How to teach a 5-year-old about human trafficking (no, really, how?!)

My 5-year-old is a sponge. And a detective. And, very often, I'm convinced, a creative genius. And she asks A LOT of questions. This morning between wake up at 6:00 and drop-off at 7:30, we covered such topics as plant upkeep, ocean health, oil pipelines, and, for the first time, human trafficking.

Keeping up with all the curiosity is at times
invigorating and exhausting!
Photo cred: Tiffany Tsang

Up until now, our daughter has known in vague terms what we do (we've discussed poverty and child protection, among other things) but this morning I tried to explain, in simple, 5-year-old terms, what human trafficking is. And probably butchered it. (Although I am now convinced that all researchers should have to explain their work to 5-year-olds to better understand their own research!)

Her first question after my short explanation was, "Do the people who get trafficked want to go?" OOF. Way to sucker punch, darling girl! But it did make me think of Lesson #9 from my 10K for 10 years post:

Trafficking and exploitation are a spectrum, with choice

and coercion playing varying and nuances roles

So how does one explain something so nuanced to children, who depend on black and white in their lives? There were so many possible things I could have said, and I opted for this: "Sometimes people think they're getting an opportunity to earn money and help their family, but when they get there, they've been tricked and are not paid and not allowed to go home or see their family." 

It's just the beginning of a conversation, one that will continue in many forms and over a long time. So I turn to you - how would you explain trafficking to a 5-year-old?

10K for 10 years

The original blog post can be found at http://chabdai.org/blog/2017/11/26/10k-for-10-years.

Ten years ago, I was working for a small child protection consulting company in Canada, writing policy and (slowly) learning how to apply all my theoretical undergraduate knowledge to the real world. I was also learning how to be married to my husband of 3 months, and we were excitedly saving and planning to leave the next year for our first overseas placement. Where and doing what we were unsure, we just knew we wanted to go!

Charlie and I got married in 2007
Photo cred: Michel Tremblay

I applied to every internship under the sun – in Africa, of course, because I had focused most of my International Development Studies on African development – and never heard back. In the midst of knocking, pounding, and kicking on every door, my boss sent me to represent the company at a conference on child trafficking and exploitation. And I met a certain woman named Helen Sworn.

I interviewed Helen for a concept note I was writing for my company and we hit it off. I learned about what Chab Dai was doing in Cambodia, and immediately gained a deep respect for their values and approach. Well, to make a long story short, it turned out Chab Dai needed someone to do exactly what I knew how to do – write Child Protection Policies!! And, very providentially, Chab Dai’s partner, Child Helpline Cambodia, also needed a volunteer, for which my husband was well suited.

We went to Cambodia for the first time in September 2008 and spent
6 months interning with Chab Dai.

When Charlie and I went to Cambodia for the first time in 2008, we were well aware that our experience in the anti-trafficking sector would either tear us down or light a fire that would not easily go out. Ten years on, we are both still very committed to this sector and to Chab Dai. Over the past 10 years, I have held multiple positions with this organization I love so dearly, as a volunteer, paid staff, co-founder of Chab Dai Canada, and now as a board member with Chab Dai International.

After grad school, we moved back to Cambodia in
2012 and have been here ever since.
Photo cred: Tiffany Tsang

What better way to celebrate 10 years than to run my first 10K marathon?! On December 3, I will run the Angkor Wat 10K and I’d like to invite you to donate $10 to Chab Dai for my 10K. As we all know, the fight for human rights is a marathon, not a sprint, and I hope the skills, passion, and knowledge I have gained in the past 10 years will propel me on for the next 10!

Post from my first ever run on May 24, 2017

To commemorate my 10 years of involvement in this sector, here are 10 things I have learned:

1. Human trafficking is not just sex trafficking;
2. Human trafficking is not just about movement, but about vulnerability;
3.  If we want to understand vulnerability, we need to understand injustice, poverty, and discrimination;
4. We can cause more hurt if we do not help in thoughtful ways;
5. I am not a savior and the solutions are so much bigger than me;
6. Survivors of trafficking are not homogenous, they are as diverse as all human beings;
7. The anti-trafficking sector needs more than “rescuers,” it needs researchers, social workers, writers, artists, psychologists, fundraisers, community workers, foster parents, business owners, etc.!
8. Victims/survivors want to be treated with respect, not pity, and we need to be careful about how, when, and why we tell their stories;
9. Trafficking and exploitation are a spectrum, with coercion and choice playing varying and nuanced roles;
10. If we want to end human trafficking, we need to fight for all human rights.

