Frontline Voices
Modern Day Abolitionists
The following women represent just some of the brave women thought leaders who are pioneering innovative models against trafficking, many drawing on their intimate experiences as survivors.
Ashoka.org
Hasina Kharbhih | President Impulse NGO Network | Meghalaya, India
"We used the process of letters, campaigns through emails and advocacy with law enforcements, government departments, NGOs, media to work as collective partners in combating trafficking. We also conducted trainings with different stakeholders to strengthen capacity building, especially with the law enforcing authorities."
"There exists a strong linkage between migration and trafficking in the region. There is an urgent need to launch a sustained campaign in addressing the vulnerability of migrants," said Kharbhih. (Tehelka)
Hasina Kharbhih is the creator of the Meghalaya Model, a tracking system that brings together the state government, law enforcement, media, and citizen organizations to address cross-border trafficking of children in Northeastern India. Her holistic model has been nationally and internationally recognized for its effective and comprehensive approach to trafficking issues.
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Beatrice Okezie | Co-founder Africans in America, Inc. and survivor | Nigeria
"When we formed and established the organization in 2001 after the prosecution of my case, very few people knew what we were talking about. I am glad that today, human trafficking is one of the top topics in the United Nations and around the world.
If genuine political people with big connections and clouts (which I do not have) could sincerely and aggressively lead this effort, the global war against human trafficking could be won, no doubt." (PulseWire)
When Beatrice Okezie was 13-years-old she was trafficked from Nigeria to the US to serve as a domestic worker in an affluent family's home. After nine years in captivity, she escaped, later prosecuting the traffickers who abused her. Today, she is an activist for labor rights, and regularly speaks out against slave practices.
accj.org
Keiko Otsu | Director, The Asian Women's Shelter HELP | Tokyo, Japan
"Women who overstay are treated as criminals. The only way they are going to end this trade is by getting the victims to testify against the men who brought them here, but they're too frightened. We should be helping the women, providing them with counseling and shelter, instead of arresting them." (JapanTimes)
Founder of Tokyo Asian Women's Shelter HELP, Keiko Otsu provides emergency housing relief to over two hundred women survivors of trafficking annually. An internationally recognized speaker, Ms. Otsu advocates for survivors' legal and medical rights, and has vocally criticized NGOs and government agencies for their lack of support of survivors of trafficking.
cbc.ca
Mu Sochua | Survivor and former Minister of Veterans' and Women's Affairs | Cambodia
"I negotiated with Thailand allowing trafficked Cambodians to go home rather than be thrown in jail as illegal immigrants. We have to speak out for our women. We will never understand the real situation from reading reports." (Asia Calling)
"You can't end trafficking until people have another way to live. Right now about five million men, women, and children make less than 50 cents a day—so 85 percent of our young women and girls volunteer to go out of their villages to look for work. Maybe 15 percent find jobs—where do the rest go? Faced with hunger, women sell their children into the sex industry." (The Wave Project)
One of Cambodia's leading human rights activists, Mu Sochua campaigned across national and cross-sectional lines to rally NGOs, law enforcement, and rural women to fight against human trafficking. In 1998, she became the Minister of Veterans' and Women's Affairs, and is one of only two women in the Cabinet.
PrajwalaIndia.org
Sunitha Krishnan | Co-founder Prajwala | India
"The sense that thousands, millions of children have been sexually violated and there's this huge silence about it, angers me. There's so much desensitization, normalization of exploitation, internalization of trauma...I don't know what their future is. We just take one day at a time. My effort is to see that their smile is restored every day." (Thirteen)
"One needs to ask questions in America also about why American people want small children to have sex with, and that if they don't get it in their own countries, they seek it out in countries like Sri Lanka and India and Philippines. You're about imposing sanctions on India, but have you also thought about imposing sanctions on your own country?" (PBS)
Dr. Sunitha Krishnan is a passionate activist in the anti-trafficking sector. An advocate for a system of mutual accountability for state authorities and the civil sector, she has established a range of services for those who have survived sex trafficking in India. She stresses that social work is not enough if the government is not supportive and actively involved in rehabilitation efforts.
PreventHumanTrafficking.org
Christina Arnold | Founder, Prevent Human Trafficking | USA
"We've partnered to provide microcredit loans and education in these towns [on the Thai-Burma border]. We've received news back that in one village, before the program was started, they had more than 17 families that had relatives or family members go into the sex industry, and other forms of exploitative labor, because they said that they just had no options, and people were desperate. They believed these talent scouts that said that they would find them good work in the city. Since this collaborative project has been in place, only one person has left the village. In a year, that's pretty outstanding." (Have Fun Do Good)
Christina Arnold spent her early life in South and Southeast Asia, where she saw the effects of human trafficking daily. In 1999, she established Prevent Human Trafficking, an organization that works to eradicate human trafficking in South and Southeast Asia and the United States.