I will email you, but wanted to just reply – you should get in touch with the International Institute Human Trafficking Project. You may not be able to work with victims, but they may either have opportunities for you, or may be able to connect you where there are opportunities.

Alternately, you don’t need to volunteer with an organization! There are a lot of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Connecticut, and those who are not documented are especially vulnerable to being preyed upon by traffickers. You could go to this website and order or print out resources to help people learn about human trafficking.

I’ll email you also, but good luck! Please let us know what you end up doing!
Sarah

Sarah

Gary Levvis

Have you considered linking organizations who address human trafficking by the nature of their work (i.e. child service organizations) with those who exist for the sole purpose of addressing human trafficking? I’m hoping to see those types of links made. Both do such different work and have such different experiences, and can learn a lot from each other. If they don’t link and coordinate, I fear that slavery will continue unabated!

I’ll post your organization on the site. I looked at your bio, and your work is fascinating.

I’m also interested in what type of education you do beyond the website. It looks like your organization is a foundation – do you provide grants for education or provide in-kind “grants” to do education yourselves? It’s not entirely clear from your site.

Best,
Sarah

Thank you for checking out our blog. Actually, Saudia Arabia and Iran, both of which base their legal systems on shariah law in different forms, I believe, have been identified by the U.S. State Department as countries not complying with the minimum standards to address human trafficking. This website has the list of countries and how they are doing with complying with the minimum standards to address human trafficking – http://1.usa.gov/veoIeb.

The system of government in the U.S. is also well equipped to deal with human trafficking in theory, but due to the nature of the crime (involving lots of power and money), few countries are addressing it very well.

Thanks for your comment!

I don’t know that it has changed very much in the past couple of years. It is estimated that it continues to grow. New laws continue to be adopted in states in the U.S., and by different countries, trying to assist victims and prosecute perpetrators. You would probably have to look at a longer timeline to actually see how slavery has changed. It has existed in this country for hundreds of years – it never went away after slavery was abolished here in the U.S. We just haven’t called it slavery. We’re calling it that again, but that doesn’t mean it’s new.

I’m not sure of what grade you’re in, but you might want to look at the Trafficking in Persons Report. It’s a long government report, and if you have a hard time reading it (because it can be confusing), perhaps a parent or teacher can help you look at it. It can be found here: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/

I’m sorry I can’t be of much help – your question is a difficult one simply becuase slavery has changed over a long period of time, not just over the last few years. Please let me know if you have any more questions – I can try to help you find other information.

Take care,
Sarah