Ending Human Trafficking

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak talk about restoration with Beth Grant, co-founder & executive director of Project Rescue. Together they discuss the challenges with aftercare for victims of human trafficking and how to best support healing in this community through genuine collaboration.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 215 – Dr. Beth Grant and the Long Path to Restoration.

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

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

Dave [00:00:38] 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, today we have with us a long friend and supporter of the Global Center for Women and Justice. And I’m so excited for our conversation today.

Sandie [00:00:54] Well, I’m excited to introduce my very good friend, and colleague, mentor. I learned a lot from Dr. Beth Grant in the early days of my work in anti-trafficking, but she’s been a part of my life for a very long time, and I appreciate her willingness to be on our podcast. So, this is Dr. Beth Grant, co-founder and executive director of Project Rescue. Welcome to the show, Beth.

Beth [00:01:23] Thanks so much, and it’s a pleasure.

Sandie [00:01:26] Well, I remember in the early days having conversations about a lot of the challenges with aftercare for victims of human trafficking, and you’ve been a leader for decades in this. When was Project Rescue founded?

Beth [00:01:43] In 1997.

Sandie [00:01:45] That’s before we even had the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. And I loved the story of how it was so driven from the field. And I just want our listeners to know how we can be in the moment and do something when we get started, but maybe then later we’re going to have to add some structure. But will you tell the story of how KK Devaraj called David?

Beth [00:02:14] Yes, KK Devaraj had been our colleague in southern Asia, for a number of years. And working with teens on the street in his major city, huge city. And one evening, he felt with his team to go into a very infamous, huge red-light district in his city, where he had never been before. He took his team there and was stunned and in tears by what he witnessed. Many times, we assume women and children in prostitution are there by choice. And in this case, they are exposed to an area of a city of up to 100,000 people where women and children had been sold into prostitution. That was in 1997, that night when he met some of these women. He just threw out an invitation. I’m up for trying to help in any way they could. What they said to him was, “we cannot leave this place, we’re slaves, but could you take our daughter to a place of safety because they’re growing up under our cots as we service customers, and could you take our daughters to a place of safety?” That night, they asked him to take 37 little girls, ages three to twelve. In that moment, he called my husband. He said, “this is what has just happened. We’ve worked together before, could we take 37 little girls and start a home?” And immediately, when we heard Sandie about that need and realized how those little girls got there in their future unless someone intervened, immediately we said yes. And my husband said, “absolutely, Devaraj, absolutely.” So, it’s how to plan without a strategy, without really much knowledge about this. We said yes at the moment because we knew these little girls were in God’s heart, every single one of them. So, that was the start that night when we said “yes” that was the beginning of Project Rescue. That was 22, 23 years ago and those thirty-seven little girls were taken to a safe place and that became the first aftercare home before there even was a trafficking world that we were aware of, but it was a response to that need at the moment.

Sandie [00:04:46] So you’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way.

Beth [00:04:50] Oh my goodness, what a journey!

Sandie [00:04:52] Ha! So, you already have a Ph.D., but I feel like you’ve earned two or three more in the process of leading project rescue and growing it. How many countries are you in now?

Beth [00:05:05] Ten.

Sandie [00:05:05] Ten countries?

Beth [00:05:07] Yes, in southern Asia and Europe and upcoming in Africa.

Sandie [00:05:12] Oh, I can’t wait too. I expect to be invited to visit your African sites when you get started, just so you know.

Beth [00:05:19] You have an open invitation.

Sandie [00:05:21] Alright. So, what I think I’d really like to talk about with restoration is that rescue is only the beginning. So, how long did you keep those kids, a year, maybe, or six months?

