April – 2008 – Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery

Archive for April, 2008

Coming Soon: SlaveryMap.org

April 30, 2008 Posted by Allison Trowbridge

Slavery Map Our staff at Not For Sale has entreated on a new, never-before attempted venture: to virtually map all incidents of slavery in the US and abroad.

This past month, we have been working with a phenomenal company called Vision Launchers to create an interactive website that will allow anyone to research incidents of trafficking and populate them to a map.

Whether through news sources or compiling local data, you can begin gathering information about Modern-day slaves to post on the website. Once reports start getting posted, the map will function as an international resource to demonstrate the gravity and breadth of this world-wide epidemic.

The map is set to go live by the beginning of next week! Sign-up for the Underground to stay informed….

A New Meaning for Easter

April 29, 2008 Posted by Kique Bazan

Don Don Crean visited Lima, Peru during the week of Easter and learned about the plight of street children. After we spoke with Lucy and Desiree, the Not For Sale representatives in Lima, they told us about Don’s remarkable reflection. One night, Don went with his group to the streets to celebrate a boy’s birthday. Once they surprised him with a cake, a bunch of children gathered around to sing and celebrate. During the gathering Don heard some of the kids stories. Don was shocked when he realized that these children had experienced so much violence at home and later in the streets. He also learned that in the streets, these children are exploited and later put in jail where they suffer torture. When they turn 18 years old they are released and their self-esteem is nonexistent, which makes them easy targets for exploitation and trafficking. The only prevention and after care house that many of the street children had, was shut down because the neighbors did not want to see them around. When Don went to visit the house, a neighbor across the street started screaming and saying that the children were drug addicts, thieves, and prostitutes. Don was overwhelmed.

At the end of the week, Don reflected about his experience: Sharing a cake with a boy in the streets for his ninth birthday was like the last supper. While listening to the life stories of the children, Don remembered the stations of the cross. Each story was a painful fall. When he visited the children’s home and the neighbor started screaming at the group and cursing all of the children that live in the streets, the words that Don heard coming out of the woman’s mouth was “crucify them, crucify them!” Resurrection happened the next day, when he visited a safe heaven, a small house where street children enjoy a healthy environment and have the opportunity to go to school, practice their favorite sport, play music with their friends, and dream of a better life.

Our team in Peru really appreciates Don’s analogy. The constant harassment against vulnerable children that live in the streets weakens the self-esteem of these children and underestimates the good work of the people on the front lines. Don’s interpretation of the children’s story opens a new representation of their lives.

Teamwork in Northern Thailand

April 22, 2008 Posted by Mark Wexler

Thailand Bob Squeri is a one man foundation. He travels the world helping communities in need. Our Free To Play director, Jeremy Howell, introduced me to Bob, and soon we were brainstorming of ways that he could partner with Not For Sale. I asked if he could help us build a safe house for trafficked kids along the border of Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand. As you know, we have already helped a remarkable Thai woman, Kru Nam, build a village for over 120 children. We are now helping her to on more urgent care cases along the border. Bob is currently in Northern Thailand helping with the safe house construction. Here’s his report:

Kru Nam…what a remarkable women. You think you have met heroes in your day, well you must meet Kru Nam. What she has done with her budget is pretty amazing. You have to see here in action and she is with the street children whom are mainly from Burma. I would like to tell you about one of them. Her name is Chimee.

She came to Kru Nam from the streets of Burma, where she was begging for money for her mom’s drug problem, which in this area is Opium, of course. One day Chimee’s sister didn’t earn enough money from begging so the mom got mad and poured burning hot water on her arms. You should she her scars. Kru Nam heard about this, and rushed to the area of Mai Sai, near the Burma Border and met the mom. She negotiated with the mom and for 800 baht (roughly around 22 US Dollars) she was able to purchase little Chimee. She is now safe with us at the children’s village.

The problem Kru Nam has with children like Chimee is they don’t have papers, so it has to be done through the underground and you have to sneak them across the border. That can be dangerous because of the government of Burma and outlaw pirates. We went to where Chimee’s mom lives was which is a area filled with the drug gangs. When we were there a kid who was in one of the gangs and is a friend of Kru Nam’s, drove up on a motor bike and warned her that we should get out of there. So we left before we could make a deal for Chimee’s sister. Her mom has sold all 8 of her children – some of whom are in the sex trade – to support her drug habit. Just think… Chimee is only 4 years old, comes up to my knee, and she was already begging for money. In the next few years she would have been sold for sex if Kru Nam didn’t save her.

On a good note her smile would knock your socks off, and she has been at the school for only 6 months, and doing great. So put Kru Nam in your prayers because she is truly an angel who walks this earth. I’m lucky to have met her and in some small way because of your donations and prayers we have helped these kids.

Red-Eyed Posting

April 16, 2008 Posted by Mark Wexler

Malone College I write this morning from Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) Airport in anticipation of jumping a flight back to San Francisco. After a cumulative 3.5 hours of sleep over the past two days I look forward to the 6 hours of solitude. CLT is just one of many stops this spring while making my way around the country speaking at universities, providing steps for action to combat slavery in our backyards, by using lessons learned by the students at the University of San Francisco.

Last night I had the pleasure of speaking at Malone College in Canton, Ohio where a collaborative student/staff human trafficking awareness week was culminating (see my grainy phone-picture of the wonderfully engaged Malone crew). Often I say what continually drives me, and my colleagues, through red-eyed nights (and days) is the hair-on-fire reaction that students (and others) have when presented with the proposition of initiating research that can result in tangible change: Freedom.

