Secret Diary Writer needs your help…

Dear reader,

This week, I have a favour to ask…….

As a charity organisation we are not funded by government / the EU or any other body for that matter. This means we rely totally on the generosity of our supporters to keep our campaigns alive and growing.

A lovely chap in New Zealand is going to run a marathon collecting money for charity along the way (he is hoping for $10000). He has listed a number of big, well-know charities on his website and is asking people to vote who should get the cash. One of the charities you can vote for is (dadada) STOP THE TRAFFIK!

The problem is that not many people are clued up to the scale and size of trafficking so when it comes to voting and funding, trafficking (despite being a mass violation of human rights)  always gets overlooked. PLEASE HELP!

STOP THE TRAFFIK need that money! With that much money we can:

-       set up community groups to research trafficking potential in their area

-       expand the businesstravellers.org website which is seeing a growing number of  tip-offs leading to the rescue of victims of trafficking

-       finalise the global webcast (a resource filmed from the UN in New York. It will be translated into 6 languages and aimed at raising awareness among communities who are at risk and in schools where other people can act as the voice of those who are victims)

-       campaign for the eradication of child trafficking in the cocoa industry 

If you have a second, PLEASE check out this website and get STOP THE TRAFFIK some votes! http://thekiwimillionaire.com/

THE DEALDINE IS IN 3 DAYS….

Get voting and send the link to as many people as you can!

Thank you for helping STOP THE TRAFFIK remain a force fighting traffikers

Victoria Kuhr

ipods and AK-47s

Over recent years there has been a steady rise in the use of children in war zones throughout the world. A number of conflicts involve trafficked children.

Sierra Leone, a country situated on the West coast of Africa, is slowly recovering after an 11 year civil war fought between the government and the rebel group RUF (Revolutionary United Front).  The forcible trafficking of children during this war was widespread, leaving a legacy one can only imagine.

Up to 10,000 boys and girls were involved in the conflict.  They were mainly between 8 and 14 years old and abducted from their villages.  Street children, many of whom lost their entire family in the conflict, were especially vulnerable to being kidnapped and trafficked.  Their experiences varied according to gender BUT both suffered horrendous abuses.

Boys 

In an attempt to control the children and turn them into fearless warriors, boys were forced to consume large volumes of alcohol and had gunpowder and cocaine sprinkled into their wounds.  This had two major effects: it would make them dependant on their trafficker and it would make them addicted to drugs and as a consequence easier to control.  Boys were also forced to kill their own family members, if you can kill your family you can kill anybody (or so the twisted logic goes).  The list of abuse goes on…

Girls  

Known as ‘bush wives’, girls as young as 8, were forcibly married to commanders based in the Sierra Leonean wilderness.  These girls were used as sex slaves and were at the mercy of their ‘husband’. 

The Sierra Leonean war may be over, but the battle still goes on.  Today, all over the world, children are being trafficked into war zones in countries like Sri Lanka, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

If you remember one thing, remember this.  At the same time a 9 year old child in your neighbourhood is fiddling about with his or her Ipod, another child is fiddling about with their AK-47. 

Slumdog Millionaire

This weekend, I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. What a film. I was both impressed and astonished by what I saw, and not only because Slumdog Millionaire is not, repeat not, the ‘feel-good film’ that the posters say it is. Instead of the humorous, cheesy movie I was expecting, with perhaps a good song or two thrown in for good measure, I sat up to the terrifying issues that Slumdog raised about slum life in an urban metropolis. Harried on all sides by thugs and criminals, Jamal’s struggle to live freely turns into a fierce fight for survival.

There are some who worry that the film portrays Mumbai poorly. In particular, the issue of the kidnapping racket at the beginning of the film has caused a real stir. But the shocking reality is that Mumbai currently is one of the biggest destination cities for trafficked women and children in the world. Women and children are trafficked into Mumbai in a number of ways, for a number of reasons. Highest among these ranks the sex industry and forced domestic or factory labour. Mumbai’s slum population is teeming with migrants from rural parts of India. Poor, illiterate, and desperate to earn a living that will support dependant relatives at home, the empty promises of traffickers can lure the unsuspecting into enslaved conditions just the way we see Jamal and his brother tempted by Coca Cola into the hands of their kidnappers.

It isn’t easy to consider these terrible realities – which certainly do exist – in a criminal underworld in which the poorest of the poor are trapped. But to its credit, Slumdog Millionaire has created the opportunity for vital conversation and discussion about the invisible crime of human trafficking. Awareness is the first step towards action. So please tell us what you thought about the film!nt to see

The American Dream

Check out STOP THE TRAFFIK’s new public service announcement released in the USA this month. Remember trafficking affects every town and every neighbourhood. Report suspicious behaviour to your local police, and visit STOP THE TRAFFIK’s website for more information about how you can get informed and get involved.

Made You Look

We would like to wish a very happy new year to all our STOP THE TRAFFIK blog readers! We are glad you will be supporting us in 2009 – and with your help we hope to do even more to raise awareness and encourage action against human trafficking.

At the end of last year, Amnesty International published the image you see below. A stark reminder of the treatment trafficked people are subjected to, and the horrific nature of the crime.

In 2009, STOP THE TRAFFIK wants to harness the power of images to help convey the crime of human trafficking to a broader audience. Please send us your videos, songs and photos. We want to appeal to YOU! Let 2009 be a year of change!

Closure of the Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Team

It has recently been announced that the Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Team will not receive government funding after April 2009. STOP THE TRAFFIK sees this as a major setback in UK efforts to bring offenders to justice and rehabilitate the victims of human trafficking. The decision to close the Team has been criticised by members of parliament, including Chris Huhne MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs and Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary.

It is estimated that as many as 4000 women are victims of trafficking into the UK for sexual exploitation at any one time. Without the vital activity of the Met’s Human Trafficking Team there will be no unit in London dedicated to the prosecution of human trafficking gangs and protection of the victims.

The Met’s Human Trafficking Team was created in March 2007 and has been very successful over the past eighteen months. In fact, the announcement of the team’s forthcoming closure comes soon after a landmark judgement was made, in which six men were awarded a combined total of 52 years prison sentence for the trafficking of a Slovakian teenager into prostitution in Britain. The government’s decision not to continue funding has seriously undermined their claim that combating human trafficking is a key priority.

We The People’s Film Festival, UK

 

On 24 November 2008, STOP THE TRAFFIK is pleased to announce the opening of the ‘We The Peoples’ Film Festival, taking place at selected venues around London.

The festival will be promoting the work of the United Nations, and other international development agencies, focussing on the three pillars of freedom: freedom from want, freedom from fear, and freedom to live in dignity.

Victims of human trafficking are sometimes deprived of all three of these freedoms. In particular, two films that will be screened during the festival will explore the deprivation of freedom undergone by victims of human trafficking. The House of Sharing, from Hein Seok tells the story of Korean women sold into slavery by the Japanese army during the Second World War; and Kidnapped Childhood, by Claes Herrlander discusses the plight of children running from kidnappers in Uganda.

Come along to the ‘We The Peoples’ Film Festival to raise awareness about international human rights, and celebrate your freedom!