Beth [00:05:38] Well, some of them were with us probably at least a year to 2 years, because once you took little girls who were three, four, five, six, seven years of age in that culture and you take them out of their only community, their mothers, then you have a commitment to help them find mental, physical, medical, emotional healing, very holistic. We quickly learned that we had to provide holistic care, that the actual physical rescue ending up actually being the easy part of this journey. And so, some of those girls really graduated from the program when they were 18 years old. So, some of them were with us, yes- ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen years. Until they came to a place where they had sufficient education and vocational training, where they had a future back in society to walk in to. And so many of those young girls now over these years have graduated. And where they had the ability to do graduate studies and have MBAs. They’re professional women in their community and cities. So, while it was a daunting jou...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Linda Smith, Founder and President of Shared Hope International, and Christine Raino, Senior Director of Public Policy. Linda was recently appointed to the White House Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking. Christine leads the Center for Justice & Advocacy’s research and advocacy on state and federal laws pertaining to protections and services for juvenile sex trafficking victims. Together they discuss the recently released Protected Innocence Challenge Report.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 214 – The role of Advocacy in Prevention and Protection.

Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

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

Dave [00:00:38] 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, glad to be back with you again today.

Sandie [00:00:48] Me too.

Dave [00:00:50] Today, an important conversation with an important leader in this space. We’re really thrilled to welcome to the show today, Congresswoman Linda Smith. She is the founder and president of Shared Hope International. Linda was recently appointed to the White House Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to end human trafficking. And Sandie, you and I have talked about this the last few episodes.

Sandie [00:01:11] That’s right.

Dave [00:01:12] Linda is the primary author of From Congress to the Brothel and Renting Lacey and coauthor of The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in the Demand Report. Linda has testified before Congress presented at national and international forums and has been published in news outlets and journals. Linda served as a Washington state legislator from 1983 to 1993, before she was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1994. And she’s joined today by Christine Reno. Good morning to you both.

Linda [00:01:41] Good morning.

Christine [00:01:42] Good morning.

Sandie [00:01:43] We’re,, so glad to have you here. Linda, would you introduce Christine?

Linda [00:01:49] Oh, I am delighted to. Christine Reno started with Shared Hope, now, nearly 10 years ago. She came in to help boost the legal side of Shared Hope because we were going to grade every state on 41 points of law. And the first point was having a law on domestic minor sex trafficking and make sure the men that buy those kids for sex are perceived as the and actually penalized as the serious felons that they are. They’re rapists of children and they should be treated that way. So, Christine has led the legal team that keeps growing here at the institute in analyzing all the 50 state laws. She, I don’t know where you passed your bar, but I know you did.

Christine [00:02:37] DC in Virginia.

Linda [00:02:37] DC in Virginia, and before she came here, you practiced in the courts.

Sandie [00:02:44] That’s great. And what that really represents to all of us, especially in the nonprofit sector, combating human trafficking, is we never do this alone. We always have to have a team of experts to really capture all of it because no one person can do it on their own. But tell us just briefly, for those who have never heard of Shared Hope, how long it’s been around and what your primary mission is.

Linda [00:03:16] Well, I was still in Congress. I ended up being called about,, some children in cage-like situations in India. And I couldn’t sleep,, so I went and found it was true. I got a hold my husband and a friend, converted assets, and started safe houses all within about five days.

Sandie [00:03:34] Wow.

Linda [00:03:34] And I couldn’t stop because,, some of those were young women, mostly that had nowhere to go. And a prostitute gets very little sympathy, whether they’re 12, 13, or 23. There’s just very little sympathy around the world. They’re labeled and denied justice. And I just couldn’t stop. But early in the time that Shared Hope existed, and I started Shared Hope while I was still a member of the U.S. Congress. I started realizing that not only did people not know, but the new law passed in 2000 was not being understood. Most people didn’t understand that we, the Congress, made this law to apply domestically too, not just to those coming across borders, but domestically. So, the agencies really weren’t doing much except for cross borders, people coming in, and they certainly did not think the new law applied to buyers of commercial sex. And in fact, after several times of appeals, finally in 2013, it was verified by the courts that the law did apply to buyers. And the words,, so licit, obtain, those types of words that were in the law certainly meant the buyer was a part of the act. 2013, 13 years.

Sandie [00:04:54] Wow.

