It’s About the Girl

This is Andrea and I am writing this from Belgrade, Serbia.  For the past year and a half, I have developed a bond with one girl who is part of our JewelGirls program.  Some of you who are reading this know whom I am referring to.  She’s kind, quiet, strong, broken, loving, and protective.  I talk about her often.

 

We have an unexplainable connection that started one night when a police officer yelled and screamed while they searched for drugs in the abandoned house where she lived.  I was there doing some outreach to try to reach these street girls and bring them to our program. She held my hand, but I should have been the one taking care of her.

 

She’s gone through a lot during the past year, things I can’t really mention. But, you can imagine the life of a teenage girl living on the streets with few options to support herself.  Then, she was arrested.  Accused of something that I am not sure she did.  Regardless of her innocence, I know she deserves both my love and the support of our program. 

 

I don’t know where she is right now.  One person said she is in an adult prison.  Someone else claims she is in a juvenile rehabilitative facility for girls.  One said she is in a group home here. Anything is better than being on the streets where pimps, johns, and traffickers have taken advantage of and exploited her for so long.  But, why can’t anyone tell me where she really is? During the past two weeks, I have searched, begged, fought, screamed….I want to see her.  And, most important, she needs to know that someone cares this much for her. 

 

I harassed other NGO partners to tell me where she was, called social workers, tried to go to the prison myself, tracked down her vacationing lawyer, talked to bored burocrats, begged a judge.  Where is she right now?  When can I see her? 

 

 I think she is in prison because the “system” here is slow and cold. It’s a system that sighs and says there are no other options, and so a possibly innocent child is left in prison. A child who was already acquitted. A child who was ignored by the system when she herself was a victim of trafficking.  Everyone who is supposed to support her is on vacation. Those who should be her advocate are slow.  Most of them don’t like me too much right now.

 

I want each and every girl who enters FAIR Fund’s program to know that we are her advocates, her confident, and friend.  Our relationships are long-term, deep, and motivating for change. We are building safe spaces for girls, mobilizing new generations of advocates, and emboldening communities with the tools to assist girls  – even those who seem to almost disappear before our eyes. Invisible girls.

 

When “my girl” arrives to the juvenile girls’ home (where I think she is headed), I will be waiting.  But, I won’t be waiting alone. We will bring JewelGirls to her – all of our workshops, the jewelry, the patience, and educational support. That is the flexibility and compassion that I think has made our program strong. It’s why we must continue. It’s all waiting for her.

 

Trafficking in the District

Pimps were everywhere.

That is the first thing that I noticed when I arrived with a colleague in downtown D.C. late in the night last week to conduct outreach to prostituted teen girls. And, the police seemed to be out in large numbers, too.

So, if it’s so easy for us to find the pimps and traffickers, then why don’t the police just arrest and prosecute them – like the 2008 conviction and 96 month sentencing of Levar Simms for the prostitution of a 16 year old minor across state lines?

We hung back and watched young women, most of whom looked between the ages of 20 and 25 but could have been in their teens, as they stood on the corners and watched men go by in cars. The cars would slow down and a girl would look back to her pimp to see if she should get in the car.

Other times, a girl would be alone.

I handed some girls food and my colleague would hand them outreach cards with a hotline number for trafficked persons. As one very thin young woman with a black eye said, “At least I am not dead, but I am still out here.”

Then, she turned to follow a potential client’s car down the street.

A pimp is someone who forces someone else, usually a very young girl, to have sex for money. The pimp takes the money that the girl “earns,” and does so successfully because they are abusive and manipulative. They have strict rules, strict quotas, and dole out punishments to the girls in their “stable”.

As some of the teens in our D.C. classrooms told us “Pimps Up, Hoes Down,” which means that if a girl is walking down the sidewalk and another pimp walks onto that street, she must go into the street and cross over.

I find it very disturbing that any 14-year old girl would know so much about prostitution.

Pimps run the largest growing criminal industry by exploiting girls across the globe.  So, how is it that these pimps are just standing around on 14th and K in downtown D.C.?

Pimping is illegal in Washington, D.C., as is prostitution and solicitation. And, if you are minor involved in commercial sex it is considered a form of human trafficking. As a member of the D.C. Anti Trafficking Task Force, our organization, FAIR Fund, has trained some very caring police officers in how to identify and assist victims of trafficking.

