Jenny McGee from Starfish Projects shares about why it’s so important to build sustainable businesses and teach women high-level job skills. She explains how Starfish Projects exists to help women experience freedom, establish independence, and develop careers.

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 162, Jenny McGee Explains the Starfish Business Model for Serving Survivors.

Production Credits: [00:00:12] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave: [00:00:32] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:39] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. The podcast is produced out of the Global Center for Women and Justice here at Vanguard University. And Sandie, it is a special month here in January 2018 when we’re airing the show.

Sandie: [00:00:58] I am always excited when January rolls around and it’s not because I get a new calendar, it’s because it is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. And this month we are on a roll, we’re doing a podcast every week. And Dave, thank you so much for the extra support so we can do this to celebrate January for prevention.

Dave: [00:01:20] The pleasure is mine and I’m so glad we have yet another expert here today who’s going to give us another perspective in a particular demonstrating a sustainable business model that goes beyond rescue. And we are pleased to welcome Jenny McGee to the show today. She is the executive director and founder of Starfish Project, a social enterprise dedicated to restoring hope to trafficked and exploited women and girls. She has worked and lived in Asia with her family for over 15 years and has been helping women experience freedom, establish independence, and develop careers. Jenny, we’re so glad to welcome you today.

Jenny: [00:01:57] Yeah thank you for having me, I’m happy to be here.

Sandie: [00:02:00] Well I was privileged to meet you in person a couple times this last year. And each time I met with you I was more impressed with the excellent business model that you have. Being at Vanguard I have lots of young students and alumni who want to go out and do something meaningful, and I want them all to learn how you have done it because you’ve used a holistic care program that really does take into account the whole rescue aspect of helping women out of this. But at the same time, you’re working towards a long hard goal that is going to sustain the women and also your business models. So, do you want to tell us a little bit about what Starfish is?

Jenny: [00:02:56] Yes so like you said, I’ve lived in Asia for 15 years and started an organization, and it’s really about three things helping women experience freedom, establish independence, and develop careers. So, at Starfish Project we have outreach teams to go out into the red-light areas, visit the women and girls there. And that’s all ages, we see girls as young as 12 years old, up to women who are in their 60s working in the brothels. And so, we just visit them regularly, share with them, see whatever we can do to help them, and then really offer them an opportunity to come out of the brothels. And so, women can come into our shelters, and this is where they establish independence piece really comes, and they can join our shelters. And we try to get them living independently within two years and then they can work at our jewelry company, where we hire the women. But we really see that as sort of a platform for the girls to learn a lot of different skills. And so, we have some vocational training there, where we do an assessment when the women first come in. And some of them can’t read or write when they first come to us, and so we start with basic literacy class. We try to give them really transferable skills as soon as we can and so all of the girls eventually go through our computer programs, where they learn a Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and they get a certification from Microsoft Corporation. And so, the women going to that program, eventually if they finish all four, they become Microsoft Office specialists.

Sandie: [00:04:32] OK so back up just a little bit. You go out into the brothels, so you don’t take like a team of people with black ops experience to knock down the doors and rescue the women?

Jenny: [00:04:46] No, actually one of our teams is led by a woman who has come out of the brothels herself. And so, she adds a lot of wisdom and support to us, but we’re just regular people who go into the shops. And what I found is, you know a lot of girls have been tricked themselves by their own family members, their own relatives. So, it takes a lot to build trust with them. You know, we don’t just walk in and they immediately want to come out of the brothels. A lot of them are used to their lives there. I mean sometimes it can take years of building support with them, building a relationship with them, and building that trust that they believe that we have a better job for them and that they can really trust us to come with us.

Sandie: [00:05:34] Can you off the top of your head, tell us how many times you might have Met the same girl before she agrees that she wants to come to Starfish?

Jenny: [00:05:43] Yes. It’s interesting we’ve had girls that we met, and the first time they say please help me I can’t survive this place. And then we’ve had other girls where we met them, and one girl in particularly we lost contact with her, and five years later she contacted us and said do you still have a job for me. So, some of them it can take many years, and sometimes it’s just the situation where they’re finally in a place where they realize you know I deserve more or I want more. Sometimes that takes a lot of time for them to reach that place themselves.

Sandie: [00:06:19] So when they come out, they know that you’re going to train them for a vocation?

Jenny: [00:06:26] Yeah. We talk with them a lot about our training programs. And a lot of the girls come to us not as much because they want another job, but they’re thinking long-term about their future and ...