe house for trafficking victims and help students understand the problem. The group has held the 5K for four years, and raised $10K this year.

You can’t solve the problem alone, but you can be a piece of the puzzle.

Apr 4

“This is about something much more fundamental, and that’s who we are as a people. It’s about respecting and protecting human dignity.”

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who recently testified at a Congressional hearing on “Labor Abuses, Human Trafficking, and Government Contracts: Is the Government Doing Enough to Protect Vulnerable Workers?”

As David Isenberg writes on the Huffington Post:

Because this is a continuing problem new legislation has been introduced in Congress to address it. In the House it is H.R.4259 — End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act of 2012. In the Senate it is S.2234.

That bill would prevent trafficking abuses by requiring contractors with contracts over $1 million to implement compliance plans to prevent trafficking including destroying or confiscating passports, misrepresenting wages or work locations, or using labor brokers who charge exorbitant recruiting fees.

It improves accountability by requiring that a contractor notify the inspector general if he or she receives credible evidence that a subcontractor has engaged in prohibited conduct, requiring the inspector general to investigate such instances and requiring the inspector general to investigate all those instances, and with that require swift remedial action against the contractor.

And, it improves enforcement of anti-trafficking requirements by expanding the criminal prohibitions that prevent fraudulent labor practices typically associated with trafficking.

Click through for the full article about the hearing and proposed legislation.

Is Big Business Beginning to Take a Stand Against Human Trafficking?

slaveryfootprint:

A private equity fund run by Goldman Sachs Group has agreed to sell its stake in the media company that runs a sex trafficking forum back to company’s management, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

Apr 3

What can I do?

When people hear about human trafficking, they want to act. But the issue is so big, it can be paralyzing. “I can’t solve the problem, so I won’t do anything.” Have you felt that way?

What about small steps you can take toward freedom today?

A from a California InterVarsity chapter, miles away from the Price of Life Invitational in New York City, heard about the campaign, shared the video with her InterVarsity chapter, and invited people to come learn more about human trafficking over tea. You could do that.
Earlier today we posted a link to our upcoming LOGOFF workshop, where we’ll brainstorm around an app to help consumers make good choices. Would you or a friend like to come? You could do that.
World Vision’s ACT:S site offers dozens of cool posters and other resources designed to motivate and encourage students to seek justice. What if you found one that speaks to you and shared it on your website, blog, facebook page or twitter?You could do that.

You don’t have to do everything, and you don’t have to do all you will ever do today. But you can do something, and you can do something today. What will you do?

Price of Life NYC

The New York City Price of Life Invitational scheduled for fall 2013 is a city-wide, campus-based, faith-inspired campaign addressing human trafficking in all its forms, sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, World Vision, and a diverse coalition of organizations.

Child sex trafficking victims receive money from sale of former brothel

Why doesn’t she just leave?

Is Big Business Beginning to Take a Stand Against Human Trafficking?

What can I do?