Still, the problem is everywhere on the streets – and what seems worse – increasingly moving online.

There are several reasons why an arrest for pimping and paying for sex is so difficult. 

First, both parties would essentially have to incriminate themselves. FAIR Fund has found, though, that the true barrier to ending sex trafficking of minors here in D.C. is that there are few incentives for a young girl (or boy) who is identified to testify against their exploiter because law enforcement and outreach organizations that work to help young victims have very few options to present to him or her.

Typically, she is jailed as the only means of detaining her – not exactly a comforting environment.  Nevermind the irony that In a city where a 15-year old is too young to consent to sex, she can still be charged for prostitution.

And, because there is not a single safe space designed in the District or surrounding areas that is available for a teenager who is being commercially sexually exploited, life away from a pimp means hunger, homelessness, and an uncertain amount of abuse. Trying to convince that young person to testify against her trafficker could very well seem more risky than it does safe.

Imagine, though, if there was a space for these young victims to be safe from their violent exploiters. A space where the District Attorneys Office, our Metropolitan Police Department, and local nonprofits would be able to direct a young victim to the services and support that she needs while advocates are busy working to build a case against a trafficking and pimping network.

Perhaps, then, she might feel supported enough to press charges against a man that has put her on the street since she was 13.

Perhaps, then, she might be the key to arresting, prosecuting, and jailing what we would argue are some of the most dangerous criminals in Washington, D.C. 

Perhaps, then, the scene on the streets would change and the pimps wouldn’t be everywhere.

The situation of young women in Nairobi, Kenya, and how violence impacts their lives, the lives of their families, and their life chances.

FAIR Fund's Kenyan Youth Programs Officer

By Patronilla Kwamboka,  Kenyan Youth Programs Officer

Young women in Kenya who are victims of violence and rape tend to despair, lose hope, and withdraw from the rest of society. They will in most cases keep to themselves and become loners. They feel like their lives have come to a stop and their dreams have been cut short when they are beaten, or infected with HIV/Aids or are pregnant as a result of being raped. This also badly impacts their families as when they withdraw completely, they also withdraw from their families, and Kenyan families are normally close and depend on each other for participation in family duties.

 

Domestic violence of women (battering, abuse and rape) has led to quite a number of women, especially in the capital Nairobi, preferring to remain single. The level of educated women is high in the city and thus they are well informed of their rights and know the course of action to take when compared to women living in the rural areas who suffer in silence because of the stipulated rules, traditions, cultures and norms of their societies. Domestic violence in Nairobi has also led to increased separation and divorce rates. This has led to the increase in single parent families and thus leads to breakdown of traditional families. Those who don’t report the cases of violence are usually not aware of their rights or simply don’t have anywhere or anyone to turn to so they prefer to persevere even though this affects them badly in the end.

 

Violence in the home has a terrible impact on the children. Exposure to extensive violence against a parent, especially a mother, can cause children not only to lose respect for their parents, but also can cause them to turn out to be as violent as them towards society. Victims of violence end up not achieving their set goals that they would have otherwise if their dreams had not been cut short. They become introverts and thus miss out on opportunities that require vibrant outgoing personalities.

 

Violence against women is a major problem here in Kenya. Groups like FAIR Fund, together with the passing of the International Violence Against Women Act, can help us continue to fight it before it spreads to younger generations The I-VAWA will help improve social assistance and funding to countries where women victims of violence continue to exist in silence and alone.

Teaching Abandoned Serbian Girls Self Reliance

By Tanja Radovic, JewelGirls Workshops Coordinator  January 2008 

 

This summer, I began working as a volunteer for the JewelGirls program with FAIR Fund and the Center for Youth Integration. I am a student at the University of Belgrade and I have always wanted to help girls victimized by violence and in need of support.  I have enjoyed getting to know each of the 21 girls who are part of our program and also have learned a lot myself. Through this program, 21 young girls aged 12 to 22 are learning to create, market, and sell handcrafted jewelry as a means to find inner confidence and to generate income that will support their future. The majority of the girls have experienced a life on the streets as undocumented Roma, and some have been exploited through human trafficking. At the workshops, girls come together to learn jewelry making, talk about their problems and dreams and get help for problems like if they don’t have a place to stay or are hungry.  This program is great because the girls can earn their own money and finally pay for housing or maybe learn to read and write – things they need to survive as young women in Serbia.

