Source: Augusta Gazette
By Kent Bush
Posted May 19, 2012 @ 12:07 PM
Augusta, Kan. — It is impossible to have a small human trafficking problem.
If the problems exists, even one instance is one too many. Human trafficking occurs when people are forced to work with no pay and are unable to leave on their own.
When most people find out that human trafficking exists, they are inspired to help but often don’t know how.
That was the case for one Andover woman. But she didn’t give up when no avenue existed to help. She paved her own road.
That was the case for one Andover woman. But she didn’t give up when no avenue existed to help. She paved her own road.
It was a little more than a year ago when a newspaper story about a trial in Wichita began the process that has turned Jennifer White’s life upside down.
White read the story about a pimp and a customer who bought and sold a 13-year-old girl for sex. She knew bad things happened, but she had no idea how prevalent the problem was.
“I had no idea it involved children,” White said. “That is about how old my oldest daughter is. That story took hold of me.”
Immediately, White began the search for some way to help. Even though there were law enforcement and other government programs that work in the area, funding was an issue and they had no way to raise extra money because of red tape.
White worked with different groups to find out what needs existed. Based on those needs, a fundraising campaign began. The group used social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out. On Twitter they used the hashtag #ICT-SOS. The ICT represents the FAA name for Wichita Intercontinental Airport and the SOS stood for Street Outreach Services.
From that process, ICT-SOS was born.
“We will be a 501c3 organization soon,” White said. “It is hard to believe that a little over a year ago I was a mom living in Andover and a part-time photographer. Things have really changed.”
Beyond helping run ICT-SOS, White and her family recently moved from their suburban home into a full-time position as house parents at Carpenter’s Place where they help victimized girls get their lives back on track.
Human trafficking is still a big part of what White fights against.
“Two of the three girls I am currently working with were rescued from that situation,” White said. One of the girls was exploited for sex due to poverty that left her few options. Another was controlled by a pimp and forced into the sex industry. “These girls are so strong. They just need that support system to deal with the trauma they endured and to help them move forward.”
White said at Carpenter’s place the girls get their driver’s license, and work toward both education and employment goals.
“We work with them to set goals when they first arrive,” she said. “Then we help them achieve those goals.”
White said she has had one high school graduate and two girls receive GEDs. One of the girls is trying to get into nursing school and another begins junior college this summer.
White said she has had one high school graduate and two girls receive GEDs. One of the girls is trying to get into nursing school and another begins junior college this summer.
The girls stay in fully furnished apartments and when they successfully leave the program they get to take all of the furnishings and housewares with them to give them a head start on their new independent lifestyle.
“My program is for 18 to 24 year old girls but in the other part of the Carpenter Place program they take in girls as young as six,” White said.
Prostitution only one of the problems
Another program that has been established to help in the fight against Human Trafficking is the Butler County Justice Alliance.
Ron Chiles said this group is a resource program.
“We are building a bridge between the people who have a heart to help and the programs that are actively involved in finding solutions,” Chiles said.
He said the group is just beginning to see the kind of impact it can have both locally and across the globe. World-wide, most of women and children taken into human trafficking are used in the sex industry.
One of the early projects the Justice Alliance helped with served those affected by one of the other form of modern-day slavery.
Chiles said in Ghana near Lake Volta – the world’s largest man-made lake – the fishing industry is a major employer. Not all of those jobs are safe or easy to find people to fill.
Some fishermen in the area take advantage of the orphan problem caused by the AIDS epidemic and purchase young boys to do menial tasks and even dangerous jobs like swimming into the depths to try to free fishing nets tangled in submerged trees. They also use these children simply to save on expenses.
“We sent a team to Ghana to work for a week in an orphanage there,” Chiles said. “You have to be well-trained and very careful when you interfere with people in this lifestyle. It can be very dangerous for the people trying to rescue the slaves.”
Stephen McVay of El Dorado was part of the team that worked with a group of eight boys who have been rescued from slavery on the fishing boats of Lake Volta. He said the team worked with the boys at The Fathers House and even taught them about God and how to become disciples.
“Usually their mothers sell them into slavery when their fathers pass away and there is no money to take care of them,” McVay said. “They can’t afford to feed them anymore.”
McVay said the time he spent with the boys rescued from slavery was life-changing.
“It instilled a personal drive in me to help free people who are still being held as slaves today,” McVay said. “The poverty there was terrible. The solutions won’t be easy but I think we have to help.”
“Slavery is an economic crime,” Kevin Bales, co-Founder of Free the Slaves said during a 2010 speech. “People do not enslave people to be mean to them. They do it to make a profit.”
Some of the other forms of slavery in the modern world include agriculture and military work – and in rare cases, organ donation.
The Justice Alliance offers training to people who want to do their part to help fight all kinds of human trafficking.
One of those training opportunities will come this summer when the Justice Alliance takes a group of volunteers to Pennsylvania to study at Mercy Ministries.
“I was completely ignorant about this problem about a year ago,” Chiles said. “We are working with the people who have discovered the problem and want to help stop it. There is a lot of important work to be done and a lot of people willing to help. We want to help bring those two together.”
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