Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Visit to India sparks crusade against human trafficking - Galesburg, IL - The Register-Mail

http://www.galesburg.com/news/x872947370/Visit-to-India-sparks-crusade-against-human-trafficking?zc_p=1- 

Source: The Register-Mail, Galesburg, IL 

By LISA COON
The Register-Mail
 Mar 19, 2012 GALESBURG —

Photos

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The board of directors of Asha For Life Community, a Galesburg-based organization that has formed to battle human trafficking and sex slavery, meets with a member of Rescue Foundation, a non-government organization working on helping those escape human trafficking in Mumbai, India. From left to right are Tommy Colclasure, president and CEO of Asha; Triveni Acharya, president of Rescue Foundation; Tom Colclasure, treasurer of Asha; Dr. Harsha Mehta, vice president of Asha; and Dr. Shrikant Mehta, secretary of Asha.

  
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GALESBURG —Each day, countless young girls and boys are at risk of being snatched off the streets of Mumbai, India, and other foreign places and forced into a life of slavery.
These individuals are bought and sold on the black market sex slave trade. They are victims of human trafficking.
Four Galesburg residents have come together to form an organization dedicated to providing relief to the victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.
Asha for Life Community was formally organized about a year ago by Tommy Colclasure, his father Tom Colclasure and Drs. Harsha and Shrikant Mehta.
“Dad and I travelled to Mumbai in 2007 and we just went to experience the ancient culture and sites,” said Tommy Colclasure, director of residential services for Bridgeway Inc. and member of Galesburg District 205 school board. “While we were there we came to appreciate the seriousness of living conditions there. The crushing poverty …”
Back in Galesburg, the Colclasures would discuss their travels with their friends the Mehtas, natives of Mumbai. That’s when the discussions would turn to the real problem facing Mumbai — human trafficking.
“We found that 1.25 million people are trafficked each year … hundreds of those a trapped in the sex slave trade,” Tommy Colclasure said.
And then the realization of how that could really happen anywhere began to sink in.
“To think that my then 12-year-old daughter could just disappear off the street one day, that was the catalyst,” said Tommy Colclasure, CEO/President of Asha.
From there, Asha became incorporated with the state of Illinois last May. The group works independently and partners with other organizations to help educate people about the consequences of human trafficking and the sex slave trade. The goal is to provide holistic healthcare, education, housing, employment training and opportunities.
The four recently traveled to Mumbai and spent time in the slums, the red-light district, visited safe houses and met with representatives of non-governmental organizations that are already involved in assisting the victims of human trafficking and sex slavery. They vetted several organizations and settled on working with three they felt provided the best services for victims. Those three NGOs are Apne Aap Women’s Collective, Rescue Foundation and Prerana.
“Now we can feel comfortable coming home to do fundraising and feel confident when we tell donors where their money goes,” Tommy Colclasure said.
Harsha Mehta, vice president of Asha, said the three NGOs in Mumbai overlap in regards to services but each one also specializes in a specific area whether it be rescuing and sheltering, assisting the children of those in the sex slave trade or dealing with the political aspect of fighting human trafficking.Some of the work, according to Tommy Colclasure, can be dangerous.
“Children of the red light district are being groomed to be the next pimps and prostitutes so those trapped in that life are thankful for these groups,” he said.
Harsha Mehta said the mindset of police in Mumbai is gradually shifting. They were told about a case of a prostitute telling police her daughter was being raped.
“The police inspector said, ‘you mean she’s being groomed,’ ” Harsha Mehta said. “That was a difficult thing to hear. Today, that attitude is slowly changing.”
When they visited a safe house for those rescued from the sex slave trade, Tommy Colclasure said he didn’t know what to expect.
“You think, ‘how can they have a soul left after going through what they’ve gone through?’ But what we saw were a lot of girls with lights in their eyes. They were learning a skill (sewing) … they were so proud to be learning a skill,” he said.
Harsha Mehta said it was uplifting to see.
“It made you feel that there was a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Tom Colclasure, president of Bridgeway Training Services and treasurer of Asha, said the visit really helped them get a sense of how the NGOs were working.
“When we visited the safe house we were more concerned with how (the rescued girls) were being treated,” he said.
The issue has become so important to the four that Tom Colclasure is retiring at the end of this month to dedicate efforts to Asha.
But it’s not just Mumbai the group is concerned about. Right here in the U.S. and Illinois, there is reason for concern, they say.
“I was pretty much oblivious to this until Tommy called me one day last spring,” Tom Colclasure said. “The more involved we get the more we find out what a huge problem it is even here.”
The eventual goal is to open an Asha (a Hindi word for “hope”) safe house in Mumbai.
Tommy Colclasure said they are available for talks if any organization is interested, and are ready to begin fundraising.
“We really hope the community comes out and supports us,” he said. “We are ready to step it up to full gear.”
For more information on Asha for Life Community, visithttp://ashaforlifecommunity.org, emailinfo@ashaforcommunity.org or call 343-1845.
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