Support the Child Protection Compact Act

Did you know... that the CPCA was originally introduced in the House in early June of 2009? The bill, originally H.R. 2737, was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, but it never left the committee. No explanation was given. 

On March 25, 2010, the bill was introduced in the Senate as S. 3184. It was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it was revised and then passed unanimously on Sept. 21, 2010. 

The bill was then placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders on September 28, 2010. It was expected to pass unanimously in November. It had overwhelming bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House...But the bill was never voted on. It was blocked by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who objected to spending for foreign aid. 

Don't let this happen again. Contact your representatives today and urge them to pass the Child Protection Compact Act of 2011!

Change.Org Petition: Support the Child Protection Compact Act

About CPCA:

This legislation authorizes the Secretary of State to provide assistance through grants, cooperative agreements, and/or contracts to countries with a significant prevalence of child trafficking. In order to receive these resources, eligible countries must enter into a Child Protection Compact with the United States to support policies and programs to eradicate the trafficking of children.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, where it is currently being reviewed. The Child Protection Compact Act will provide incentives to "Tier 2" countries and "Tier 2 Watch-List" countries (as identified in the annual U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report) to protect and rescue children subjected to severe forms of trafficking in persons. 

The Compacts will aim to:

1. address institutional weaknesses within the government that result in the failure to protect vulnerable children and to rescue and properly rehabilitate victims;

2. increase local government capacity to apprehend perpetrators who engage in severe forms of trafficking in children and bring perpetrators to justice in national courts of law; and

3. ensure transparency and accountability in achieving the goals stipulated in the Compact over the course of its three-year implementation.

Eligible countries that enter into Compacts with the U.S. could receive up to $15 million in vital funding to combat child trafficking. Contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support the Child Protection Compact Act today!

Change.Org Petition: Support the Child Protection Compact Act

Be a Force for Freedom

Check out this preview of new materials we are producing for our new Be a Force for Freedom campaign! These pocket guides are currently being printed and should be delivered soon. We are very excited and hope you are too! :)

You can click on the images to enlarge them :)

Inside panels of tri-folded pocket guide

Outside panels of the tri-folded pocket guide

"The Day My God Died"

I am currently watching this documentary again and once again find myself sobbing uncontrollably out of anger and heartbreak and disbelief. There are days where the weight of this truth is so heavy and the passion inside me for justice is so overwhelming, I fear I might break. There are days where it consumes me. 
 
I ache for these girls and women.
I am enraged by the violence
and injustice
and unspoken horrors committed against them.
I am heartbroken by their hopelessness,
inspired by their resilience,
disillusioned by their struggles,
and encouraged by their recovery.
 
They are the reason I do this work, why I throw my heart and soul into this cause, why I yearn to be there and walk beside them step by step on the path to freedom.

I feel like I am bursting at the seams today, and I wish I could make everyone around me understand why. I hope this documentary helps convey what's in my heart and head a bit. And I hope it makes other people feel the same flurry of emotions (though I swear "emotions" doesn't even begin to encompass this) that I am feeling.
 
Anyone can be a force for freedom. How is your heart being called today?
 
Contact us at ssgf.usc@gmail.com for more ways to get involved. Remember, we are still collecting items/donations for the CAST LA shelter for trafficking survivors. Every little bit helps.

Slave Britain: a photo exhibit on human trafficking in the UK

Slave Britain (click here)

As Britain commemorated 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade, Panos produced an exhibition to reveal how human trafficking is a bitter reality for thousands of women, men and children in the UK today. Slave Britain artfully documents the ordinary lives and everyday locations caught up in trafficking and calls for an end to this illegal 21st century trade. The show is produced by Panos Pictures in partnership with Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Eaves and UNICEF UK.

The photographs, by Panos photographers Karen Robinson and David Rose, represent a rare and intimate insight into the mechanics of this fastest growing form of modern day slavery and explore the devastating impact it has on people's lives.

The exhibition seeks to expose the reality of trafficking in the UK and the action needed to tackle it. The participating agencies are lobbying the UK government to make good on its recent promise to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings in order to guarantee minimum standards of protection and support for trafficked people. 

The photographs are challengingly mounted on a cage-like structure which was specially designed for the imposing and inspiring setting of St Paul's Cathedral. The exhibition has also been shown in Edinburgh, Hull and Warsaw, and is available for hire.

The images begin with Karen Robinson's portraits of those who have been enslaved by trafficking. Further on, you will see David Rose's panoramic photographs of the ordinary British streets where the stories of modern-day slavery have been played out. Rose also made portraits of the modern-day abolitionists - the people who are working to stop this trafficking in human beings. 

For more information on the project, visit the Slave Britain website (Slave Britain).

The Bitterest Pill: A photo exhibit of sexual slavery in Bangladesh

The Bitterest Pill (click here)

800 women and girls live and work inside the fortress-like brothel in Faridpur, central Bangladesh. Many of them are underage, and most receive no pay because they arechhukri - bonded workers. That girls as young as 12 should be condemned to a life of sex slavery is bad enough, but they also face a new horror, one that could snuff out any chance of a future they might have had.

The horror is a steroid called Oradexon, a drug identical to one used to fatten cattle for market. The girls are given Oradexon by their madams in order to make them look older and more attractive to prospective clients. One of its side effects is water retention, oedema, which can result in a 'plump' look that is considered attractive by some Bangladeshi men.

The drug is highly addictive and has severe long-term health implications, impairing the kidneys, increasing blood pressure and interfering with normal hormone production.

Asha, 19, is one of many girls who use the drug. She says she doesn't have another name - 'I'm just Asha - it means hope' - and she has been in the brothel for two years. Many of the girls here have been sold by their stepmother or even their own mothers - and some are second-generation sex workers, born to a prostitute and an unknown client. 'I started taking the cow drug a year ago, and I take two tablets a day,' Asha says. She thinks it makes her look healthier. 'The customers like us to look healthy. I got a little plumper when I started taking the drug.' The existence she describes is a miserable one. 'How can I be happy here? God knows - there is no happiness here,' she says.

Unsurprisingly - and despite her name - Asha isn't very hopeful for her own future. 'I don't think I'll ever get married or have children,' she says. 'No one will marry me. If they did they'd only keep me for two or three days, and then they'd sell me back.' She is more streetwise than some of the other girls here, many of whom share a tragic dream that one day a knight in shining armour will arrive, to carry them off; then they will marry him, have his babies and love him for ever. 

Text by Joanna Moorhead for ActionAid and The Guardian.