It was my first night back on outreach after being away for the IT Antitrafficking Prayer Summit. I was a little out of it. But now I'm thinking that maybe I should go away more often because we had so many great encounters - here are a few...
We met Ana from Romania - tall, dark-haired and a little out of it. Like so many that we see from Romania, she too is from a small town near the Black Sea coast. It reminded me of our discussions last week on equipping International Teams workers in Romania to do prevention work - how great it would have been had Ana met people who affirmed her value, helped her in practical ways, so that prostitution in Athens wasn't her best option!!!
Further along the route we met a big group of Nigerian women, who often are quite rude, at least indifferent to our teams. This time however, one of our new Greek volunteers really connected with two young women who confided in her that they really want to get off the streets. We are praying for them, and waiting for them to have the courage to make this huge change.
Also, please pray for protection for *Cindy* a young woman who was trafficked and now finds herself in danger as her case progresses.
If you would like to join Nea Zoi in assisting with legal fees for Cindy or the other two women, please contact us for details.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
October encounters
These past weeks have been very exciting in Nea Zoi as we have quite a few new volunteers, both from the Greek Bible Institute and others from the local community. It means we have been able to be out and meet many new women like Jennie, from Nigeria. She is young, sweet and totally surprised to meet someone offering her tea and help in the middle of the night. It was great to see our new Greek volunteers chatting with them and teaching them Greek phrases.
We met Vera from Bulgaria on Monday night. She was young, thin, pale and trembling after a bad customer. While we introduced ourselves (through our card, gestures and a few words), the madame and customer were arguing in the front room. Because Vera seemed so scared, I had her showed our phone number and she copied it into her phone. Meanwhile, the argument escalated into a fight, that ended up with with the madame being injured. We told Vera she could call any time, and that we'd see her in a week.
I don't know what will happen with Jennie and Vera, but I was reminded of the constant violence that these women live in. We cannot take for granted the peace and security we enjoy.
We met Vera from Bulgaria on Monday night. She was young, thin, pale and trembling after a bad customer. While we introduced ourselves (through our card, gestures and a few words), the madame and customer were arguing in the front room. Because Vera seemed so scared, I had her showed our phone number and she copied it into her phone. Meanwhile, the argument escalated into a fight, that ended up with with the madame being injured. We told Vera she could call any time, and that we'd see her in a week.
I don't know what will happen with Jennie and Vera, but I was reminded of the constant violence that these women live in. We cannot take for granted the peace and security we enjoy.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Interesting article about trafficking in the US
http://www.independentcollegian.com/news/professor-inducted-into-hall-of-fame-1.1993495
Professor inducted into hall of fame
By Joe Griffith
Published: Monday, October 12, 2009
Updated: Monday, October 12, 2009
The city of Toledo is currently fourth in the nation for the volume of
investigations and rescue of children from underground human trafficking
networks; however, Celia Williamson, a professor in the department of
social work at UT, said Toledo is “just at the tip of the iceberg.”
After 15 years of working to solve issues surrounding human trafficking,
Williamson was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame on Aug. 26.
Williamson said the induction ceremony was just another chance to bring up
the issue and urge people to take responsibility in their own communities
to solve the problem.
“Toledo, I think, is further along than the other cities, but Toledo is
nowhere [near] where it needs to be in terms of responding to trafficking,
so I’m excited to get the awards because I get another avenue to talk
about what needs to be done and the more I talk about it, the more people
do, and the better I could sleep, and that would be the award,” Williamson
said.
Williamson said she first got involved in the issue of human trafficking
in 1993 while working as a social worker in the North End of Toledo.
“I would drive into work every day and I would see these women out on the
streets and I really didn’t like them myself. I thought it was terrible
because I was trying to work with kids and families and here are these
women,” she said.
Williamson eventually decided to engage prostitutes in Toledo,
interviewing them and conducting research into their situations over a six
month period. Many of the prostitutes Williamson spoke with explained that
they were recruited and manipulated into prostitution when they were
children, and had lived horrible lives filled with violence and drug
abuse.
“Once I heard those stories, it changed my life,” she said. “I could no
longer ignore the issue, I couldn’t sleep at night, I couldn’t go in and
pretend I was doing good work.”
That same year Williamson and other community members started Second
Chance, a program that works with women involved in prostitution and
children that have been trafficked into the sex trade. Today, Second
Chance works with the local FBI task force and consults with programs
throughout Ohio and across the nation that are beginning to respond to
human trafficking, Williamson said.