 

Each week, the girls come to meet me and other student volunteers and we teach them about how to make the jewelry.  They tell me that they really enjoy picking colors and designs for the types of jewelry they will make.  And, they like to hear about advice on how to deal with situations they are facing from life on the streets.  Some of the girls even want to become professional jewelry designers and they really like showing others what they make!

 

What is perhaps most astounding is the fact that these girls can now think about a career. Not too long ago, all they thought about was surviving. Already, local community members in Belgrade are beginning to change their attitude toward the “jewel girls” now that they see the girls can make something beautiful and deserve to treated as special. 

 

The importance of JewelGirls is really simple.  Before the program, these girls were mainly living a life on the streets filled with sexual violence, uncertainty, and fear.  They lived each day as if it could be their very last.  Now, things have changed.  “I lay awake at night dreaming about what colors and beads I will work with next.  I like to see the other girls in my programs.  Now I have a dream,” reports a 14-year-old girl from the program. All of the girls are very excited that women around the world will buy and wear the jewelry they make.  Their new confidence and new friends has already made such a difference in their lives.   We need more programs like this one to help girls leave violent situations.

 

How can you be a part of the JewelGirls program?

 

1. Spnosor an individual JewelGirl’s efforts to come to our workshops and gain access to services              

 

2. Purchase jewelry by coming to our frequent sales events or visit www.fairfund.biz to buy online!

 

3. Donate beads and jewelry making supplies or even lightly worn clothes – our girls always need new supplies and warm coats!

 

For more information call Andrea or Amelia at (202) 265-1505

 

Don’t look the other way as girls are exploited in D.C.

I recently returned from a trip to former Yugoslavia, where my organization, FAIR Fund–a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation–leads a program designed to help sexually exploited, homeless, and trafficked girls find safety and meet basic needs like housing or legal documentation.

These 20 girls, and more than 200 like them in Serbia, Kosovo, and Bosnia, have mainly been living on the streets. At ages as young as 11, many of these girls have been sold into a life of prostitution and are often forced to use drugs by dangerous pimps. These are not hidden girls and often the pimps are well known by local law enforcement.  I have seen people just walk right past these children and look the other way.  They are begging for food, they are standing dirty on street corners, they are being kept in abandoned buildings that are just blocks away from major centers of business and neighborhoods.

I have many times asked myself and others, including governmental representatives, one question that I have yet to find the answer:  How can you walk past these girls? If you know they are there, why won’t you reach your hand out?

In a country where leading MSNBC reporters will casually use phrases like “pimp out,” or where top selling rap artists name their songs P.I.M.P., we are also turning our backs on some of the most vulnerable youth of today’s society. 

So, I can’t judge without also acknowledging that right here in Washington, D.C., we are also walking right past girls and boys who are in desperate need of assistance.  In D.C. alone, law enforcement identify sometimes as many as 26 girls monthly who have been exploited through commercial sexual exploitation. 

Many of these girls, just like their young counterparts across the world in places like Serbia and Kosovo, are being controlled and abused by pimps.  Here in D.C., someone looking to purchase sex from a child need to look no further than Craigslist and the ads are right there on their erotica section. Or, drive through the downtown area of Washington, D.C. late at night and you will see those girls.

Here are three simple things you can do to help right here in D.C.:

1. Don’t look the other way.  If you see a young person who looks like they may need help, you can call the Washington D.C. Police Department and speak to the Youth Division or call 911.
2. Be conscious of language.  If you hear someone casually using the word pimp, take five minutes to explain to them that pimps are not cool, that they are abusive and controlling people who exploit those more vulnerable–often girls as young as 11.
3. Get involved.  Volunteer with youth groups to mentor or speak with youth at risk of exploitation.  Many of the girls we work with from places as far away as Bosnia to right here in D.C. really just need someone to listen to them and sometimes explain to them how to keep themselves safe.

Andrea Powell is the executive director and co-founder of FAIR Fund