CNN special on orphanage I stayed at in Haiti

I stayed at this orphanage the last time I was in Haiti and delivered medical supplies to their clinic. Please watch the CNN special that airs May 8 at 8pm. I took Glen Megill and Rabbi Shumley there with me to see the orphanage the first time I was in Haiti staying at the UM field hospital. The directors are doing an incredible job at Child Hope.
The photo is of a little girl (seated in front of Glen) who was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building and who is now staying at the orphanage.

Return to Haiti

I spent the night in an orphanage in Port au Prince Thurs. I had first been to this orphanage to ask the director about child trafficking in their area which is known as Delmas. She told me that she would see the trafficked and street children behind the house using the gully there as a path. She would invite some of these children in to play with the orphanage children and give them something to eat before they left. The orphanage is always full so she is not able to keep those children, but is able to feed them when they come. She said it is extremely difficult for children to exist on their own without any help on the street so usually they do have an adult in their life, and often that adult expects them to earn money. They are often taught to beg, steal or prostitute themselves to earn that money.

Many children are given away by their parents in Haiti because they can not afford to provide for them. They may give them up hoping the child is able to find a better life with the person they are being entrusted to, but all too often this is not the case. The orphanage director and other directors told me they were frequently asked to take in children by parents who can not afford to keep them.

This time when I came I found a mattress had been put on the living room floor for a mother and her 2 day old baby. Dominese, the mother, lost her husband in the quake in Haiti. She and their child were spared. Dominese was 6 months pregnant and now had no home to live in. Dominese's sister also died in the quake, but her 2 children lived. So Dominese took in both of her sister's children so she now had to provide for herself and 3 children with no place to go. The orphanage director gave her a tent and allowed her to put it up on the orphanage grounds.

On Tues. night it rained very hard in Port au Prince and Dominese's tent flooded. She went to the clinic that the orphanage maintains and went into labor. Fortunately, a new team of volunteers had just arrived that day and there was a doctor and nurse at the clinic. Although they did not have any medicine to ease the pain of labor for Dominese, the birth was normal and they were able to assist in a successful delivery for the mother and her new daughter.

written by Sandra Kirkpatrick to be continued

Girl getting washed in the gutter in Port au Prince camp across from the palace

We had our earthquake here in California and south across the border yesterday, and today a soft, light rain is falling. I wonder about the people in Haiti, the ones without any home now, and if it is raining on them. I know many are being relocated from the "camps" of tent cities - tents that were made of bedsheets and anything else they could find - to safer areas less likely to flood. But still the problem of adequate shelter remains. The photo is of a little girl who is living in a camp across the street from the National Palace being given her shower - in the open gutter with a bucket of water. Only 30% of Haitians had running water before the quake. Now it is anyone's guess as to how many have access to any plumbing at all.

In the University of Miami field hospital the floor was plywood, but the 200 cot sleeping tent where I stayed had straw over a dirt floor. And the portable toilets and makeshift showers were outside about 20-30 feet away. We counted ourselves lucky, at least we had a real tent and facilities, although the water from our storage tanks for the showers ran out every day, and that's when the pumps were working. I found I could shower using 3 small bottles of water if the showers were not working. In the 90 degree heat and stiffling tent I was ready and willing to improvise. I can not imagine how the people are surviving in the small tents in the camps.

I heard from one of the directors of an orphanage in Port au Prince I am working with who gave an account of some of the horrific conditions in the camps. He said

two weeks ago, an eight year old girl was raped while her mother went out looking for food to feed her. Another girl who is 15 also was raped inside her makeshift shelter. She cried out for help but no one came to her rescue.

The security in the camps is neglible and not only do violent crimes against children take place there, but so does trafficking. AUSJ continues to work with UNICEF to try to improve the safety of children in and out of the camps. We work to build community so that people will look out for each other as well as their own families. Your donations via our website www.ausj.org help us make Haiti safer for everyone.

written by Sandra Kirkpatrick, Executive Director, AUSJ

Neophyte in Thailand (Part 3)

Photo of NinaMone in Thailand.

We go to one of the cafe areas of the hotel so I can sit, calm down and regain my composure. I feel disgusted and I'm ready to cast stones at the men who nonchalantly indulge in such acts for a moment of pleasure without regard for the repercussions of their actions. I try to cope with all the emotions and anger and begin to feel overwhelmed by it all. I can't really lash out at the johns - although I'd like to - they are not, after all, the traffickers, and all my frustration nearly drives me to tears. Trying to come to terms with my own helplessness and anguish for the victims I suddenly realize that we need not shun and condemn these men but intstead educate and inform them of the process by which many of these girls are obtained, and the savagery and manipulation they endure while enslaved. This problem exists because there is a demand; these men create the demand. In order to eradicate the problem we must work on the demand, not just the traffickers. Some jurisdictions are jailing the johns to try to decrease demand and that has proven somewhat effective. But the laws are unevenly enforced, and often ignored, and more needs to be done.

