FREEDOM RESOLUTIONS

She lives in cage. I live in a house. She gets no sleep. I slept in today. She is drugged. I choose what I put in my body. She is made to wear clothes that degrade her. I shop on the high street. She has no choice. I choose daily. She is enslaved. I am free.

This doesn’t make sense. Let’s begin to bridge the gap. For the 31 days of January, give something up – a daily coffee or chocolate bar, eating out for the month, clothes shopping, buying magazines, etc…(be creative!) and donate the money you have saved to International Justice Mission (http://www.ijmuk.org/), a fantastic organisation that works worldwide to free slaves (and that, incidentally, this blog featured in November – have you had a look at the articles?). We have 40 people signed up through the Belfast Abolition Collective already: will you join us?

Last year, we held a ‘Countdown to Christmas’ during which people gave things up and gave the money they saved to Love146. Some of us extended it to a 4 month period which taught us so much. It was eye-opening to see how we spend money on useless things; as well as to see how they become part of the furniture of our luxurious lives. For me, it was a shocking wake-up call about how unjust it is that my life is so cushioned in luxury, so ‘easy’, so free when those of others are so very far from it. Whilst ‘resolutions’ like these are not the sole solution to problems like slavery, they are useful in raising funds for organisations fighting to restore value to the lives of our fellow human beings – and dare I say it, they are beneficial to us, too.

Do join us. New Year’s resolutions are hard to keep: this is for 30 days, and is for a fantastic cause. If you are joining us sometime through the month of January, you are very welcome. If you can even give a week, do it!

At the end of the month, click here to donate the money you save to IJM.

IJM – Final post

We’re drawing to the end of the November focus on International Justice Mission.  We really hope you’ve been challenged and inspired as you’ve read more about what we’re doing around the world.  Perhaps the hardest thing about the kind of issues that IJM works with, is continuing to make them relevant to our everyday life and experiences.  It’s not so much something that happens to us, as it is a decision that we make to keep living lives aware of the cruel reality some people experience at the hands of others – whether that’s in committing to learn more through reading and talking, or committing our whole careers to pursuing justice for those enslaved and oppressed and everything in between.

So, how do we keep pursuing this?  Well, we start with the next step – and then the next, and the next…

Click here to find some resources (under Downloads on the right) to continue your learning around these issues.  The reading list includes a section on trafficking.

Continue the conversation with your friends and those around you – tell the stories you’ve heard.  In doing so, you’ll inspire more people to join the movement.

Pray for IJM – our investigators, lawyers and social workers – and for those we seek to rescue like Jyoti and Mien.  Go to www.ijmuk.org to sign up for regular updates to help you pray and share stories more effectively.

Hold an event to get more people in your networks inspired and involved (click here for ideas) as well as to raise funds for the work.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to tell us so we can support you in any way we can (contact ruth.cooke@ijmuk.org), and we can be encouraged by all those who are a part of fighting slavery today.

IJM Part 4 – Hope is Alive and Well

There are a few things which we hope for when communicating about the work of International Justice Mission around the world: we want to highlight issues of slavery, oppression and injustice so that more and more people will get involved in the solutions, we want to encourage listeners and readers to be a part of the work of IJM specifically through prayer, giving and action.  But, perhaps most importantly, we want to inspire people about the changes we are seeing around the world, about how we have seen God at work in lives and communities, and the hope that this gives which, we believe, is absolutely fundamental to this work.

This hope can be seen in individual cases: for example, during the summer, after conducting undercover investigations, IJM assisted officers from the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation with an operation to rescue four underage girls who had been trafficked to a bar for sexual exploitation. Suspected pimps and managers were arrested on the night of the operation and IJM lawyers are developing a legal case against the suspected traffickers.  The young women rescued in the anti-trafficking operation are living in an aftercare home, and IJM social workers will continue to provide trauma-focused counselling and to support them as they rebuild lives of freedom.  As well as that, after further government investigation, authorities issued a petition to permanently close the bar. IJM Manila Field Office Director, Jojo Lacanilao, looked on as police officers chained the door closed. He explained the significance of the event: “Permanently closing this brothel that fronted as a bar reflects a serious commitment to end trafficking in the Philippines. And the heavy lock on that door is a clear message: Traffickers have no business in our community.”

