Stop Trafficking! August and September 2014

August

Awareness : 

• The World's Children at Risk - Operation Cross Country VIII, the eighth enforcement action taking place in several US cities by a task force comprising of FBI field divisions and local law enforcement. 
• The Tahirih Justice Center, in testifying before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, calls for funding and a humanitarian response to the children currently crossing the southern border.
• Online Epidemic Against Children - "Sextortion" is the online enticement of children which has no boundaries. Read about what is being done.

Advocacy   : 

• New Screening Tool to Identify Trafficked Persons - a 30-topic questionnaire, created by the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), is being used by victim service providers and law enforcement to identify victims. 
• 'STOP' App Wins Hackathon Awards - At the 20th Annual Essence Festival in New Orleans, teams created apps that address problems facing the African American community. The STOP app is a valuable tool against sex trafficking.
• Brazil: Smartphones Target Violence Against Women and Girls - Free app provides information and help to victims of violence against women. It includes a button to a 24-hour women's hotline.
• Educational Materials for Teachers and Students - three-lesson curriculum for children to learn about child labor.
• Texas Tasks Force Aids Educators -Manual for teachers and other education professionals, who will be facing potential victims, so they can recognize and understand human trafficking.

Action         : 

• Franciscan Federation and Sisters of Charity respond to the evils of human trafficking.
• ATEST (Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking) oppose amendments to the "Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008".

Click here for the August Stop Trafficking! newsletter

September

Awareness :

• Pornography Fuels Demand by Men and Violence toward Women - "A growing number of experts are concerned with the way the entire country has accepted, and even embraced, pornography’s cultural infiltration."
• Study: Commercial Impact of Underground Sexual Exploitation in Eight U.S. Cities
• Demanding Justice for Minors - report identifies strategies to deter the demand for commercial sex.

Advocacy   : 

• Recommendations from IMAGES (International Men and Gender Equality Survey) study identifies the influences in boys' lives that increase the likelihood of sexually violent behavior and how to counter those influences.

Action         : 

• What You Can Do About Porn
• Thank 'Google' for New Efforts to Protect Children - Google implements a "policy change 
  that prohibits porno- graphic ads and ads directly linking to sexually explicit websites. "
   More work needs to be done.
• Romanian filmmaker produces 'Cutting Edge: The Child Sex Trade' exposing "how underage boys are preyed upon and trafficked to wealthy pedophile clients in the West."
• New Educational Video on Human Trafficking produced by The Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI)
• Survivors of Slavery: Modern-Day Slave Narratives - by author Laura Murphy
• Study/Action Modules - The U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking (USCSAHT) Social Analysis Work Group is offering five newly-updated study/action modules available online.
• 'Facing the Monster: How One Person Can Fight Child Slavery' - one day symposium October 18th in Pennsylvania.
  
• Land of Missing Children: The Rape Trade - 23-minute documentary about how teenage girls in India are trafficked.

Click here for the September Stop Trafficking! newsletter

Stop Trafficking! Newsletter Oct 2014

Awareness : 

• Polaris Project Ranks US States on Legislative Effectiveness in Aiding Trafficked Persons - How does your state rank?
• National Survey of Residential Programs for Victims of Sex Trafficking
• Finding a Place to Call Home - residential safehouses
• LifeWay Network
• Dawn's Place
• SDS Hope House

Advocacy   :

• U.S. Catholic Sisters: Action to Empower Survivors

Action         :

Documentaries and films:

• #standwithme - 60-minute documentary of how a 9 year-old took action with a goal of freeing 500 children from slavery
• In Plain Sight - a film that looks at both the evils perpetrated and the courageous efforts by survivors and others working to eradicate those evils in 5 US cities
• Red Light - Green Light
• Hope for the Sold

• Educational Resources from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
• Canadian Wonem's Foundation: Events to End Trafficking
• 'A Path Appears'
• Other Housing Options for Survivors

Click here for October's Newsletter 

Stop Trafficking! July 2014

Awareness : 

• 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report. This year's theme: The Journey from Victim to Survivor.
• The Plight of Victims from around the globe
• Environmental Degradation & Human Trafficking - Looking at the intersection of these forms of exploitations
• Human Trafficking and the Demand for Organs - resulting from the "abuse of a position of vulnerability"

Advocacy   : 

• 2014 TIP Report / 2014 TIP Report Heroes

Action         : 

• Promising Practices in Eradicating Human Trafficking

Click here for July's Stop Trafficking! Newsletter

Stop Trafficking ! June 2014

Awareness : 

• The International Labor Organization reports on the billions in illegal profits from millions of victims of forced labor.
• Online advertising is facilitating sexual exploitation in the US and the world.

Advocacy   : 

• Legislation to Prevent Fraudulent Overseas Labor Recruituing
• Legislation to Protect Youth from Sexual Exploitation
• The Child Pornography Victim Restitution Improvement Act of 2014 (the 'Amy and Vicky' Act)
• Amendments to several anti-trafficking laws

Action         : 

• How to contact your Legislators and ask them to support the bills featured in this issue of Stop Trafficking!
• Do you have expertise and insight into the global dimensions of and evolving policy responses to human trafficking? The new ‘Journal of Human Trafficking’ will disseminate scholarship related to human trafficking.  Submit manuscripts to http://www.editorialmanager.com/jht

Click here for the June Stop Trafficking! Newsletter

Come Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, come!

And from your celestial home

  Shed a ray of light divine!

Come, Father of the poor!

Come, source of all our store!

  Come, within our bosoms shine.

You, of comforters the best;

You, the soul’s most welcome guest;

   Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;

Grateful coolness in the heat;

  Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine,

Shine within these hearts of yours,

   And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, we have naught,

Nothing good in deed or thought,

   Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;

On our dryness pour your dew;

   Wash the stains of guilt away;

Bend the stubborn heart and will;

Melt the frozen, warm the chill;

   Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore

And confess you, evermore

   In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue’s sure reward;

Give them your salvation, Lord;

  Give them joys that never end. 

                                                                              

Stop Trafficking! Newsletter May 2014

This month's Human Trafficking newsletter focuses on stories of cultral bias and tradition that make human trafficking successful in many ways.

The survey by the Tahirih Justice Center and the Heartbeats project were very interesting.  Enjoy.

Let us continue our prayers, education and efforts to change the attitudes and 'closed eyes' that allow for human trafficking and help put an end to this evil in our day.

Click here for May's Stop Trafficking! Newsletter