Upon the completion of our trip I sat conversing with a male friend who had purchased sex from prostitutes during his visit to Thailand. I told him some of the stories we heard. He sat there appalled and said, "Nina, if men knew this they wouldn't sleep with prostitutes." While I do not believe all men would react in the same manner, many of them will. Many are not even aware that slavery exists today and is worst than it was during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

A shift in consciousness must occur throughout the world. We must no longer sweep the problem under the rug and act as if it doesn't exist. Sure, the problem is great but change will come about when each person realizes the power they possess as an individual and the momentum of unity. Educate yourself on the issue, tell people you meet about it, sponsor the education of a girl from an impoverished, rural community, support organizations (like AUSJ) that are working to educate the public and raise awareness on a larger scale, give to organizations working to rehabilitate women and children rescued from slavery. There are many things that can be done, but what will you do to see that slavery is finally abolishsed in our lifetime?

Story by NinaMone Williams

Neophyte in Thailand (part 2)

I sit in a brothel in Bangkok watching the girls, wearing numbers like cattle, moving on stage waiting for a customer to choose them. Some young girls stare blankly at the ground. Some vapid women are too ashamed to look us in the face. Other girls are too far gone on drugs to be fully responsive. Drugs serve a dual purpose; traffickers administer drugs to maintain control, while the girls consume them to numb themselves to unwanted reality. Sandy Kirkpatrick and I sat watching the girls looking for signs of brutality and other evidence of trafficking. If detected and confirmed we would provide the girl with the phone number for Nightlight, an organization in Bangkok providing assistance to facilitate escape and offering alternative employment making jewelry. Nightlight also provides emotional and spiritual counseling and life skills training to women seeking to escape the devastating cycle of prostitution, whether forced or not. The commercial sex industry is the second largest criminal business in the world and to interfere by offering an escape to cash cows is risky and dangerous. We must be as clandestine as possible. When I approach one of the girls she mistakes my motives and calls 2 other girls over to us as she is already occuppied with another table. One of these girls is so far strung out on drugs that she is unaware of her actions, the other girl fondles me and asks if she can go back to my room. They do not appear to be underage and we are unable to communicate due to the first girls incoherance and the fact that neither one of them speak English. Sandy and I decide to leave and go to another location.
A few blocks away is a hotel that specifically caters to the desires of Middle Eastern men. Women are trafficked here from Uzbekistan because their pale skin and dark hair is preferred by the "Johns". The lobby is a bustling place occupied predominantly by these men and Sandy, with her blonde hair and blue/green eyes and I stick out like sore thumbs. Sandy has previously visited this location and tells me that the trafficked girls are kept in the basement. We surreptitouslly slip down the unguarded stairwell. Waiting at the bottom of the staircase are about 15-20 women, all wearing numbers and little else, sitting behind a glass wall. They are on display like caged animals waiting for a john to choose them for sex. Most of the women look away and try to hide their faces when they see us. My eyes meet one of the girls eyes and I can see her soul is plagued with dispair, shame, and fear. I am overcome by a whirlwind of emotions which consist of fury, sadness, sympathy and helplessness. I am especially sad knowing I can do little about the situation. A man sitting at a desk at the foot of the stairs asks us what we are doing in the basement. I have to think fast and ask if I can find the lady's room down here. He harshly replies and we are hastily escorted back up to the lobby. Once up in the lobby we are followed around by security. I sit there livid and in a state of shock. I want to cry. Sandy tries to console me and get me to verbalize what I'm feeling.
Article to be continued by Nina Mone Williams

A Neophyte in Thailand

As I sit in the airport waiting to board the plane I observe those around me. I can't help but wonder if the portly Caucasian man has purchased the petite young Asian girl sitting beside him. I can feel anxiety rise up in me as I survey those, particularly males, occupying the cold uncomfortable seats in the waiting lounge. How many of them will participate in perpetuating this heinous crime? How many of them will buy sex from young girls forced to perform degrading acts? I keep trying to stir up fear and anxiety in my heart as I try to convince myself of the gravity of what I am about to enter into...but nothing will come.

