Progress! In the anti-trafficking field, we have a lot to celebrate. When I first got involved in this issue 15 years ago, public awareness as well as government response were low to non-existent. When I first told my friends I was starting an agency to fight human trafficking, most didn’t know what those words meant. “You … Read more
Why India and Nepal? The latest report from the UN estimates that there are over 40 million slaves in the world today. 40% of the world’s slavery is concentrated in South Asia. This same region has the highest rates of child labor, child marriage and other severe problems affecting women and girls. Why India? India is caught between the developed and … Read more
A Day in the Life…Growing up in Calcutta Red Light Area JUST FOR A MOMENT, IMAGINE AN HOUR IN THE LIFE OF ANI, A GIRL GROWING UP IN A RED LIGHT DISTRICT OF CALCUTTA… It’s late on a winter’s afternoon and dusk is settling in. You are ten years old, and at the time when … Read more
Otherizing It troubles me that so many posters and campaigns about sex trafficking in the US depict a slender white girl with long, straight, blonde hair. The reality is that 77% of victims in human trafficking incidents reported in the U.S. are people of color. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Report). Of course, people of each and … Read more
How Not to Portray Trafficking Each year, we host an art show of photography created in the Vision for Empowerment workshop series, which we have offered to women in Calcutta for the past 4 years. The purpose of the workshops, taught by international photographer Sarah Annay, is both therapeutic self-expression and to explore careers in … Read more
Learning to Trust Fifteen of us sat in a circle on the cool marble floor, drawing birds and flowers. The girls ranged in age from Jasminda, a tiny seven-year-old with uncanny artistic abilities, to Rishi, a clever 20 year old who just started at college and probably should have been studying, but couldn’t resist joining … Read more