The Philippines National Bureau of Investigations, Department of Labor and Employment, local police and IJM staff were present for the public and permanent closure of a bar that trafficked and sold underage girls for sex.

Communities are being changed!  This became even more evident through our research in Cebu in the Philippines.  With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we wanted to test our belief that when laws are enforced, children are protected from sex traffickers.  So, in partnership with the local government of Cebu, IJM lawyers, social workers and investigators, were involved in training police and prosecutors, assisting with rescue operations, helping local organisations strengthen their aftercare and representing victims in the court system.  After four years of this work, independent researchers found 79% fewer children being sold for sex in Metro Cebu, as well as over 220 victims being rescued and 90 suspected perpetrators being arrested.

We’re really excited about these changes.  To read more about this and to continue being inspired, go to http://ijmuk.org/projectlantern.

What is human trafficking?

Excellent video from the guys at We Are Chapter One. What would your answers have been?

IJM Part 3 – A Look at the Rescue Process

Today, we want to tell a story which shows the different stages involved in rescuing someone who is a victim of trafficking – it also shows that it is not a short or easy process.  It’s the story of Mien.

Mien was trafficked into the sex industry at the age of 14.

IJM investigators first discovered Mien during covert operations in Svay Pak, an area of Cambodia where locals and westerners would openly parade the streets with children purchased for sex.  It took IJM two years of gathering firm evidence of child trafficking and then persuading the authorities to act, but the raid eventually took place, freeing 37 children from the horrors of forced prostitution.

Sadly, Mien was not rescued. She had been told by the brothel keeper that she was to hide if the police ever came, because they would put her in prison. As a result, Mien was never found during the raid and her life continued to be one of abuse.

But IJM did not give up on finding Mien.  Three years later, IJM found her in another brothel in Phnom Penh with several other children, having been re-trafficked.  IJM brought in the local authorities to raid the brothel and Mien, along with 27 other victims, was finally set free.

After her release, Mien went to an aftercare home where she received counselling and could begin the process of healing from the abuse in a safe and loving environment.  It also offered the opportunity to receive an education and vocational training.

Mien underwent a tailoring course which now allows her to work part-time in a tailor’s shop, thus offering her a legitimate income and the chance to be successful, independent and free. She also works at the aftercare home’s SilkWorks Vocational Centre, which employs former trafficking victims and produces beautiful silk pillow covers.

Today, Mien is a remarkable woman who has since got married.

When not working as a tailor, Mien volunteers at Rahab’s house.  Once the brothel building where Mien was first violated, Rahab’s house today is an incredible community centre, serving the neighbourhood with literary classes, health care, a school and other vital services and hosting community activities for children and families.  As part of this, Mien works with young children at risk of being trafficked into the sex industry.

Following her release and with the support of IJM, Mien – along with eight other victims – testified in court against the individuals who had exploited her for their own profit.  Thanks to IJM lawyers, the five perpetrators were successfully convicted for their crimes.

Trafficking in Svay Pak has now changed for good.

The main thoroughfare of Svay Pak used to be jammed with brothels in which hundreds of young girls were on open sale to sex tourists and foreign paedophiles.  But today there are no more brothels lining the village’s main street.  Now, there is Rahab’s House and SilkWorks; once a place of abuse and exploitation, today the area is a beacon of hope.

Mien’s story demonstrates well the absolute necessity and importance of every stage of our work – putting together correct and sensitive information through investigations, carrying out the actual rescue in conjunction with local authorities, intensive and sustainable aftercare enabling those rescued to go on and make a living, and lastly prosecuting the case through the criminal justice system.  If convictions are secured, countless others are saved from the trauma of being enslaved by those same perpetrators and a clear signal is sent, letting others know that such exploitation will no longer be tolerated in these areas.

To find out what you can do to be a part of this work, e-mail ruth.cooke@ijmuk.org or check out www.ijmuk.org for more information.