I am fearless and calm and realize that this will not be the long awaited vacation in Thailand I had anticipated since I was an adolescent girl. I board the plane with the intent of meeting up with Sandy Kirkpatrick, the Executive Director of Artists United for Social Justice, and embarking on an investigation of sex trafficking in Thailand. The two week itinerary consists of delivering medical supplies to the Free Burma Rangers and the Backpack Health Worker Teams, vetting safe houses for women and children rescued from the sex trade, and looking for possible victims in some of the major commercial red-light districts of Bangkok.

I had preconceived notions upon my arrival in Thailand, the most prominent one being that most Thais were forced into prostitution against their volition. I've watched several documentaries about callous traffickers who threaten, kidnap and trick girls into prostitition. I've read account after account of brutality, humiliation, degradation and the unwanted reality into which many innocent girls succumb and spend the rest of their lives in a futile cycle of servitude. But some of the women consent to work in the sex industry, and are trafficked across borders knowing they will be employed in bars, however, many believe they will have limited physical contact with men and will be able to pocket the money they earn. Other women apprehensively consent because the lack of jobs, skills, and opportunities in their regions and the dire need to support their families. None of the women are prepared for the harsh conditions and trickery that awaits them, and all of them come from poverty, desperation, and sometimes addiction. So even though many consent to work, it is usually because they have no other viable choices, and they do not realize the full extent to which they will be involved in providing commercial sex services.

We visit several joints in the red-light district and hear similar stories from most of the Thai girls we converse with, "I come from Isaan (the impoverished region of Northeast Thailand) and I need to support my family." "This is not the life I wanted." While the workers are provided with little of the money they earn, it is better than the nothing they had in Issan. The waiting lists to get legitimate employment are long, and most of the girls want to leave, but think they have no other way to make money. So what is the difference between the girls who consented to work in the bars and can not leave due to their inability to get a legitimate job, and the ones who are physially forced to work in the sex industry, or the ones who remain because they have become addicted to drugs and can not really function as whole people, or the ones who are tricked into debt bondage? Slavery has many faces.

The article will be continued next week as Nina Mone Williams reveals more of what she learned in Thailand.

Mission to Haiti

Fittingly we arrived in Port au Prince, Haiti, at midnight under a full moon. And that was about the only light we saw. The electrical system had been destroyed by the earthquake in most of the city so the airport terminal was dark and there were no lights on the tarmac. We unloaded our cargo in the dark with only the surgeon's hand lamps and a few flashlights to illuminate our bags and boxes of medical supplies.

I had gone to Haiti to investigate human trafficking and to bring medical supplies, funds, and teddy bears, to people who had lost everything in the worst natural disaster I'd ever seen. While Artists United for Social Justice, www.AUSJ.org, is focused on combating trafficking, we are also involved in humanitarian relief work. I flew down with the medical teams volunteering at the University of Miami field hospital and stayed with them for 10 days. I had worried about including teddy bears in the precious cargo space, but after seeing news reports showing tiny children with only the clothes on their backs trying to sleep in tent hospitals, I just wanted to give them something cuddly to hold on to so they could fall asleep. When I distributed the bears to the kids in the pediatric field hospital the smiles I got in return were worth the whole trip.

The human trafficking problem in Haiti has a unique twist in that there is a socially accepted system whereby children from poor families are often given to wealthier families with the understanding that the wealthier family will provide for the child in exchange for the child working for them. These children are known as restavecs. This well established "minding the child" system was brought over from Africa and initially seems to have served its purpose and was benign. However, over time the system evolved into an abusive one where the children are not educated and are simply unpaid child labor. In addition to working long, sometimes 20 hours long, days, many children are beaten and sexually abused. Sometimes children are sold into the restavec system and blatantly trafficked.

I was able to speak with people at UNICEF, World Vision and other NGOs about measures to stop the child trafficking. AUSJ is part of the UNICEF Child Protection sub-cluster working group on trafficking and abduction. I met with the Chief of Police at the JOTC headquarters in the UN compound to discuss what he was doing to protect the children and orphanages. He gave me the hot line number which is manned 24/7 for emergencies. While the Chief assured me they would respond to any emergency he also told me he had lost more than 75% of the police force to the earthquake, and they are now partnered with the UN peace keeping force in order to be able to respond. I was able to give the hot line number to the orphanages, but obviously much more is needed on all fronts. AUSJ is returning to investigate solutions to trafficking, implement training and tracking programs and will continue relief efforts. Please support our efforts to make a difference where it's need most.

Sandra Kirkpatrick
Executive Director, Artists United for Social Justice