Linda [00:04:54] But Shared Hope did the research, the ground research under another corporation called trafficking markets. And we went into all the states involved as well as three other countries. And we ran the same model who’s buying, who’s selling, what were they selling, how far would the buyer go on the properties? And when we came out of that and I presented that research back to Congress, it was congressional research off of the new trafficking office. We showed that the primary product in the United States for sex trafficking was a minor, and normally was about a middle school child, from what we found.  And that I found a lot of 11 to 13-year-olds and so we had what we had found. We used Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Georgia, Las Vegas, later we added Kansas, 10 other states, Texas, with a lot of other states. And then we produced the DMST, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Report, and then called on Congress to call on...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak collaborate to illustrate ways to teach young children about human trafficking. They wanted listeners to learn practical tools to help raise children with an awareness of how others might be exploited and how children themelves can be part of protecting other people. Through cultivating empathy, fostering accountability, and modeling intentional stewardship we can teach children from an early age how to be a voice!

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Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Larry Haynes to discuss effective models and attitudes to end homelessness. Larry is the Executive Director at Mercy House with over 30 years of experience working to end homelessness. 

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 212 – Can We Really End Homelessness?

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:37] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:40] 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, we have talked about the topic of homelessness many times on this show because there are so many connections, of course, to human trafficking. And today, we are so glad to be able to welcome a longtime friend of the Global Center for Women and Justice, and someone who is just really an expert on this issue. I know he’s going to teach us so much. I’m glad to welcome Larry Haynes to the show today. He is a longtime homeless advocate and executive director of Mercy House. Mercy House is a shelter and housing organization spanning throughout Southern California and parts of Arizona. Larry was also a former adjunct professor at Vanguard University and former lay preacher at Trinity Episcopal Church in Orange, California. Larry, we’re so glad to welcome you to the show.

Larry [00:01:38] Oh, it’s great to be here. Thanks for having me, guys.

Sandie [00:01:40] Well, and I’m excited because Mercy House was recognized at our Priceless event as the organization receiving our Diamond Award. And Larry was the representative to accept that award. I’ve known Larry since I came to Vanguard, I trust his leadership. He was on our very first advisory board to keep the center going during some very lean times. So, if we get a little emotional, everybody, this is a really fun bonding time. So, let us start off with how long have you been working to end homelessness, Larry?

Larry [00:02:19] Well, so I actually started in 1988, so a little over 30 years. And I started at Mercy House, I’m not its founder, but I am its original employee. And I started at Mercy House in 1990, so this next year, we’ll be celebrating my 30th year as the executive director of Mercy House

Sandie [00:02:36] Congratulations.

Larry [00:02:38] Thanks, thanks very much.

Sandie [00:02:39] So, what have you seen happen in those 30 years in how you address homelessness?

Larry [00:02:48] Well, you know, I think there’s a lot that’s changed, right? Everybody thinks they know how to help because intuitively, you see somebody homeless, you think of shelter, or food kitchen, or you know, that sort of thing. And that’s all understandable, but I think the most significant change from today, as opposed to when I first started, is this notion and it was in your title and we end homelessness. And, you know, when we first started the 80s, that would have just simply been, you know, an absurd conversation. It wouldn’t even have it on the table. So, consequently, because of that, a lot of our actions when it came to homelessness, was really from the perspective of charity, not justice. It was more I’m going to do this thing that feels nice and is charitable and it has some goodness to it, but not really serious about in making a societal difference. Right? You know, maybe like, you know, the old slogan, you know, “one person at a time” kind of thing, but not real systemic or structural change. Well, several years ago, you know, a number of us had sort of this epiphany, which is that you know, what if we changed our consciousness? What if we change the conversation to, you know, nor are we going to manage homelessness, but what would happen if we actually tried to end it? And from that, all sorts of things that happened, you know, more of an emphasis on getting people into housing right away as opposed to shelter.

Sandie [00:04:12] Stop right there and tell us the difference between shelter and housing.

