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We do a lot with a little. | |
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Mark Your Calendar:
June 6 - Weekly youth group events begin in partnership with Center for
Student Missions - Stephanie, Lindsey, Derri
June 12 --9:15 am Speaking at the Trafficking in America Conference - Derri
June 23 - 5:30-7:30 pm - Training for Presenters (Public Speaking for ESTN) - Second Harvest Food Bank
- Karen
July 19 -
Train outgoing missionaries on issue of human trafficking - Elgin, IL
- Derri
July 21-
Train DCS Child Abuse Hotline staff-
Karen
Oct 4-
Begin training of Spring Hill police force
- Bucky, Patty
Oct 22 -
Nashville Ride for Refuge--All of Us | | |
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Did You Know? | |
Shelby, Davidson, Coffee and Knox counties reported more than 100 cases of human trafficking in the past 24 months?
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Formatted by
Jenny Vazquez
Edited by
Simone Lavallee |
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Last Mon. each month
Nashville Green Hills: Susan
Third Mon. each month
Franklin: Bucky
First Thurs. each month
Third Sat. each month
Second Mon. each month |
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We do a lot with a little. | |
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Rescue and Restoration
 Thanks to those of you who generously responded to a recent plea for emergency funds, three young children are reunited with their mother, a survivor of human trafficking who was recently rescued here in Tennessee. After she escaped captivity, her traffickers threatened her children in their home country, so your generosity may well have saved their lives.
This family needed a lot of help that the government just couldn't provide. For example, the children needed transport to the airport from their village in a third world country, requiring cash payments, food throughout the rescue, and beds for the children to sleep in when they arrived. Law enforcement tells us "We couldn't do without you."
Our emergency fund is depleted now and we sure don't want to ever have to say "no" when the next rescued victim needs help. Please give generously, designating your gift to the emergency victim aid fund. |
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TBI Calls It "Shocking"
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) just released the first ever report on sex trafficking in the state of Tennessee. According to TBI Director, Mark Gwyn, the results of the study are shocking. Human trafficking and sex slavery in Tennessee is more common than we previously believed possible."
Some key findings: TBI's research indicates that four counties reported more than 100 Cases: Shelby, Davidson, Coffee, and Knox. Note that each case can and often does involve more than one person. Eighty-five percent of Tennessee counties have investigated at least one human sex trafficking case over the last 24 months. Seventy-two percent of Tennessee counties reported at least one case of human trafficking involving minors. Rural and suburban areas and small towns are increasingly popular for this frequently computer based crime.
The report also states that seventy-nine percent of law enforcement respondents indicated that they are not adequately trained to handle human sex trafficking, which reinforces the importance of ESTN's extensive work to train a variety of
professional groups to manage rescues and know victim's needs.
The report is a must read for anyone in Tennessee who is concerned about the escalating trend to sell human beings as lucrative commodities; a travesty occurring with regularity in our own backyards.
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Statewide Trafficking Network Discovered and Destroyed
In small towns throughout Tennessee, for 11 hours a day, six  days a week, women were required to perform sexual services for 30 men a day at brothels operating from non-descript homes. Until their rescue last month, they were moved each Sunday to keep them disoriented and without support and to provide buyers with "fresh wares."
Locations uncovered thus far where this network operated are Knoxville, Morristown, Johnson City, Bristol, Kingsport and Goodlettsville. We commend the collaboration of our law enforcement agencies in freeing these victims.
For more information, and to stay up to date on Tennessee cases that receive media coverage, look on our news page.
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We Want to be a TEN!
Polaris Project has a helpful list of ten basic provisions each state should have in place to address the growing crime of human trafficking.
As of last year, Tennessee had only four of the ten, but thanks to the joint efforts of NGO's throughout Tennessee, that outlook is improving.
An asset seizure bill, designed to appropriate assets from traffickers, was just signed into law by Governor Haslam. Similarly, the Hotline Act, for posting of the hotline help number in key industries, has also been passed in the Senate. NGOs throughout the state, including ESTN, conferred throughout the process.
Ryan Dalton, a Memphis law student directing the anti-trafficking arm of Operation Broken Silence in Memphis, and the driving force behind the bills, says, "We do not anticipate ... any additional problems .... The mood in
the Capitol seems to be highly favorable towards anti-trafficking efforts and legislation. Everyone I spoke with ... is excited about our work and many are grateful that there is such a tight-knit coalition taking initiative in Tennessee."
Give us a few more years. Tennessee is going to be a TEN! |
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One Step Closer
Our current initiatives' goals are simple: We want to reach youth before traffickers do. And we have ambitious plans to do
 so. Step one is completion of bethejam.org, warning young people of the common tactics used by predators to lure them into the sex industry. To that end, we just completed the last of five video clips illustrating these tactics, based on real life cases. Special thanks to writer/producer, Sherry Paige, who has worked long and hard to create these powerful resources, and to our volunteer actors and crew for the latest shoot: Precious, Bucky, Jamie J, Willie, Bill, Thomas. Cierra, Jalen and Ayanna. We're so grateful also, to Salama Urban Ministries for sharing their young actors and allowing us to use their facilities and to Ms. Persephone F. Elder-Fentress, drama coach and Ms. Brooke Davis, facilities manager. |
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Ten Minute Activism
If you don't follow our tweets--- and retweet--- read updates on the End Slavery Tennessee Facebook page --- and share news  items -- you are missing one of the simplest and most effective ways to raise community awareness. Anyone can do that much-- so please DO.
Also-- LIKE the Facebook page. This helps the news spread faster. With just a few clicks, OPEN some eyes today! You just may help one person identify a victim they encounter.
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Glimpse At Global
 From Emma Skjonsby, a team member in Athens, Greece:
"On May 20th in Cluj, Romania, we will be kicking off our Romanian awareness campaign with a makeover event at a mall, to raise awareness among young Romanian girls about the dangers of human trafficking. Volunteers will wear
t-shirts bearing the logo and website of the campaign, and a makeup artist will be doing free makeovers in an attempt to connect with young girls, who would be targeted by traffickers."
"In addition to the website, Romanian Christian radio stations will play advertisements with the stories of trafficked women. Posters are also being distributed throughout schools in our target regions, where most of the (trafficked) girls we meet here in Athens come from. It will be worth it even if one girl decides it's not worth the risk! "
"Imagine with me...What if Carmen had seen the warning before she came here for a job and a better life with her "boyfriend"? What if she heard the radio spot, and didn't believe him before she was forced to work in a brothel and give her money to him? What if she believed that she had other
options before she ended up pregnant with no place to stay?
"Our God loves these lost Carmens... and we trust that she came into our path for a reason. (And praise God for the shelter that has been provided, and even an adoptive family for her little one). But we also hope that fewer Carmens will take the risk and end up victimized by this horrid crime."
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The End Slavery in Tennessee mission is to foster slave-free communities through prevention, education and community engagement.
We're part of the global work of International Teams, a Christian mission in which 1,200 people serve on multi-national teams in over 60 countries, coming together to serve the oppressed: The poor, the slave and the blind.
We'd love to have you join us. Together, let's end slavery!
Derri Smith
Director of Anti-Slavery Ministries
and of End Slavery in Tennessee
International Teams - US
615-290-5714
derri.smith@iteams.org
endslaverytn.org / endslavery.iteams.org
Bringing people together
to end human trafficking and slavery
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