Ensuring Fields are free of slavery

April 15, 2008 Posted by NFS Staff

In all that we do here at Not for Sale our attempt is to go beyond partisan name calling. Raising the level of your voice an octave or three in the name of justice has its place; our overall goal, though, is to create and foster a (business) environment that instills and upholds freedom in all (social) realms. See David’s update from China for one example of what we’re personally doing.

In addition to our actions, we also search out and connect with organizations doing the same. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) also upholds these ideals and standards while coupling their zeal for justice with grounded, well-thought action.

CIW is a Florida-based farmworker organization that has uncovered and assisted the U.S. Department of Justice in investigating and successfully prosecuting five cases of modern-day slavery in the Florida fields in the past decade. For example, one case currently under prosecution, involves tomato pickers who were beaten, chained, and locked inside a U-Haul-type truck. The CIW is also the winner of the 2007 Anti-Slavery International Award, not only for its efforts to uncover cases of slavery but also for its precedent setting agreements with McDonald’s and YUM! Brands (owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, etc..) to establish an enforceable code of conduct with zero tolerance for slavery in these company’s tomato supply chains.

We encourage you to join CIW’s National Petition Campaign to End Sweatshops and Slavery in Florida’s Fields by clicking here.

The petition calls on Burger King and other food industry leaders to work with the CIW to establish an enforceable code of conduct with zero tolerance for slavery and improve the sub-poverty wages and conditions faced by the farmworkers. You can also download a PDF of the petition to collect signatures in your community, church, or school by clicking here.

Last, check out Not for Sale’s Freedom Store where you can uphold the network of goods created by slavery survivors through your purchases.

We’re all complicit in the slave trade

April 10, 2008 Posted by NFS Staff

I am currently on a speaking tour of Australia. The hectic schedule, an average of four speaking engagements a day, has kept me busy. I have, however, been delighted by the response of the many people I’ve meet along the way. More postings about my journey are sure to come.

In addition to speaking I was asked to write an editorial for the Australian daily, the Courier Mail. Here is an excerpt:

In our globalised world we can no longer think of slavery as something that happens “over there”.

In fact every time you go to the supermarket you are potentially fueling this boom in human trafficking and slavery – in which the greatest victims are children.

If you eat chocolate or drive a well-known brand of car with tyres from one of the bigger-name companies, chances are these products have raw ingredients linked to human slavery, exploitation and trafficking.

Recently there has been a push for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to remove chocolate from Parliament House vending machines.

China Olympics Give New Opportunity for Second Wave of Corporate Responsibility

April 8, 2008 Posted by Allison Trowbridge

International scrutiny of China is at an all-time high as we come closer to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Companies with operations or supply chains in China have a choice: lead by example or risk the media spotlight being turned on you. Having just returned from China, I can assure you there is increased sensitivity on the ground to international scrutiny. Further evidence: Just last month Nike released a corporate responsibility report focused exclusively on its supply chain in China, citing the increased attention from the Beijing Olympics as the main reason for its publication.

Corporate responsibility today is moving beyond traditional concerns such as environmental impact. I am seeing companies move to ensure their supply chains – including suppliers and contractors – are free from slavery, and labor conditions meet international standards. These steps are often taken not just from a moral standpoint, but a punitive one – companies don’t want to risk litigation or tumbling share prices off the back of bad publicity. A Chinese factory that produces light bulbs for General Electric was only last month accused of making employees work 64-hour weeks and exposing them to mercury. To their credit, GE is investigating, but on the same day their stock price dropped.

Indeed, a ‘second wave’ of corporate social responsibility is emerging, as managed funds start to closely examine the ethical standing of companies they are investing in. Last week I spoke at the World Bank in Washington DC about combating human trafficking. There were plenty of business leaders present, but fund managers representing $1.3 trillion of fund equity were present too. I think that illustrates how seriously they are treating these supply chain issues.

Factory in China Yet the next challenge for publicly listed companies operating in countries like China could come from a surprising direction – shareholder activism.

Traditionally shareholder activism has centered on issues of corporate governance and executive compensation. But in the US we are starting to see shareholder group’s holding companies to account and saying hang on – how we make our profit matters.

Report from the field: Peru

April 8, 2008 Posted by Allison Trowbridge

Recruiting Young Women During Lunch

For Marissa, a young woman who was juggling school and her low paying job as a nanny, the nebulous offer of a high-paying job during her lunch break was seen a possible positive break.

Marissa’s story is all too familiar in Peru. She had been abandoned by her parents when she was a baby and grew up in a home run by nuns. When she was in her teens, and without any prospect of being adopted, the nuns trained her to take care of the newborns. In time she decided to use her skills by going to Lima, continuing her education, and taking control of her own fate.

At first, Marissa did not accept the job offer, but one of her classmates kept talking to her about the chance for a better job, the possibility of making more money. Soon thereafter, while out with the fore-mentioned classmate Marissa was drugged. The same ‘friend’ had given her bubblegum that had been laced with drugs.

Slave recruiters have an eye to recognize people that are naïve or vulnerable. If the victims have any social tie with a group or person that would speak up on her or his behalf they find ways to break that connection.

The drugs made Marissa feel like a zombie, hyper, aggressive, wild, and reckless. Her boss, without knowing that she was drugged, noticed the strange behavior and fired her fearing that she would harm her child. Marissa had lost the only family that could speak up for her if necessary.

Not for Sale was able to investigate this matter. We found that the person who offered Marissa a job, runs a sex trafficking ring in the city by recruiting kids from local high schools.

We are happy to report that Marissa is currently in a temporary home run by our Lima-based partner Generación where a social worker is caring for her.

Not For Sale

270 Capistrano Road, Suite #2
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

Phone: (650) 560-9990