Larry [00:04:17] Well, the biggest difference and the most obvious difference is the length of stay. I mean, you go to a shelter and it’s for a certain period of time, generally speaking. Whereas housing, it’s your home, right? You are there. You are a tenant. But it’s really more than that. It’s also sort of psychological for the person as well. As long as you are in a shelter, you are sort of at someone’s mercy. You are sort of there because someone’s allowing you to stay there. While housing, properly speaking, actually comes with all sorts of different rights. I mean, once you are a tenant, you have tenant’s rights, it doesn’t matter if you’re very rich or very poor. I mean, one of the great things about this country is that rights are supposed to extend beyond socioeconomic lines. And that is something that is a bit of a game-changer. Also, we also have to be really specific when we talk about we’re going to end homelessness and we get them in housing. Housing is the end of homelessness. That’s the end goal that we’re all trying to reach. Also, I was referencing, and I think you picked up on it, was and it is probably one of the biggest innovations in the last several years, at least the last 10 years, has been this concept of the housing first philosophy. And that’s a monumental change. And prior to housing first, what we did was- we would get somebody in one of our shelters and we try and fix them. We would say, OK, we’re going to get you clean and sober, we’re going to get you a job, we’re going to get you financial literacy. You bring in, you know, skills classes. But whatever it might be, we’re going to hold you at the shelter for a long time, and if you improve, if you get fixed, well then you are entitled to get into housing, and you go on your merry way. The housing first concept actually inverts that whole process. Housing First wants to say, housing ...

The White House has officially announced  President Trump’s intent to appoint Dr. Sandra Morgan, the Director of the Global Center for Women and Justice (GCWJ), to a two-year term as a Member of the Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking. Sandie and Dave Stachowiak discuss the purpose of the advisory council and what it means moving forward. 

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 211 – Why Is There a Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council?

Production Credits [00:00:11] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

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

Sandie [00:00:38] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:40] 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, I was in my email box a few days ago as I tend to be four or five hours a day, it seems like. And I pull up an email, which I had a little heads up on was coming. But here’s how the email starts, “The White House has officially announced President Trump’s intent to appoint Dr. Sandra Morgan, the director of the Global Center for Women and Justice, to a two-year term as a member of the Public-private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking. The Public-private Partnership Advisory Council was established by Senate Bill 1312, a bipartisan legislative mandate of the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The Advisory Council ensures U.S. government policies and programs use best practices and their victim prevention, rehabilitation and aftercare programs. Dr. Sandra Morgan is recognized globally for her expertise in combating human trafficking and working to end violence against women and children. She brings together diverse stakeholders to collaborate effectively for research, education, and advocacy directly related to the exploitation of women and children. Her Ending Human Trafficking podcast has listeners in 92 countries and is now housed in the Library of Congress as a resource to practitioners and the public.” Sandie, I don’t know if I’m legit enough anymore to be on this episode with you. Congratulations.

Sandie [00:02:12] Thank you. Thank you. You know, it is such an honor to be invited to be part of this advisory council where I get to use the rich background, a lot I’ve learned through our listeners, all of our guests, our partners in our local community, in order to be part of a voice for change and for strengthening our victim centered, trauma informed approach to our own national anti-human trafficking efforts right here in the USA.

Dave [00:02:48] It’s really an amazing opportunity for you, for the Global Center for Women and Justice, most importantly for victims of trafficking, that this not only your involvement, but more importantly, that this has been formed and work together to bring people in partnership together. And I have so, many questions about it, Sandie, and you had given me a heads up that this may be coming up. Before we get into what it is, how did this happen? How did this come up for you that the White House reached out to, you know?

Sandie [00:03:17] I think it is a very old principle. I remember way back in our, Jean and my, college days, sitting in church one day and Dr. George O. Wood said he had a poem he wanted the entire community to learn. And he said, let’s start with the first verse and we’ll practice it. And he said, “plod on, plod on, plod on, plod on, plod on, plod on.” He said, “Now we can do the second verse if you want to plod on, plod on” and you get the drift. And so, the reason this happened isn’t because I was like a rising star. It’s because I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time. And along the way, I’ve incorporated other people in my journey, I’ve brought people together. But my own background in pediatric nursing was a great foundation. My leadership in my church, my opportunity to teach in an academic setting, and then to serve in my own local Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force. You bring all of those pieces together and you have just the right pieces, the convergence of those streams to be able to actually have something to input in an advisory council that is about public-private partnerships. We talk a lot at the Global Center about research, education, advo...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Erin Albright, the former Director of the New Hampshire Human Trafficking Collaborative Task Force. She has over 12 years of experience in the anti-trafficking field and specializes in building organizational capacity and multidisciplinary collaboration through leadership, training, and consultation with service providers, law enforcement, task forces, and lawmakers.  Together they look at building a multidisciplinary collaboration to respond to human trafficking.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 210 – Collaboration: There Will be Challenges.