If you wish to join me in support of Chab Dai, you may do so by donating here.

Thank you!! 

5 Reasons We Do What We Do

This year we got 2 Thanksgiving dinners! One with dear friends, cozy chats, and amazing food, another at a good friend's restaurant, where we met new people, had equally amazing food, and almost got blown away by a tropical storm! Take a look at our stormy meal here!

Thanksgiving makes me reflect on the providence and blessing that has been our calling here in Cambodia, and recently got me thinking about all the many reasons we "ended up" here, doing what we do.

Sometimes when our parents tell people who don't already know us what we do, a common follow-up question is, "Do you fear for their safety?" And the answer is (mostly), "No, not really." And it's not because our parents are cavalier about our safety (there's a reason I don't show my Mom pictures of our whole family on a motorbike), but it's because the type of work we do in anti-trafficking is not really of the "unsafe" variety.

We're not directly doing investigations, rescue operations, or survivor aftercare. Charlie works in human resources, volunteer management, and organisational development, while I do a lot of research, strategic planning, and program support and development. 

We could be doing something else, somewhere else (yes, we are hoping our skills are transferable!) Why this? Why here? Why now? So here are 5 of the reasons we have chosen to do these things in anti-trafficking, in Cambodia.

One of the many gorgeous views from our apartment in Phnom Penh

1. We're not social workers, police officers, or counsellors

• In order to do direct work with survivors of trafficking, one usually needs a background in one of these or related areas. But there is a need for so many types of skills in the anti-trafficking movement. A movement needs all kinds of people to make change. So we have found a way to use our own skills to join the movement against exploitation, slavery, and abuse.

2. We are skilled, and are committed to using those skills to participate in change-making

• Through a long road of education, internships, mentoring, reading, and other work experience, we came to Cambodia and found we could apply skills learned elsewhere to contribute to the anti-trafficking mission. We love being part of something big, and we hope we're a part of making change in the world for the better.

3. We believe in doing with, not doing for

• One of our favourite writers is Bryant Myers, who wrote Walking with the Poor, and we are challenged to look at why and how we participate in development and human rights championing in ways that empower and strengthen our Cambodian colleagues. This often means doing more "behind the scenes" work, rather than frontline work.

4. We're passionate about how development and human rights are intrinsically linked

• We love discussions about human trafficking in the framework of human rights and development, and using our development background to understand the issues within the big picture of human capabilities. It is helpful to have people from many walks of life and work sectors come together to form a holistic view of community transformation.

5. We're excited about change and hope in Cambodia

• We don't know for sure how long we'll be in Cambodia, but we are both so in love with this country and find it incredibly exciting to be here during this time in its development. There is a lot to do, but there is also hope for the future, and it's exciting for us to be part of that.

We feel so thankful for being where we are, being challenged and contributing to something we believe in deeply.

Why do you do what you do? What are you thankful for?

3 Ways Rape and Trafficking Are Connected

When describing the work of Chab Dai and our members and partners to friends, family, strangers, and interested parties, people often ask for clarification as to why we work so much with rape victims. "What do rape and trafficking have to do with each other?" is a common wondering we get from people.

Valid question!

For many reasons, the issue of trafficking has been largely addressed and communicated about in a "silo;" but if we are going to eradicate trafficking, we need to look at it in the context of human rights, development, and dignity of the whole person and whole community. One of the ways we can do this is by beginning to understand how these issues are interconnected.

Hopefully, these three points will help you understand some of the the complexity of trafficking, and inspire you to learn more!

3 Ways Rape and Trafficking Are Connected*

1. 
In Cambodian society, once a girl is raped, she is seen to have lost her dignity and worth, and the damage is deemed irreparable. There is a Cambodian saying that goes, "Men are like gold, women are like cloth." Whereas gold is strong and does not lose value, cloth is easily stained. Even though it's not her fault, a raped woman will likely be unable to be honourably married, and often cannot even stay in her home community because of the stigma attached to being a victim of sexual assault. This becomes a major vulnerability factor that leads raped women to enter or be forced into the sex industry ("she is ruined anyway"), where she will likely be exploited and trafficked.

2. 
Some research has shown that victims of sex trafficking have a higher sense of control than do victims of rape. Although this may be deemed a false sense of control, stemming from the part the victim played in entering a situation of sexual exploitation, it still affects her state of mind and how resilient she may be in both the exploitative situation in which she finds herself and in the recovery process once she escapes. A victim of rape may enter the sex industry to regain a sense of control over her body, seeing as she is "already lost." 

