Sandra Morgan and Dave Stachowiak discuss what addressing human trafficking on the front lines actually looks like and the dangers of jumping in before you have studied the issues.

Key Points

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[Note from the Ending Human Trafficking podcast team: This episode was recorded in 2011 so the contact information provided is no longer accurate. Please refer endinghumantrafficking.org/contact for the correct contact information to get in touch with the EHT podcast.]

Transcript

Dave: Hello everyone, you’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast, this is episode number eleven recorded in September 2011. Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast, my name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: And I am Sandie Morgan.

Dave: And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, it is getting towards the end of summer, and that means we are well into fall and that means the start of the new school year at Vanguard University.

Sandie: We are in full swing and its great to have students back on campus and my office is full every day because they want to do something to make a difference.

Dave: And it’s a good time for us to talk about before we jump in today’s topic on really looking into the frontline issues on how we can really fight against human trafficking, I thought we’d take a few minutes maybe to talk a bit about what the center is doing this year to really support advocacy against human trafficking, but also some of the other things you’re working on and the projects you’re involved with. The center had its first board meeting this week, and we all got together. I’m just tremendously excited about all of the things that the center has planned for this year, so I was wondering if you could maybe take a couple of moments to share with us and the audience a few things that you’re up to this year, in addition to the podcast and your teaching that the center is focused on.

Sandie: Well, over the summer we were able to host four women faculty from a Northern Iraq university, and one of the exciting aspects of that is we went to Washington DC, we were able to meet with a team from the Global Trafficking and persons office in the state department, and as a result of that, we’ll be able to develop some partnership research in that region on human trafficking.

Dave: It was really exciting to meet the women this summer and to hear their stories, really just an amazing group of folks we’ve had.

Sandie: And this is one of the key things about the Global Center for Women and Justice is through research and education we can impact our own community, our nation, and our world and make a difference, one of the things we’re doing locally, cause, of course, its exciting to see what we’re doing over in Iraq, but what about right here, and coming up in November, were going to host a homeless sleep-out to raise awareness about the issue of homeless youth, and right here in California according to state reports there are 200,000 juveniles 12-17 who are homeless. We want to raise awareness about that, attention, and dialogue because the prevention of homelessness among youth is a key factor in preventing the trafficking of youth.

Dave: And what is a homeless sleep-out? I’ve never been to one of those.

Sandie: well, were going to invite our students and anybody in our community to join us, to bring their sleeping bag and were going to have a contest for who can build the best cardboard shelter, were probably going to eat soup, we might figure out how to get some day-old bread for breakfast, but were going to figure out what it feels like to sleep outside, to not have a place to go home to.

Dave: So, really a lot of things on the agenda, and I know tons more that we don’t have a chance to talk about here today, but just a tremendous number of things that you’re doing not only on the local level here in Southern California but really across the globe to really be an advocate to women and men around this issue of human trafficking and doing it in a substantial, proactive way.

Sandie: And we’re really focusing on equipping people by providing training and education, training and education. Were already training our Live2Free students who are already scheduled to do the Orange County high school leadership conference called “Walk in My Shoes”, they’ll go to high schools and junior highs, equipping and training leaders in outreach, frontline service providers and nationally as well, so, that’s what we’re up to.

Dave: And this podcast is really that mission of equipping people and helping people to study the issues and educating this audience on what is it, w...