Production Credits [00:00:08] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

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

Dave [00:00:38] 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, a word today that has come up a lot in our conversations over the years, and the word is collaboration. But I think we’re going to dive in a bit further than we have in the past on collaboration.

Sandie [00:00:58] Absolutely.

Dave [00:00:59] I am glad to welcome to the show today, Erin Albright. She is the former director of the New Hampshire Human Trafficking Collaborative Task Force. She has over 12 years of experience in the anti-trafficking field and specializes in building organizational capacity and multidisciplinary collaboration through leadership, training, and consultation with service providers, law enforcement, task forces, and lawmakers. She recently completed a three-year visiting fellowship with the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, where she focused on improving victim-centered response strategies, developing capacity-building tools and training for labor trafficking, and building multidisciplinary collaboration to respond to human trafficking. Erin, we’re so glad to welcome you to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast.

Erin [00:01:48] Thanks so much. It’s good to be here.

Sandie [00:01:50] Well, and I met you when you were in New Hampshire, and I was out there doing some healthcare provider training, I think. And I have followed you because Derek Marsh was kind of the B.J.A.  Counterpart to your O.V.C. Fellowship Training Task Forces. And so, this idea of collaboration for task forces is very directive in the grant world. So, now human trafficking task force grants are often labeled enhanced collaborative model because we have people from very different sectors with competing agendas. So, you have law enforcement and maybe their big goal is to find the bad guy and put him in jail. And victim services who want to do the very best they can to do a rescue and restoration, and they may be very focused on protecting their client. And so how do you build a collaborative model? I studied quite a bit of William Wilberforce’s efforts to end the trans-Atlantic slave trade. And he talked about overlapping networks and can really inform how we can build better and stronger collaborations by understanding this idea of overlapping networks. It doesn’t mean we all join the same circle and do everything the same way. We still maintain our individual identities and we work to figure out how we can work together to achieve a greater goal. So, that’s kind of my intro to frame this conversation. And I’d love to hear from you, Erin, about the pieces of that process that are significant for you.

Erin [00:03:53] Yes. Well, I had actually never heard of that overlapping network analogy in the past. And I think it’s brilliant. It definitely describes exactly what we’ve recognized to be necessary in the anti-trafficking world. And you’re right that in the grant-funded world, with respect to trafficking, over the past probably decade and a half, folks have really recognized that no one can do it alone. So, this term collaboration keeps popping up and it very much does look like there are overlap networks. And I think for me and the work that I do is about untangling some of those networks where they do overlap with each other and figuring out exactly how they work, why they’re not working, what some of the challenges are. So, you’ll hear a lot of folks talk about, you know, collaboration, it’s heavily dependent on building relationships with other fields. And that’s true. But a lot of the work I do try to dig even deeper into that, where I’m looking at some of the more minutia parts, how are these folks in this group that come from these different worlds, how are they actually interacting with each other? And what are the really subtle problems that maybe nobody’s recognizing because they are coming from these different spaces and sometimes, they need a little bit of help and support to tease out what those issues are because more often than not, they’re not readily apparent. So, that’s a lot of work that I do. And like you said, it’s critical to making the human trafficking task forces work, which in turn are critical to being able to actually identify and support victims and hold perpetrators accountable.

Sandie [00:05:26] So, when I have reviewed this a bit more, I’ve noticed that you emphasized structure. What is it about structure that is so important, especially in leadership?

Erin [00:05:39] Well, I think that there are three really critical elements of building a task force. And like you just said, leadership and structure are two of them, and then I think culture is the third one. But for me, you know, you need a strong leader to be able to navigate all the twists and turns and complication of bringing together these disparate parties who have similar and overlapping interests, but not the exact same interests. But then what that does is then speak to a structure. You need a leader and a team structure that’s going to be supporti...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Benjamin Thomas Greer. His role at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is as a Subject Matter Expert in the field of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation; specifically instructing and developing human trafficking courses for law enforcing and emergency personnel. They discuss the complexities and challenges of the California Supply Chain Act and how consumers can be advocates for ending modern day slavery within supply chains.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. This is episode number 209, Who’s Watching the Watchdog? Is Supply Chain Transparency Working?