3.
One of the push factors in sex trafficking is unequal gender relations, which includes many manifestations, such as girls being taken out school earlier to help provide for their families and the idea of girls being "fair game" for all male attention and expectations. It could be framed as a demand issue; sexual violence, such as both rape and sexual exploitation, could be seen as more acceptable (or less unacceptable) in a society where men and women are not seen and treated as equal.

* This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor is it the case for all victims of rape and trafficking, which is what makes trafficking such a complex issue! If you would like to read relevant research on these issues, write a comment below and I'll send you some interesting articles.

September 2014 Newsletter

The Importance of a Learning Spirit

Originally published at Along the Paths of Justice, the Chab Dai team blog

Charlie and I recently met with two social entrepreneurs from Australia who are interested in replicating their very successful social enterprise cafés in Cambodia as a transitional employment and training venture for survivors of trafficking and exploitation. So much of our conversation was inspiring and interesting I thought it should be shared!

Their original idea coming in was to run a four-story center, including large café, training center, and housing for their employees. Through our conversation, and the couple others they had had in the less than 24 hours since they arrived in Cambodia, their minds were already changing to adapt to the environment!

Although he now works for an NGO, the lead on this project is first and foremost a businessman, and knows this is where his strengths lie! And he really loved Chab Dai’s ethos of collaboration, and the idea of sticking to one’s core competencies. When he heard that we already have a number of aftercare program members, whose competencies lie in counseling, trauma recovery, and survivor reintegration, he quickly started to re-evaluated his plan, and started thinking about how to build a business that could support those organizations.

He was also told by a number of people that sit-down, higher end cafés have already saturated the market in Phnom Penh, but when he visited a well located gas station coffee counter and saw a hundred clients waiting for coffee at 8:00 a.m., he knew this model could be successful in other key areas of the city.

They also recognize Cambodia has the largest number of NGOs of almost any country in the world and prefer to join the cause as a socially minded business, rather than an NGO doing business. One of their top priorities is financial sustainability, and using business to prepare young survivors to integrate into mainstream economic activity.

This new social business idea is still in its nascent stages, but what I loved about meeting these two visionaries were their flexibility and willingness to learn in a new environment. They are excellent at what they do in Australia, but recognize they need to adapt their model, marketing, and plan to the needs of both the Cambodian market and the survivor group with which they want to work.

This is the type of collaboration and open-mindedness we love to see in our partners, and we are excited to see the direction that they will take when they finalize their plans.

Interested in Volunteering Abroad?

Interested in volunteering abroad?

I just spoke with a group that was visiting Chab Dai last week. They were a small group of 2 leaders and 4 students who were spending 3 months living in Vietnam and taking short trips to other nearby countries to learn about the different ways that they could live overseas. As part of our chat, after talking about what Chab Dai does, and the usual presentation, they asked about what my recommendations were for an individual looking to spend time overseas.

Since a lot of my interactions with expats is with volunteers, I thought I’d give a couple of points on how to get the most out of your overseas volunteering – from my own experience, obviously.

First, do something you’re good at. At Chab Dai, we’ve had two highly skilled volunteers this year, one retiree who worked with our staff on leadership and mentored our managers, and one young man who decided to volunteer with us before starting his PhD who has focused on various research projects. Both of these individuals came to us and asked if we could use their skills, and in both cases they have made a giant impact in our projects, simply because they asked if they could use their skills with us.

Secondly, stay a while. The biggest factor I’ve seen in generating interest about a volunteer has been  how long that person is willing to stay. Many people want to volunteer in the 1-3 month range, and while some of these people can have a positive effect on an organization, having someone come for 6 months is often far more appealing. The learning curve can be easier, the chance of burnout is probably lower, and it just gives the hosts a bit more wiggle room.

Finally, create a relationship. One big reason for hosting a volunteer is the hope that the volunteer will continue to spread news about the organization, stay in contact with them, find ways to fundraise, and to send other, worthwhile volunteers. The more you know an organization before you go abroad, the easier it will be to stay connected with them down the road. As a volunteer coordinator, I’ve developed a couple of key relationships with churches and volunteer organizations that have led to some fantastic volunteers, and I’m always looking for more ways to partner up.

So that’s my initial thoughts on things to consider if you want to go volunteer somewhere. Got any questions?