“In the beginning, I did struggle by myself for a long time trying to get
people to listen that this was going on,” she said.
According to Williamson, it took about 10 years before people really
started listening about the issue of human trafficking.
“I don’t think its people’s fault. I think it’s my fault in that it took
me a decade to learn how to approach people,” she said. “I was naively
thinking that people were going to reach out to these people because they
were dying and drug addicted and taken against their will most times, and
that’s not the case.”
Williamson said she finally realized how to utilize the media to spread
the message about human trafficking and change the public’s perspective on
prostitution, which is that prostitutes make a personal choice to sell
their bodies.
“What you need to do is change the perspective to say that these women who
are out on the streets are not there by choice, they’re prostituted by
other people or by drug addiction or by poverty and those are things
people can understand,” she said. “I didn’t understand that the first
thing I needed to do was re-educate people and once that happened then
there was more support than we were ready to handle.”
The adult prostitutes that are out on the streets are actually the
children who slipped through unnoticed into the underground human
trafficking network, Williamson said. While the actual number of human
trafficking victims is unknown, Williamson said researchers estimate there
are 100,000 to 300,000 teenage runaways each year, and in Toledo, runaways
are approached by traffickers within two weeks.
“In Toledo it has been difficult for people to wrap their head around
because this is a recruitment city, it’s not a destination city, so we
will have kids recruited here and then shipped off,” she said.
According to Williamson, 85 percent of Toledo children who are recruited
into the sex trade are shipped off to large cities like Chicago or Las
Vegas where the demand is higher.
“When you turn on the news or you see these HBO specials or whatever, and
you see these young girls walking in high heels in Chicago or Las Vegas,
some of those are our kids,” she said. “We don’t get them back until
they’re adults and they’re crack addicted and now they’re on the street
and now we say we don’t want to work with them because they chose to go
out there.”
Williamson said many people in society don’t fully understand the issue of
human trafficking as a domestic problem, and instead, they see it as an
issue abroad. According to Williamson, 14,000 to 17,000 victims are
shipped from other countries and forced into labor trafficking or sex
trafficking within the U.S.
“In Toledo they might be in buffets, they might be in massage parlors,
they might be in migrant camps, those types of things, but most people
think that’s the majority of the victims of trafficking, if they even have
a concept that victims are here, but overwhelmingly, the majoring are
domestic victims, victims born here, raised here, and trafficked here,”
she said.
Human trafficking is the second largest illegal enterprise in the world,
preceded by drugs and followed by weapons, Williamson said.
While drugs and weapons are sold and then used, Williamson said many
researchers predict that human trafficking will soon become the largest
illegal enterprise in the world because bodies can be sold countless times
for sex or labor. Large-scale organized crime, “mom and pop” businesses
and legitimate businesses are all involved in the human trafficking
“chain,” Williamson said.
“There is a whole chain that is economically benefiting off the backs of
kids, so it’s not just the trafficker and the victim,” Williamson said.
According to Williamson, a 2005 human trafficking FBI sting in
Pennsylvania rescued a large group of children from traffickers, and 20 of
the children were from Toledo. About one year later the news reported that
a Pennsylvania state trooper was helping the trafficking network, she
said.
“It can’t succeed underground alone. Some legitimate people are involved
to help it through,” Williamson said. “It’s the same economic principles,
it’s the same supply and demand and distribution; the supply are the
victims, the demand are the customers, the distribution people are the
traffickers, so the economic principles are the same and legitimate
business has to be involved for it to stay successful and continue.”
Examples of legitimate businesses involved in the “chain” are hotels and
motels around the world and truck drivers, because so many child victims
are forced to work truck stops along the interstate.
According to Williamson, the most rewarding part of her work is getting
people involved. Williamson first came to UT to teach in 2000 and many of
her students became involved in the cause.
“I love to get students involved because they are very passionate about
it, and I’ve had a couple of students that actually devoted their careers
to human trafficking so I think that’s the icing on the cake,” she said.
“If we keep producing students who keep going to different states then
pretty soon we’ll have a nationwide effort that is going to be making a
difference, so I think that’s the best.”
Williamson said society functions under the concept that it is socially
acceptable to “throw away” women and children.
“To me there are no throw-away kids, there are no throw-away women, so
they have to be ours. We have the responsibility as a community, as a
society,” she said.
According to Williamson, society has a responsibility to uphold the
principles that “we are our neighbor’s keeper, and children are our most
precious resource.”