Production Credits [00:00:11] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:37] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:39] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, for you to be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, I’m really interested in this conversation today as I am in virtually every conversation we have because we’re going to dive in on supply chain transparency. And this is something we’ve talked a lot about, and yet I don’t have a clear answer in my mind as to the question that we’re posing in this title, which is who’s watching the watchdog? This is a big question, right?

Sandie [00:01:09] It’s going to be a great interview.

Dave [00:01:11] I am glad to welcome to the show today, Benjamin Thomas Greer. He is in the role at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services as a subject matter expert in the field of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Specifically, he’s instructing and developing human trafficking courses for law enforcement and emergency personnel. Before joining Cal OES, he served as a special deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice, office of the attorney general. There he led a team and a comprehensive report for the California attorney general entitled The State of Human Trafficking in California back in 2012. He has published numerous American law review and international journal articles and has presented and lectured in 10 different countries. Benjamin, so glad to welcome you to our show.

Benjamin [00:02:02] Thank you very much for having me.

Sandie [00:02:03] Well, I’m really excited to have you because I’ve been really impressed with how many articles you’ve researched and written and published, and I’ve especially been interested and followed your writing on supply chain transparency. And one of the articles that were really gripping was “Who’s watching the watchdog?” So, I thought we could have a conversation today about the efficacy of supply chain transparency. Are you up for that?

Benjamin [00:02:33] Absolutely, I’d love to.

Sandie [00:02:34] Okay. So, let’s just start with, would you explain why we support this idea of supply chain transparency? What does that mean to ending human trafficking?

Benjamin [00:02:49] Well, as we’ve seen in the last couple of decades, as the global economy extends and reaches into farther regions of the globe, consumers are probably less aware of where the products that they purchase come from and how they’re assembled. And that is individuals who want to exploit labor, the opportunity to coerce or force victims around the world in either the mining or manufacturing of raw minerals, manufacturing or assembly of products. And so, it’s really important for consumers if they want to be thoughtful and impactful consumers to understand the supply chain of the products that they’re purchasing.

Sandie [00:03:35] Okay. So, I was very excited when California passed the California Supply Chain Transparency Act. What does that actually do for us?

Benjamin [00:03:51] Well, first of all, California was the first government, either local, state or federal in the world to require such a disclosure. There are maybe some fundamental misunderstandings about what exactly what the California Supply Chain Transparency Act does. It does not require a company to affirmatively investigate their supply chain, but what it does do, is it requires the businesses to post on their home page what efforts, if any, that they do to ensure that forced labor or exploitation is not a part of their chain. So, a company would be in full compliance if they would literally post on their home page, we do nothing to investigate our supply chain. In my reading of the law, they would be in full compliance.

Sandie [00:04:41] That’s really disturbing. But with the focus on cause related marketing, corporate social responsibility. Are there some big companies that are actually going beyond the stated compliance requirements?

Benjamin [00:05:01] Absolutely. There are, you know, many companies have seen this as an opportunity to demonstrate to their consumer base and potentially new consumers that they are good corporate citizens, that they have meaningful oversight and procedures in place. And that was really kind of the design legislatively behind the California law is that it really wanted to provide the consumer with the information so that the consumer can influence corporate behavior through the use of their money and which products they wanted to support.

Sandie [00:05:38] OK, so this is basically a legislative initiative that encourages moral business behavior, right.?

Benjamin [00:05:50] Yes. By giving the consumer information and then the consumer can choose which corporate moral behavior they want to support.

Sandie [00:06:00] So, I’ve been the consumer and gone to a Webpage and not found anything that inspires me to be loyal to that brand. And I’ve called and usually all I get, and they are in compliance, is we have a zero-tolerance policy against slavery. Well, my next question is, so what do you do? And they don’t have an answer for that. And so that was part of the reason I was really interested in your article on opaque transparency. You’re very goo...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by one of our 2019 Priceless speakers, Rabbi Diana Gerson. Diana is the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. She advocates for confronting issues such as family violence, sexual abuse, and the exploitation of children by reaching across faith communities. This episode focuses on the intersection of children’s right and human trafficking and how our community, especially faith-based ones, can influence this battle.