Charlie

Regarding Somaly Mam

You have probably read or heard about  this recent article that’s come out about Somaly Mam in Newsweek, and the subsequent resignation of Somaly Mam from her foundation. This seems like a chance for education about some of the aspects of trafficking in persons that we need to deal with here in Cambodia and in the anti-trafficking movement as a whole.

This is not an apology for the actions of Somaly Mam. I think it’s good that she’s being held accountable, but even the information holding her to account falls into certain traps that I see all too often with human trafficking stories, so I would like to explore the article a bit more.

To begin with, vulnerable people in Cambodia will often say what’s expected of them, or what they think people want to hear in order to help them. It’s something that’s true even in Canada (think of street kids with signs that say “travelling and ran out of money”). At Chab Dai, our research team, which is working with survivors of trafficking, has found that three, four or five years after the research started, their subjects are finally feeling they have the relationship to tell the truth about their past. It’s really important to keep in mind that when people are in a position of vulnerability, they will do what they need to do to keep safe. They are survivors.

One of the driving cultural forces in Cambodia is Chbab Srey (literally translated as Rules for Women), which gives instructions on how women should live. It can be a harsh practice, and once you’ve fallen out of the rules, you’re marginalized from the mainstream societal framework. It governs everything from how late a proper woman may stay out, to what they wear, to how they answer to their husbands, all the way to how they stay sexually pure. To really sum it all up, there’s a Cambodian proverb: Girls are like cloth, boys are like gold; when boys fall in the mud, it cleans off, when girls fall in the mud, they stay dirty.

The whole question about whether or not these girls’ stories are true or were true is wrapped up in cultural issues much larger than the Newsweek article implies. It’s not as simple as “Somaly told girls to lie and now they are trying to tell their true story.” There are a lot of reasons why a girl (or a girl’s parents) in Cambodia who is known to be a survivor of sexual abuse would want to change her story. Living down a history of sexual behavior (even unwanted) is difficult. There’s a reason that the Cambodian government has a law against sharing the names and identities of actual victims of human trafficking.

Which brings me to my second point: it’s the same media that made this happen that are now bringing you a new story asking “how could this happen”?

There’s been a long battle over the types of images and stories that are appropriate when discussing human trafficking. Some people would argue that only by telling the most shocking stories and using shocking images will people come to truly understand the scope and impact of what’s going on. Others (sadly, far, far fewer others) have argued for more educational and less emotional pieces on the subject. The whole reason that anyone ever noticed Somaly Mam was that she had exactly the emotional, shocking story that would sell.

Beyond that, I’ve argued before, and I’ll argue again, that the majority of the media reports on one single type of human trafficking story – of little girls kept in physical bondage for sexual exploitation. When the vast majority of the sellers of stories only want one type of story, it’s hard for me to feel much outrage at the woman who sold them the story they wanted.

Somaly Mam has sold her story to the media, the media sold her story to their readers, her foundation’s directors have sold her story to donors, celebrities have gained social capital and kudos for aligning themselves with her, and the focus has rarely been on truthfully telling what human trafficking entails, rather it’s often been about horror stories and shock and crying on camera. There’s a reason Somaly Mam has been as revered by popular media as she has been– she crafted a simple story (a proto-story, really) that perfectly represents the story as it exists in the minds of actresses and certain reporters.

In some ways, this article has gone full circle – without ever realizing it, our news media has taken someone known for her shocking story, who gained fame by selling an extremely sensational story to the mass media about human trafficking, and now they’ve gone and made an exposé about how her story was sensationalized and how it may not be completely true.

For me, a really great exposé would look at who’s really gaining here. Sure, Somaly’s been around the world a few times, and has gotten publicity, but my dream follow-up article would investigate how she was treated by, famous reporters, celebrity endorsers, and the members of her international board. Many people made a lot of money off Somaly Mam’s story. Discrediting her and decrying her actions, without investigating the rest of them is missing the forest for the trees.                

       

All I can do is pray

I sat at my kitchen table yesterday, across from my daughter, and, through tears, read another article about the more than 200 Nigerian girls abducted from their school to be sold into forced marriage.

I cried and my 2-year-old daughter asked, "Mama sad?" and kissed my cheek.

I cried because I CANNOT imagine the pain and helplessness the parents of those girls are going through, but I know how much I LOVE my daughter and it is an overwhelming, protective, intense love that I would die for without a second thought.

I cried because I work in this sector and some days I feel like there is more bad news than good.

I cried because I feel helpless in the face of this kind of evil, because I know this is not what Allah really requires of his followers, but some people use his name in vain for evil purposes.

We work and we fight and we try and some days, all we can do is pray. Because there is hope. I have to believe there is hope.