“If we truly believe all those things that we say we do, then we naturally
think that these are our kids and these are our women,” she said. “If we
really believe that there is not one throw-away child then we have to do
everything we can to get that child back and restore that child to some
type of emotional health.”
This message is forwarded to you by:
Professor inducted into hall of fame
By Joe Griffith
Published: Monday, October 12, 2009
Updated: Monday, October 12, 2009
The city of Toledo is currently fourth in the nation for the volume of
investigations and rescue of children from underground human trafficking
networks; however, Celia Williamson, a professor in the department of
social work at UT, said Toledo is “just at the tip of the iceberg.”
After 15 years of working to solve issues surrounding human trafficking,
Williamson was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame on Aug. 26.
Williamson said the induction ceremony was just another chance to bring up
the issue and urge people to take responsibility in their own communities
to solve the problem.
“Toledo, I think, is further along than the other cities, but Toledo is
nowhere [near] where it needs to be in terms of responding to trafficking,
so I’m excited to get the awards because I get another avenue to talk
about what needs to be done and the more I talk about it, the more people
do, and the better I could sleep, and that would be the award,” Williamson
said.
Williamson said she first got involved in the issue of human trafficking
in 1993 while working as a social worker in the North End of Toledo.
“I would drive into work every day and I would see these women out on the
streets and I really didn’t like them myself. I thought it was terrible
because I was trying to work with kids and families and here are these
women,” she said.
Williamson eventually decided to engage prostitutes in Toledo,
interviewing them and conducting research into their situations over a six
month period. Many of the prostitutes Williamson spoke with explained that
they were recruited and manipulated into prostitution when they were
children, and had lived horrible lives filled with violence and drug
abuse.
“Once I heard those stories, it changed my life,” she said. “I could no
longer ignore the issue, I couldn’t sleep at night, I couldn’t go in and
pretend I was doing good work.”
That same year Williamson and other community members started Second
Chance, a program that works with women involved in prostitution and
children that have been trafficked into the sex trade. Today, Second
Chance works with the local FBI task force and consults with programs
throughout Ohio and across the nation that are beginning to respond to
human trafficking, Williamson said.
“In the beginning, I did struggle by myself for a long time trying to get
people to listen that this was going on,” she said.
According to Williamson, it took about 10 years before people really
started listening about the issue of human trafficking.
“I don’t think its people’s fault. I think it’s my fault in that it took
me a decade to learn how to approach people,” she said. “I was naively
thinking that people were going to reach out to these people because they
were dying and drug addicted and taken against their will most times, and
that’s not the case.”
Williamson said she finally realized how to utilize the media to spread
the message about human trafficking and change the public’s perspective on
prostitution, which is that prostitutes make a personal choice to sell
their bodies.
“What you need to do is change the perspective to say that these women who
are out on the streets are not there by choice, they’re prostituted by
other people or by drug addiction or by poverty and those are things
people can understand,” she said. “I didn’t understand that the first
thing I needed to do was re-educate people and once that happened then
there was more support than we were ready to handle.”
The adult prostitutes that are out on the streets are actually the
children who slipped through unnoticed into the underground human
trafficking network, Williamson said. While the actual number of human
trafficking victims is unknown, Williamson said researchers estimate there
are 100,000 to 300,000 teenage runaways each year, and in Toledo, runaways
are approached by traffickers within two weeks.
“In Toledo it has been difficult for people to wrap their head around
because this is a recruitment city, it’s not a destination city, so we
will have kids recruited here and then shipped off,” she said.
According to Williamson, 85 percent of Toledo children who are recruited
into the sex trade are shipped off to large cities like Chicago or Las
Vegas where the demand is higher.
“When you turn on the news or you see these HBO specials or whatever, and
you see these young girls walking in high heels in Chicago or Las Vegas,
some of those are our kids,” she said. “We don’t get them back until
they’re adults and they’re crack addicted and now they’re on the street
and now we say we don’t want to work with them because they chose to go
out there.”
Williamson said many people in society don’t fully understand the issue of
human trafficking as a domestic problem, and instead, they see it as an
issue abroad. According to Williamson, 14,000 to 17,000 victims are
shipped from other countries and forced into labor trafficking or sex
trafficking within the U.S.
“In Toledo they might be in buffets, they might be in massage parlors,
they might be in migrant camps, those types of things, but most people
think that’s the majority of the victims of trafficking, if they even have
a concept that victims are here, but overwhelmingly, the majoring are
domestic victims, victims born here, raised here, and trafficked here,”
she said.
Human trafficking is the second largest illegal enterprise in the world,
preceded by drugs and followed by weapons, Williamson said.
While drugs and weapons are sold and then used, Williamson said many
researchers predict that human trafficking will soon become the largest
illegal enterprise in the world because bodies can be sold countless times
for sex or labor. Large-scale organized crime, “mom and pop” businesses
and legitimate businesses are all involved in the human trafficking
“chain,” Williamson said.
“There is a whole chain that is economically benefiting off the backs of
kids, so it’s not just the trafficker and the victim,” Williamson said.
According to Williamson, a 2005 human trafficking FBI sting in
Pennsylvania rescued a large group of children from traffickers, and 20 of
the children were from Toledo. About one year later the news reported that
a Pennsylvania state trooper was helping the trafficking network, she
said.
“It can’t succeed underground alone. Some legitimate people are involved
to help it through,” Williamson said. “It’s the same economic principles,
it’s the same supply and demand and distribution; the supply are the
victims, the demand are the customers, the distribution people are the
traffickers, so the economic principles are the same and legitimate
business has to be involved for it to stay successful and continue.”
Examples of legitimate businesses involved in the “chain” are hotels and
motels around the world and truck drivers, because so many child victims
are forced to work truck stops along the interstate.
According to Williamson, the most rewarding part of her work is getting
people involved. Williamson first came to UT to teach in 2000 and many of
her students became involved in the cause.
“I love to get students involved because they are very passionate about
it, and I’ve had a couple of students that actually devoted their careers
to human trafficking so I think that’s the icing on the cake,” she said.
“If we keep producing students who keep going to different states then
pretty soon we’ll have a nationwide effort that is going to be making a
difference, so I think that’s the best.”
Williamson said society functions under the concept that it is socially
acceptable to “throw away” women and children.
“To me there are no throw-away kids, there are no throw-away women, so
they have to be ours. We have the responsibility as a community, as a
society,” she said.
According to Williamson, society has a responsibility to uphold the
principles that “we are our neighbor’s keeper, and children are our most
precious resource.”
“If we truly believe all those things that we say we do, then we naturally
think that these are our kids and these are our women,” she said. “If we
really believe that there is not one throw-away child then we have to do
everything we can to get that child back and restore that child to some
type of emotional health.”
This message is forwarded to you by:
Thursday, October 1, 2009
random stories...
With joy and a little surprise, I watched on Monday as the room where we were holding our training started to fill up. New students from the Greek Bible Institute, 2 young women I had met the previous year at the youth conference, the niece of one of my good Greek friends, an older woman well respected in her church... I am reminded again that God can do more than I ask or imagine.
Our outreach yesterday went well also as we hosted a visiting team from International Teams in Russia. They were so eager to go with us into the brothels and speak with women in Russian. Our team spoke with Ava, an older Russian madame, who opened up more than she ever has to us about her loneliness, desperation, and fear. Our hope is that she can be connected with a Russian speaking group here in Athens for friendship and more!
I also spoke with a young woman from Romania, who insisted that she wanted to be there, and knew where she was coming. I side-stepped her defenses, and shared with her that I've read research showing that levels of post-traumatic stress are comparable for women coming out of prostitution as for men who've experience combat (see M. Farley's book on prostitution Prostitution, Trafficking and Traumatic Stress). It was then that she opened up about the stress she feels, and how she tries to block everything out but can't. I hope that she will call so that we can start meeting - but my guess is that she won't try to contact us because she has to keep going to survive. But who knows what will happen with our next encounter?
Our outreach yesterday went well also as we hosted a visiting team from International Teams in Russia. They were so eager to go with us into the brothels and speak with women in Russian. Our team spoke with Ava, an older Russian madame, who opened up more than she ever has to us about her loneliness, desperation, and fear. Our hope is that she can be connected with a Russian speaking group here in Athens for friendship and more!
I also spoke with a young woman from Romania, who insisted that she wanted to be there, and knew where she was coming. I side-stepped her defenses, and shared with her that I've read research showing that levels of post-traumatic stress are comparable for women coming out of prostitution as for men who've experience combat (see M. Farley's book on prostitution Prostitution, Trafficking and Traumatic Stress). It was then that she opened up about the stress she feels, and how she tries to block everything out but can't. I hope that she will call so that we can start meeting - but my guess is that she won't try to contact us because she has to keep going to survive. But who knows what will happen with our next encounter?
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Happy September!
Yesterday we had our staff meeting, this morning I had a phone call with Mathilde, my International Teams Europe leader and I was reminded that I am part of something BIG that God is orchestrating! We've had dreams of seeing outreach to women in prostitution in other parts of Europe, particularly in Cyprus, being Greek speaking.
I was thrilled to hear that Kelsey and Stacie, 2 Nea Zoi volunteers, on their vacation in Cyprus ended up meeting people who have been praying already that God would lead them to start reaching victims of trafficking. In the meantime, I received an email from Penny, (a friend of Myrto) who with her church want to do something to reach out to these women in their city. She asked us for help, training and support. In the meantime, our summer interns worked on updating and improving our training materials for volunteers, so we have stuff that's ready to go!
Wow... and that's only a sample of ways that things are coming together within International Teams and beyond in the global church to reach more of those most hurting all around the world. We are expecting visitors to the ministry this fall from the EU, Australia and North America, to see how they can either join us here or be catalysts in their location.
Once again, God does much more than I could ever expect or imagine - who knows what adventures lie ahead.
I was thrilled to hear that Kelsey and Stacie, 2 Nea Zoi volunteers, on their vacation in Cyprus ended up meeting people who have been praying already that God would lead them to start reaching victims of trafficking. In the meantime, I received an email from Penny, (a friend of Myrto) who with her church want to do something to reach out to these women in their city. She asked us for help, training and support. In the meantime, our summer interns worked on updating and improving our training materials for volunteers, so we have stuff that's ready to go!
Wow... and that's only a sample of ways that things are coming together within International Teams and beyond in the global church to reach more of those most hurting all around the world. We are expecting visitors to the ministry this fall from the EU, Australia and North America, to see how they can either join us here or be catalysts in their location.
Once again, God does much more than I could ever expect or imagine - who knows what adventures lie ahead.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Just a note from our break
I've spent the last weeks chasing Erik, laughing with Gianni, cooking, reading,camping, hiking, and biking instead of... Omonoia. I dropped by the other day to the office, and was shocked again by the brutality of the center of Athens. It always hurts to come back into the city center after time off, and again to feel afresh outrage at the walking death of heroin use, the misery of the homeless, the despair and loneliness of the stranger.
I don't feel stronger, wiser, or more inspired to face the challenges of the city. I wish I did. After all, I am leading the Nea Zoi team and isn't that what vacations are for- fresh inspiration? But I am reminded of the God of the Israelites who leads the way through the Red Sea, who guides by fire and cloud through the desert.
Maybe it's okay if I don't have a big plan for everything from next Monday, when we start up again?
I don't feel stronger, wiser, or more inspired to face the challenges of the city. I wish I did. After all, I am leading the Nea Zoi team and isn't that what vacations are for- fresh inspiration? But I am reminded of the God of the Israelites who leads the way through the Red Sea, who guides by fire and cloud through the desert.
Maybe it's okay if I don't have a big plan for everything from next Monday, when we start up again?
Thursday, July 30, 2009
i have felt like a pesky little fly when it comes to sandra. she makes it a point to separate herself from the other nigerian girls where we go for night outreaches. she works alone at the other end of the street and gives us polite but brief answers whenever we want to talk. every outreach, i find her & say hi, giving her space while making it obvious that i know her name & would love to talk.
last week, sandra finally inched her way over to our table. she was ready to ask some heavy questions & even brought up some content from a brochure we pass out. her hard exterior melted a tiny bit as she told us about working alone to avoid police & her trafficker - one of the other nigerian girls. she was still private, but still made a point to sit & talk with us for several minutes.
i can tell sandra is well-educated & has self-respect. but she is still struggling in an environment that gives her little room to breathe, if any at all. please pray for us to build trust that will bring change.
From Brit Kroll... her last story as a Nea Zoi intern.
last week, sandra finally inched her way over to our table. she was ready to ask some heavy questions & even brought up some content from a brochure we pass out. her hard exterior melted a tiny bit as she told us about working alone to avoid police & her trafficker - one of the other nigerian girls. she was still private, but still made a point to sit & talk with us for several minutes.
i can tell sandra is well-educated & has self-respect. but she is still struggling in an environment that gives her little room to breathe, if any at all. please pray for us to build trust that will bring change.
From Brit Kroll... her last story as a Nea Zoi intern.
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