Key Points

Resources

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. This is episode number 208, The Intersection of Children’s Rights and Combating Human Trafficking.

Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

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

Dave [00:00:38] 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, our regular listeners will remember hearing about the Priceless event that we host every year. And also, today we’re going to really dive in on one of the speakers from the event, aren’t we?

Sandie [00:01:01] Yes, I’m so excited to host Rabbi Diana Gerson.

Dave [00:01:06] Rabbi Diana Gerson is the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. She has been a leading advocate with the New York Board of Rabbis role in confronting family violence, sexual abuse, and the exploitation of children by reaching across faith communities. Rabbi Gerson has developed programs for the New York City’s mayor’s office to combat domestic violence and has provided prevention education to thousands of community leaders and clergy, whose roles she considers critical to ending sexual exploitation and all forms of violence against children. In addition, she also serves on the international steering committee for the interfaith forum on child dignity in the digital world. She received her master’s degree and rabbinic ordination in 2001 from the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. Diana, we’re so glad to welcome you to the show.

Diana [00:02:00] Thank you so much for having me. You guys are doing incredibly important and critical work bringing people together for a common cause.

Sandie [00:02:08] And many of our listeners will remember Ernie Allen. And so big shout out to Ernie because he’s the one who introduced Diana and I. And that’s how she came to Vanguard to speak for our Priceless event this year. And it was such a great program and her message was right on target, and the response was incredible so welcome today.

Diana [00:02:37] Thank you so much for having me. And absolutely, Ernie Allen always brings the best people together, he’s really one of the great connectors.

Sandie [00:02:45] So, talking about connections. Let’s talk a little bit about how our work intersects, my work on human trafficking and your work on children’s rights. What do you think are the most common denominators there?

Diana [00:03:02] Well, we’re talking about vulnerable populations, Sandie. Wherever we look there are vulnerable people amongst us, whether they understand that or not, whether they identify as bad or not. And it’s our job really to create safe spaces and opportunities for prevention, and effective responsible response, as well as collaboration.

Sandie [00:03:26] So, one of the big initiatives globally is the Convention on Children’s Rights, right?

Diana [00:03:36] Absolutely. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this November 20th.

Sandie [00:03:40] Do you want to kind of break that down for people who haven’t heard of that before? What is it? What’s its purpose? How does it help our initiative?

Diana [00:03:51] So, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is written and ratified by the United Nations voted on and by the United Nations November 20th of 1989, if you can remember back that far. And it brought together all the countries of the world and was saying that children’s rights are human rights, and we need to do our utmost to protect children because they are vulnerable, and they have no effective voice in government. After all, a five-year-old isn’t going to be able to reach their elected officials or their leader and say, “hey, someone’s got to protect me over here.” And so, it’s set forth a number of policies and protocols for governments to basically set a bar to protect children within community. And it really was a remarkable day, as it went around the world and it is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the history of our global society.

Sandie [00:04:48] I did not know that. Wow.

Diana [00:04:50] Yes. There’s only one country who has not ratified this document to date.

Sandie [00:04:55] Wow.

Diana [00:04:55] And that’s the United States, very frustrating.

Sandie [00:04:57] We really need to investigate what that is all about.

Diana [00:05:03] Well, I’ve had many many conversations with children’s rights experts and legal experts, and I have heard all kinds of reasons thrown around as to why the Convention on the Rights of the Child has not been ratified by the United States. It was signed at the time, by the president, but it was never ratified by Congress. And while there’s always a movement afoot to try and get it through Senate, which is where we ratify all international treaties that are binding, we don’t seem to have any political will to get this done at this point and not quite sure why but I can posit many guesses, which makes me a great you know guesstimater but not a real critical answer to the question. But it doesn’...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Leonie Webster, a U.K. trained healthcare and clinical professional. They discuss the downfalls of institutionalized living and a harm reduction model that could provide a solution.

