Day 2 at the YWCA

This was the second meeting at the  YWCA was extremely different than the first meeting. We started off by discussing the movie night that will be taking place on July 11th, but then we shifted gears and began talking to a man named Russell who went to Berkley, and works for companies related to human trafficking. We learned a lot about how detailed and complex the web is, and we discussed why there is such a high demand for human trafficking.

As the discussions with Russell got deeper, we learned that he was trafficked when he was younger. He told us his story how it broke his spirit because he believed that he deserved that, and that there was a point in time where he thought he was the man in control when he was being trafficked because it helped him get through. I learned that he was first trafficked by his mom at the age of seven because she needed to pay rent, then it was his foster brother when he was placed in foster care, and then he did it to himself when he was on the street because he needed a way to survive. This taught me that there is more to a person's story than that meets the eye. Everyone in the internship appreciated him telling his story because it is something that is extremely hard to do, and I know that I will appreciate the life I have because I could never imagine being placed in the same situation as he was placed in.

Fist Day at the YWCA

My first meeting for the Anti-Human Trafficking Internship through the YWCA took place on June 26th in Downtown Berkley. In this meeting, we discussed the details behind the facts of human trafficking in the Bay Area, worked on a case study, worked on a small project, came up with times for a movie night that we planned, and discussed each person's plans for their advocacy project.

In the first meeting, I learned that California, primarily the Bay Area, is the hub for human trafficking, and has been named one of the top four states leading in the amount of people who get trafficked each year. We also worked on a case study, and realized how complex the human trafficking ring usually is, and people get stuck as slaves because they have no way of escaping the "debt" that they have created, or because they think that that is the life that they deserve. The small project we worked on in the first meeting had to do with "push and pull factors." Push factors are components in a person's life that would push them towards being more prone to being trafficked, and pull factors are components in a person's life that protects them from being trafficked. Another part of this meeting was to discuss a movie screening, and we will be screening Very Young Girls by Rachel Lloyd next week. Finally, we discussed our personal advocacy projects. My project includes talking about this issue at school, and also finding an organization that can help me fundraise for this issue.

The next meeting will continue this process, and soon we will also be walking around Downtown Berkley to raise awareness, and fine places that are not falling the law, which states that places such as bars and liquor stores are required to have posters up concerning human trafficking, with the help of the District Attorney's office in Berkley.