 

IJM Part 2 – Who are we?

As we’re focusing on global agency, International Justice Mission (IJM), this month, we thought we’d tell you a little bit of the background of how IJM came to be, who we are and what we do.

When and Why?

IJM was founded in 1997 by Gary Haugen, a committed Christian who worked for the US Department of Justice and was seconded to the United Nations as director of investigations following the genocide in Rwanda.  It was during this time that Gary realised that it is possible to use existing national laws to rescue, represent and protect people who are the victims of illegal conduct, such as forced prostitution or bonded labour.  Gary came to the realisation that we serve a God who is passionate about righteousness and calls us to follow his character of justice.

Who?

We are Christians who are endeavouring to fulfil our part of God’s biblical mandate for justice – alongside local churches which support us through lending time, talents, prayers and finances.  Since our inception in 1997, we have rescued thousands of victims of violent oppression and have seen real change in communities around the world.

The second answer to ‘who?’ is those we seek to help.  People like the 500 people who were rescued from a brick kiln in Chennai, India in April this year – IJM’s largest raid to date.  The majority of these people were being used as slaves in the brick kiln and the others were dependents of the workers.  Now, all of them are living in freedom and aftercare is ongoing in order to assist them in adjusting to life outside the kiln.  It’s also people like Namusisi and Rose in Uganda who were assisted by IJM in reclaiming land stolen from them after the death of Namusisi’s husband.

What?

We work in various areas such as child prostitution, trafficking, bonded labour and police brutality among other things.   IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems – we’ll be looking at how each of these stages works later in the month.

Where?

We have 14 field offices carrying out casework, spread out across Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and Latin America.  We also have partner offices in the UK, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands aiming to raise awareness and support for our work.

And now IJM UK have opened a regional office in Belfast.  We would love to share further with anyone interested in hearing about us – so please get in touch at ruth.cooke@ijmuk.org!  Or come along to a music night in Rumours, Elmwood Avenue on 7^th November at 9pm, to hear more.

Click here to see some of our most recent stories of the work we’re doing around the world.

(Check back here on the 10th for Part 3!)

IJM Part 1 – Jyoti’s Story

Let me tell you Jyoti’s story.

Jyoti is from Asia and grew up with a father who was an alcoholic.  He was so desperate that he sold her into bonded labour to pay a debt – as a result, she was forced to make cigarettes as a slave.  But Jyoti managed to escape the  situation and went to the local train station to try and find her father.  On the train she saw three ladies making tea, and asked for their help.  They offered her a cup of tea.

When Jyoti woke up, she found herself in a strange building; her tea had been drugged and she had been unashamedly sold into a brothel in Mumbai.  She refused to comply with what her captors wanted for weeks, declaring it was her body.  However, she was beaten, starved and tortured…so eventually, she began to service customers – 7 to 15 a day.  She was locked into the brothel.

I know that you will have heard stories such as Jyoti’s before – especially if you are a reader of Modern Day Slavery.  You’ll know the facts and statistics.  So, I don’t write this to shock you or to manipulate you.  I write this so that I can tell you the end of the story – because it is at the end of the story that we find hope.  We find that God is at work.  Where there is darkness, His people are bringing light.

So, back to Jyoti.

An investigator from International Justice Mission (IJM) came to hear of Jyoti’s story and so compiled it together with documentation using national laws and the local magistrate agreed to instruct the police to carry out a raid of the brothel along with IJM.  Jyoti was freed, along with many other girls from the brothel who were being forced into prostitution.  A year after being in aftercare and undergoing counselling, she was brave enough to go back to the brothel with the IJM team to show where other girls were being held against their will, in tunnels under the building.

That’s the kind of work that IJM does.  Jyoti is the kind of person we seek to help.

Modern Day Slavery is focusing on IJM during the month of November so we’ll be sharing a few stories and some facts in order to continue inspiring all those passionate about seeing justice brought about in the world.  So, look out for our next post in a few days!

In the meantime, click here to find a short clip entitled ‘Overcoming Injustice’ and here to start following us on Facebook – let’s get started!