Rotary

Happenings

submitted by Shirley Jewell

Human trafficking…“Out of Sight,Out of Mind,” “It Doesn’t Happen in my Backyard.”

Well, hooey! If

it didn’t, there

wouldn’t be a need for the Lee Country

Sheriff’s Department to have a Human

Trafficking Awareness Task Force, a

group that was first established in 2005.

Rotary guest speaker last Friday, Nola

Theiss, founder and executive director

of Human Trafficking Awareness

Partnerships, was instrumental, along

with others, in establishing the task force.

What started as a Zonta project for her

turned into the development of the this

non-profit organization bringing awareness

of this important social issue through

workshops, speaking engagements, an

ArtReach program for young girls, and

the distribution of literature; wherever and

whenever she’s asked.

Theiss said, “Human trafficking is a

multi-billion-dollar a year international

business,”

The International Labor Organization

(ILO) estimates that there are 12.3

million people in forced labor, bonded

labor, forced child labor and sexual servitude.

However, other estimates range

from 4 million to 27 million. According

to the U.S. State Department, 80 percent

of people trafficked are women and

girls and up to 50 percent are under the

age of 18. Human trafficking is a growing

industry.

Who are the victims? It’s happening

everywhere. A CNN News quote:

“Stories about human trafficking are

often set in far-away places, like cities

in Cambodia, small towns in Moldova,

or rural parts of Brazil. But human trafficking

happens in cities and towns all

over the world, including in the United

States. Enslaved farmworkers have been

found harvesting tomatoes in Florida

and picking strawberries in California.

Young girls have been forced into prostitution

in Toledo, Atlanta, Wichita,

Los Angeles and other cities and

towns across America. Women have

been enslaved as domestic workers in

homes in Maryland and New York. And

human trafficking victims have been

found working in restaurants, hotels,

nail salons and shops in small towns

and booming cities. Wherever you live,

chances are some form of human trafficking

has taken place there.”

Human trafficking involves the

recruitment of mostly women with the

promise of a better life and jobs in

hotels, restaurants, private homes, factories

and on farms. They can be looking

for love, money and safety from political

strife. What they get is another story.

They find themselves forced into domestic

servitude, forced labor situations, and

the sex trade.

Theiss described how American girls

can be lured into the human trafficking

trade. Our U.S. victims are between 11

and 15 years of age. The Internet Age

brings with it a dangerous situation.

Predators troll Internet sites looking for

young girls and lure them into meeting.

They talk them into having sex or drug

and rape them, take pictures and force

the girls to continue meeting them and

friends of theirs (paying friends). Fear of

anyone knowing keeps the girls in line;

they are now victims of the sex trade.

Predators troll malls looking for misfits

or vulnerable girls.They court them

by telling them how beautiful and smart

they are, they romance them. They gain

the girls’ trust and devotion and woo

them into having sex. The girls think

it’s love but it is not; they are asked to

do a favor for their new boyfriend. He

needs money, he has some friends who

would pay to have sex with her, just this

one time. That’s how it starts. Good

girls from the suburbs don’t want their

parents or friends to know. They don’t

want pictures of them having sex put

on the Internet. They have now become

victims. Adventurous girls think having

sex is fun and exciting, until it’s on

demand. They are ashamed that they

are being used.

It is modern-day slavery through

the use of force, fraud, or coercion to

recruit, harbor, transport, supply or

obtains a person for the purpose of subjection

to involuntary servitude, peonage,

debt bondage or slavery. It is a violation

of human rights, immoral, illegal,

happens in every state of the nation,

happens to citizens and immigrants; it

could be happening next door, in the

restaurant you go to or the hotel you

stay at. Go to info@humantraffickingawareness.

org for more information.

The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary is now

in countdown mode for its main fundraisier,

the Rotary Arts & Crafts Fair,

February 12 and 13, on the grounds

of The Community House. There will

be over 100 juried artists and crafters

showing their wares.

The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club

meets at 7 a.m. every Friday at Bistro

@ Beachview, 1100 Par View Drive.

If you would like further information

regarding the Sanibel Rotary or

Rotary International,

< Prev		Next >