Key Points

Resources

193 – Child Institutionalization and Human Trafficking

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Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected].

Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 207, The Harms of Institutionalizing Children.

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

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

Dave [00:00:38] 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 the things that I so appreciate about our work together is just how many amazing and wonderful partnerships you have built around the world. And not only are those partnerships and friendships, but just how much we are able to learn from so many of the different people and organizations that you’ve had the privilege to work with over the years, and today’s no different right.

Sandie [00:01:09] Absolutely. And I have to say too, Dave, that it was such a pleasure to be on your podcast to talk about overlapping networks and this is an example of overlapping networks. I have been partnering with Open Gate International and then they introduced me to our guest today, Leonie Webster, who is a UK trained health care clinical professional, a certified nurse, midwife practitioner, and she has academic and professional expertise in neonatal, and attachment deinstitutionalization, trauma-informed care, policy and reform for prevention of child maltreatment, and it goes on and on. And she’s got 20 years of experience serving internationally. And in fact, lived in Honduras for seven years. I’m very excited to welcome Leonie to our show.

Leonie [00:02:12] Thank you for having me.

Sandie [00:02:14] Alright. So, we’re going to talk about some of your work, but let’s talk a little bit about your own personal experience and especially what you learned by living in Honduras for seven years and one of the biggest takeaways.

Leonie [00:02:30] Yes wow, where do we start? That’s a loaded question. Yes, I first went to Honduras in 2003, mainly for a short time missions’ trip to go and observe clinical need within the remit of midwifery and obstetrics. And I was thrown into the arena of orphan and vulnerable children because the clinic that I worked in was next door to an orphanage, a residential facility. And I quickly became aware of the huge needs for legally orphaned and vulnerable children at high social risk, especially in a country with high conflict and political instability.

Sandie [00:03:22] So, you were there. And were you working all the time in the orphanage?

Leonie [00:03:30] I was invited to partner with some international missionaries who were looking after 17 children in a very small beautiful Christian orphanage. And I quickly saw the realities of early institutional living for children who were legally abandoned or orphaned.

Sandie [00:03:55] And what were some of those consequences for those children in their development?

Leonie [00:04:01] So, when I was working in the orphan place, a typical affects and consequences of institutional living largely depends on the age of the entry and how long the child remains in the residential [00:04:15] facility. But I saw a catalogue of symptoms and behaviors amongst the children psychosocial relationship problems, learning delays, cognitive development delays, disturbances and delays in physical growth, speech, social development, low emotional intelligence, and inappropriate lax or absent boundaries setting. [26.5s] Many of these behaviors just seemed normal amongst the children. Also, just incidences of anxiety, withdrawal, depression. It was really quite apparent very quickly that all was not well within the walls of a Christian residential facility.

Sandie [00:05:03] And I think I want to make it really clear that all of this is well-intentioned and the basic life needs are there. There’s food, there’s a place to lay your head, there’s safety, the doors are locked, but something happens in the institutionalization of children that interferes with their normal development. And we took a team here from Vanguard to Romania one year, and one of the activities that our students did as part of touched Romania, we visited a hospital, a state-run hospital, and spent two hours holding and playing with babies and toddlers. And this was an everyday outreach activity because in the state-run facility for those babies and toddlers, there was very little staff to do that for those babies. And that’s an important aspect of their normal development, play and being held is important.

Leonie [00:06:18] Absolutely. And not only being held but being seen and being valued. And I think one of the greatest challenges of long-term institutional living is for the most part it’s run by lay personnel employers, so the children remain in a constant state of uncertainty and anxiety because they’re not parenting. And then also, there’s no guarantee that that primary caregiver the employment of the orphanage is not going to leave. So, these children who are already vulnerable and have often have symptoms of PTSD, they have no certainty that the one person who was caring for them right now will remain, so obviously an orphanage losing employers have large amounts of children to look after and certainly chose and needs of the organization often supersede the needs of the child. So, lack of autonomy, lack of individuality, lack of connection and one on one care is really lacking. Subsequently, the harmful effects on the children.

Sandie [00:07:36] Well and some cultures have a different way of approaching child rearing as well. I lived in Greece for 10 years and my background in p...