Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak discuss Dr. Morgan’s recent trip to Athens, Greece. She explains what her team did and shares her personal experience, including the high and low points.

Bridges Humanitarian Initiative

Salvation Army – Green Light Project

UN National Rapporteur – Greece Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 175, Study the Issues in Athens, Greece.

Production Credits: [00:00:08] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave: [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:37] 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, one of my favorite things about you is that in addition to being a scholar and being one who has helped us to study these issues so much in depth over the years, as we’ve talked about many times on this podcast, is that you are someone who is also out there doing amazing work on the ground. Multiple times a year you are flying around the world, meeting people all over the place, forming partnerships. And I think this is probably the sixth or seventh or eighth episode we’ve had talking about one of these incredible trips and journeys you’ve been on. And today we’re going to look at what you’ve learned and the value of really engaging young people in some your work. You were just recently back in Athens, Greece and I’m really excited to hear about your adventure this time and what came out of it for both you and also the people you visited.

Sandie: [00:01:42] Well I always loved going back to Athens, and just a big shout out to my friends and colleagues there, because they always make sure that we eat well. You realize Mediterranean cooking is the best way to go. And so big shout out to them. This was our second year to do a partnership with two non-profit NGOs, they’re humanitarian initiative bridges and Salvation Army. And so, the global center literally cosponsored, co-organized a series of conferences while we were there. But I didn’t just go, I took a whole team with me. And I think one of the things that I especially appreciate about being at Vanguard University in an academic setting doing anti-human trafficking work is education has to be an across the generational process. So, bringing students with me instead of going and doing it and then coming back and telling them in the classroom and giving them a quiz, it’s an entirely experiential learning. And the value goes way beyond data that they learn. But it’s transformative in their worldview and in their relationships across borders.

Dave: [00:03:13] I’m so curious. Who are the students that went with you? Like what are their backgrounds and what kind of students do you pull from? And I’m also curious, what do you tell students in advance, like how do you set them up for an experience like this of going across the world and engaging in efforts on ending human trafficking?

Sandie: [00:03:34] You know Dave, every year I try to get better at preparing them for what they’re going to face no matter what country we’re going to. And it never fails to astound me at how shocked they are when we actually get there and see the circumstances. But we do prepare. They have reading things they do before they go. Everybody that goes on a Global Center for Women and Justice trip takes Intro to Women’s Studies so that they understand the issues that are particular to gender discrimination and sexual violence and those kinds of things. And so, they had that kind of preparation. They prepared by studying some of the Live2Free scripts because we use them in some of their prevention strategies. And they prepare by having regular meetings. This trip, because we knew we would be working with refugees, we did some preparation around resiliency because we know that these are folks who have been in a long-term traumatic situation. So, team preparation is great and we try to do some team building exercises but nothing does the job as much as getting on an airplane and going. And on the ground, your team is your backup for everything.

Dave: [00:05:04] You mentioned some of the partner organizations that were part of this. Tell me about those and how did that fit into the outcomes that you were looking for from this experience?

Sandie: [00:05:14] Well, if you recall last year we went and we did a three-day conference and we had about 30 folks that joined us from different NGOs and state agencies, and we also had five representatives from the anti-human trafficking task force in northern Iraq, and a representative from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. And so, there was a lot of response “are you going to do something again next year?” Different people wanted different things so the team, meaning our partners there, decided that we wanted to do four different one-day conferences to be able to kind of respond to everybody’s requests. So, the first conference was a conference designed for nonprofits, NGOs, and state agencies. And I think I mentioned about 30 people last year, 175 people came. And the representation was really across the board, international NGOs as well as local. And our partners, the Salvation Army and Bridges, did a great job of setting the stage, making all of the arrangements. And of course, our kind of secret sauce is Derek Marsh and I co-teach this class. And together we co-presented the law enforcement perspective as well as the victimology and some of the trauma-informed issues that we want to address. So, the conference was very well attended. The interaction was amazing and the after conversations also drew in the other partners. So, we weren’t the only presenters, so it was very well represented from the important sectors in Greece. So, we had representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that endorsed the conference from the UN special rapporteur. We also had a representative, a major from the Athens police training director, and that was an amazing outcome. And so, we invited him back to one of the other days and he came back. So, I was especially excited about how organic the conference was where presenting some people show up, they have ideas, they’re able to become part of the conversation in the room right that moment. So, we invited our new friend from the police department that came, [00:08:08] Spiros Brotsokis, [1.6] to just take over one of the sessions that Derek had been scheduled to do. And he was very happy to do that. And it really built what was happening in that comm...