The Economics of Freedom

by Julia Smith-Brake

Originally posted at Along the Paths of Justice, Chab Dai's team blog.

Speaking of heroes, I recently got to meet one of mine. At the beginning of March, a few of us from Chab Dai were lucky enough to receive some coveted tickets to a Social Business Hub event to hear Professor Muhammad Yunus speak. Having had the opportunity (and squandered it!) a couple years ago to meet another development hero of mine, Amartya Sen, I was not going to chicken out this time!

The event was wonderful, it began with a panel discussion on the infrastructure of social businesses which included the different definitions of what a social business is, the biggest challenges that can arise and the kind of achievements you can expect in this sector. After a session of workshop presentations, Professor Yunus gave a thorough and superb talk emphasising the concept of freedom within economics. At the end of the event, a Cambodian social business acrobatic group, Phare, gave an amazing performance.

What I love about leaders such as Mohammad Yunus and Amartya Sen is their ability to link, so eloquently and well-thought out, the connections of economics to freedom. Sen’s theoretical model is based on helping individuals and communities achieve freedom. This freedom can be economic freedom, personal freedom, societal freedom and/or the freedom to be who they want to be. Ultimately, all development should be viewed through the lens of freedom. Yunus’ foundational logic for lending money to the poor, which led to the creation of microfinance itself, is essentially, “If I lend money to the poor myself, they won’t have to go to a loan shark, and they will be free!” So many of the poor stay poor or sink even more into a cycle of debt and poverty because of predatory lending practices; and though there is no such thing as a silver bullet in poverty reduction, Yunus saw microfinance as a powerful tool to combat the violence of these practices.

As an aspiring economic sociologist engaged in counter-trafficking, this is music to my soul. It also, in my opinion, promotes the thought that communities have within themselves the potential to end exploitation and trafficking, and the counter-trafficking community’s job is to come alongside them to enable and support their journey to freedom.

Yunus is an inspiring person; after all the challenges he has faced, he remains so positive and hopeful for the future. He truly believes this generation’s youth has the most power and potential in history, and keeps pushing the boundaries of innovative business and economics. At the end of his address, he said (paraphrased), “Poor people are like bonsai trees, there is nothing wrong with the seed, society just didn’t give them room to grow. We need to fundamentally change the system to give them room to grow.”

I am a big believer in “doing with” in development, not “doing for,” and Yunus’ ending words inspire me. Fighting poverty and violence not only requires giving the poor and the oppressed space to grow and achieve their potential, but also working tirelessly to change a system that accepts the status quo and allows a continuous cycle of violence and poverty in the world.

AsiaLife Covers Chab Dai's Director!

AsiaLife magazine recently did a Q&A with Helen, Chab Dai's Founder and International Director and I thought it was fantastic! Not only do I think Helen is awesome, but the article was written by a friend - so I'm totally not biased ;)

Helen is so articulate about the issues around human trafficking. At the office, we talk a lot about the complexities of multiple vulnerability factors, issues of dignity in the media, and how best to address this injustice holistically and collaboratively. She has spent over a decade working in this sector, and thinking through all these complex cross-cutting themes.

Please go read the whole article, it is great! But for now, I thought I would share one of my favourite excerpts:

Is the increased attention on anti-trafficking helpful?I think there is a danger point that trafficking has become the sexy issue. You get a huge influx of money, attention, organisations, but if that is not coordinated, it can create chaos. We have seen a lot of people coming to address this, but they’re not necessarily doing it in a collaborative manner, and they don’t necessarily understand a lot of the complex issues within the Cambodian culture, within the history.

People are led by their heart on this issue, but sometimes they forget to bring their brain with them. You get lots of well meaning people, but they don’t really know what they’re doing. And that is a huge risk factor. A lot of people start working on this issue and get paralysed by emotion. Some people may say I’m hard-headed, but what Cambodia doesn’t need is a lot of emotional wrecks. They need people who are able to strategise for responses, to support them, to help them develop policy.

Along the Paths of Justice

One of the links from our blog is for our Chab Dai team blog. The members of the international team take turns writing about issues having to do with human trafficking or human rights. It's sometimes program-related, but mostly it's a space where we can share our thoughts as counter-trafficking practitioners and researchers.

From time to time, I will share the same post on both this blog and the Chab Dai blog, but in case you want to read some of my old posts on Along the Paths of Justice, you can do that here.

Also check back in the next week as I will have a post published on my recent encounter with Professor Yunus of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank!