Awareness
by Emily Shore

Top Nine Ways You Can Fight Trafficking

If you missed my post: Where do I Find Hope in the Darkness, it is a precursor to this blog post.

Most of this post will be sharing ways to get involved from survivor leaders I follow. You can read more about my history and background in other blog posts I’ve shared like this one. Or here.

The greatest seed planted that triggered my journey into the anti-trafficking movement was learning about the Red-Light District while visiting Germany in 2007.

I did not begin sharing posts on social media. I begin with three very important things:

  • I listened. After Germany, I was like the Hungry Caterpillar devouring everything I possibly could. I went to documentary screenings. I went to forums and listened to survivor-leaders. I went to church events. I attended conferences.
  • I researched. I found recommended books, memoirs, articles, news stories…I journaled, I took notes, I prayed for direction, I followed up and asked questions. AND I made mistakes, I humbled myself, I learned, I did the work, I built the foundation.
  • I volunteered. I volunteered my hands in little ways like setting up chairs. I volunteered at conferences. I shared advocate and survivor-leader voices. Then, I had a baby girl!
  • I trained. After I had my first girl, I found myself on fire even more for this movement. So, just as building the levels of a house, I trained under organizations like Women At Risk, Int and Exodus Cry and advocates like Rebecca Kotz and Don Brewster. I never stop researching and learning. As the Trafficking in Persons Report reveals, there is still so much work to do.

Here are some of the best ways you can get involved according to survivor-leaders. Since there is so much crossover (because survivor-leaders are united and understand more than anyone), I will include links to their pages so you can read yourself!

—Please check out Rebecca Bender’s page where she has amazing Trafficking Myth-Busters with visuals AND she has a free eBook available via her website!

Love this picture Caroline Pugh-Roberts of Human Trafficking Awareness – No Traffick Zone posted:

Caroline also helped to write this online training initiative.—

Below is a public message from survivor-leader friend, Janine Montgomery, case worker with Restoration House of Greater Kansas City. I have learned so much from over the years. My writing would not be what it is today without her!

JANINE MONTGOMERY:

So, you want to get involved with anti-trafficking (sex trafficking)?

If you are truly wanting to do something to raise awareness on sex trafficking, from a survivor perspective, we, if I may speak for some of us, beg you to do your part. This is not an exhaustive list:

  1. Reach out to your local survivor led organizations.
  2. Find your local human trafficking coalition (s). If there aren’t any. Research how to create one. Contact one in another city. Ask how to start one.
  3. Contact your local sex trafficking organizations and ask how you can volunteer and get involved.
  4. Call or set-up face to face meetings with your State Representatives to talk about human trafficking and what’s being done in your area.
  5. Read books written be survivors. Learning by those with lived experience is the best way to learn.
  6. Attend conferences where survivors are speaking.
  7. There are multiple online certification courses to learn about sex trafficking. Please learn at least sex trafficking 101, basic signs.
  8. STOP listening to all the propaganda!

We beg you to listen to survivor voices. We know what we are talking about. We are the ones who were in the thralls of the life. We were once victims of sex trafficking.

Many of us are thriving business owners who run organizations serving survivors, housing survivors, extracting survivors from their situations, are therapists, doctors, lawyers, nurses, politicians, etc. We travel the nation, and some, the world speaking and training on this very subject.

Ask yourselves, if you can’t hear us, how can you help us?

Some of us have been on the anti-trafficking end a long time. Meaning, out of “the life” a long time. We’ve worked really hard to get to where we are. We’ve built trusting relationships within our communities, and within the larger anti-trafficking movement. We work together. We know each other. We know what works and what doesn’t.

Sex trafficking and sexual exploitation is not new. It’s been around since the dawn of time. The days of the Pharaohs. It was just called something different.

Also, please remember this, as my dear friend puts it, “Yesterday’s children are today’s prostituted women.” –

Christine C Mcdonald

– Survivor

And…

Another dear friend stated,

“Nothing about us without us.”-

Caroline Pugh-roberts

, Survivor

Yes, we want to SaveOurChildren, they are 100% “tomorrow’s” target population. We want you to also consider and remember the thousands of women, who started as children, still stuck out there who we are still fighting for and helping daily.

Written by-

Janine Montgomery

– Survivor, August 10, 2020

Copyright 2020

Though it’s not shared on this list, the greatest thing for my mom of daughters heart that survivors and advocates like Janine have shared over the years is my #9:

  • train your children! Not only am I having early age-appropriate conversations with my daughters with topics ranging from consent and boundaries to body safety and esteem, I am also raising my daughters to be little advocates. My oldest, only six, is so receptive to her momma’s social justice side. Our children soak in what our hearts love. You will show them your truth. As Janine shared, please make sure it’s the right truth!

Below are some amazing resources to get you started! (Guilty: my anti-trafficking books are on the Fiction list. They do come with Discussion Questions!)

 

RESOURCES

BOOKS:

NonFiction/Memoir

  • Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress by Melissa Farley
  • Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution by Rachel Moran
  • My Flawless One by Kjersti Bohrer
  • Scars and Stilettos: The Transformation of an Exotic Dancer by Harmony Grillo
  • Beautiful Justice: Reclaiming My Worth After Human Trafficking and Sexual Abuse by Brooke Axtell
  • How Pornograpy Harms by John D. Foubert
  • Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality by Gail Dines
  • Fallen by Annie Lobert
  • The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth by Julie Bindel
  • Renting Lacy: A Story of America’s Prostituted Children by Linda Smith with Cindy Coloma
  • Oral Sex is the New Goodnight KISS by Sharlene Azam
  • Walking Prey: How America’s Youth Are Vulnerable to Sex Slavery by Holly Austin Smith
  • Sold by Patricia McCormick
  • The Slave Across the Street by Theresa Flores
  • The Justice Calling by Bethany Hoang & Kristen Johnson
  • Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd
  • Good Pictures Bad Pictures by Gail Poynter
  • Hands that Heal: An International Curriculum to Train Caregivers of Trafficking Survivors, by the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST)
  • Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane), by Gavin de Becker
  • Unmasking Sexual Con Games: Teen Guide/Leader Guide, by Kathleen M. McGee and Laura J. Buddenberg
  • Unspeakable: The Hidden Truth Behind the World’s Fastest Growing Crime, by Raymond Bechard

Fiction

  • The Uncaged Series by Emily Shore – A portion of the proceeds go to Breaking Free and Women At Risk, International.
  • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Never Touched by Laney Wylde
  • Tricks, Traffick by Ellen Hopkins
  • The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons
  • Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Websites

Other: