On the first day of my internship at InStepp Inc., I attended an orientation session which explained the importance of understanding the numbers associated with human trafficking. ‘There were 110[1] cases of human trafficking that were reported by phone service in North Carolina NC in 2015” as reported by Polaris-the leader in the global fight to eradicate modern slavery. These cases are an aggregate of both women and men. In 2014, 118[2] cases were reported. Each of these individual calls serves as a means for identifying victims of human trafficking. The referral mechanism for human trafficking is the same for both women and men: each victim is identified, referred for assistance,[3] offered the opportunity for reintegration and also repatriation.
Who are the Service Providers?
Service Provisions for victims/survivors of human trafficking have been well laid out through coordinated efforts spearheaded by the Salvation Army in Durham, NC. Hence, within North Carolina, a new project called Nueva Vida has been created by InStepp Inc., to provide services to survivors of human trafficking and victims of assault. InStepp Inc. is a dedicated, community-based non-profit company that is passionate about helping regional communities thrive by empowering adult women and adolescent girls to overcome the challenges in their lives and succeed personally and professionally through innovative, gender-responsive training, education and prevention services.
Services for Women
Noting that there are needs specific to women, InStepp Inc., created the Nueva Vida project, whose core mission is the empowerment of Hispanic/Latino women survivors of human trafficking. Instepp Inc. has defined empowerment as self-sufficiency. The program has targeted Hispanic/Latino women survivors of human trafficking that have undergone initial post-trauma counselling as recipients of services. My work at InStepp Inc. focused only on human trafficking.
Strengthening Service Provision for Survivors of Human Trafficking
In 2013, the President’s interagency task force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, released the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States, 2013-2017. This plan highlighted the importance of “comprehensive and specialized services that address their specific needs and aid in their full recovery.[4]” To meet this highlighted goal, Instepp Inc. focused on creating partnerships for empowerment of Hispanic and Latino survivors of human trafficking, offering outreach through non-English media and offering training and mentorship.
Partnerships to Empower victims/survivors for a New Life
The Mexican Consulate in Durham is a strategic partner identified for the empowerment of Hispanic/Latino victims of human trafficking who wish to repatriate. InStepp Inc. formalized this partnership by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Mexican Consulate in 2014. However the Mexican Consulate has also been a key partner in offering training services as well, and the New Mexican Consul General in Durham, Remedios Gomez Arnau, will be a key speaker at InStepp’s 2017 International Women’s Day conference.
Outreach through Non‐English Media
InStepp Inc. has produced materials for survivors of human trafficking, which offer opportunities to access services for empowerment. Effective communication for the purpose of outreach is important, especially for women survivors of human trafficking, as it is a means to foster knowledge sharing, and empower survivors to help prevent the possibility of being re-trafficked. Effective communication has also been delivered through translating important messages into Spanish, which focus on immigration requirements and services available to victims of human trafficking.
Working at InStepp Inc. gave me the opportunity to work in a diverse cultural setting and gave me appreciation for their programs: first as a measure to bring empowerment to women, and second as a measure to bring recovery to victims of a well noted crime, while also helping these women to start a new life.
As my summer internship at InStepp Inc. came to an end, I sat to read the U.S. State Department’s newly released Trafficking in Persons Report for the year 2016[5]. The content of the report impacted me-it not only provided a benchmark to better understand the numbers and the activities implemented, but also explained the need for efforts to end human trafficking-such as the tireless efforts of the staff at InStepp Inc., working to empower women victims of human trafficking.
The end of my time at InStepp Inc. marked the beginning of another internship in New York with the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) at Columbia University. The Institute is housed on the 7th floor of the Riverside Church. The church is itself a place of historical importance renowned for being a venue for speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and former President Bill Clinton.
As an intern at ISHR, I have helped to explore the human aspects of examining and addressing the historical legacy of conflict through the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability (AHDA). The program centers on an essential question, how to look forward, while carrying the burden of the past, in order to foster conciliation and democracy promotion. In practice, my first week in the ISHR office exposed me to two of AHDA’s activities: the Mapping Historical Dialogue program and the AHDA fellowship program
Mapping Historical Dialogue
The goal of the Mapping Historical Dialogue project is to address violent pasts and conflicting narratives about the past. The Mapping Historical Dialogue project was launched with a focus on measuring field work and capturing best practices. It was created to foster better understanding of the impact that historical dialogues have on conflict transformation.
Steps towards the Mapping of Historical Dialogue
The Mapping Historical Dialogue tool uses a crowd sourcing model and digital visualization to enable end-users to provide information that answers three important questions: (i) Do you know of a project that has been targeted towards fostering dialogue about a conflict or civil strife? (ii) Is information about this project accessible online? (iii) What is the duration of the project? With this information at hand, the process of contributing to the website[6] is all but completed. The project sends a message that best practices in the field of historical dialogue do exist and are possible to determine. Furthermore, the additional message is that facilitating dialogue on historical conflicts and strife does have a proven track record of contributing to social change worldwide.
Projects developed by AHDA fellows in 2015
The story of AHDA is further presented through the work of the AHDA fellows. The AHDA fellows create projects that embody the goal of facilitating dialogue in post-conflict countries. In 2015, three AHDA projects echoed my experience of searching for methods to foster peaceful societies.
The first was a project by Friederike Bubenzer[7], senior Project Leader at the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa, who developed a project to enhance understanding of how trauma is transmitted across generations. The project was dubbed ‘Trauma, Memory and Representations of the Past’. My own experience of working with survivors of conflict suffering from trauma has indeed provided evidence to show that trauma can be transmitted across generations. Healing trauma through the approach put forward therefore seemed to me to be a means to give hope to future generations to manage the recurring memories from the traumatic pasts of conflict ridden societies.
The second was a project by Pawel Nowacki[8], Project Manager at the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity Poland (ENRS) who explored how European countries used 20th century history as a policy making tool during identity and financial crises, targeting High School aged children. My fascination is with the use of education policy for the purpose of post-financial crisis recovery. I believe this work presented the opportunity to further explore the many opportunities for implementing conflict sensitive programs in the education sector.
The third project, by Okot Komakech Deo[9], Research and Documentation Officer at the Refugee Law Project in Uganda, centered on documenting the voices of victims and survivors of massacres that were not reported by the media, providing Ugandans in war-affected communities with a digital documentation platform for the collection and dissemination of information that will help to share their memories and experiences and receive balanced information about their history. It was anticipated that this would provide a means for reconciliation and accountability, and could be used in the long run to develop a warning system with which to predict and prevent future conflict. I think the use of technology to share memories of war for the purpose of creating an early warning system is indeed a powerful nexus not only for the past and the present but also for preserving peace in the future.
As I continue on my day-to-day assignments in the ISHR, I can see the role that technology plays in post-conflict peacebuilding. Technology will help to tell the story of conflict, post-conflict peace building and also forewarn future generations. I will conclude my internship in New York by making a presentation with the help of Michelle Breslauer (Institute for the Study of Peace and Economics) on the 2016 Global Peace Index[10]. I am thankful to both Instepp Inc. and the ISHR for accommodating me in their offices over the summer. I will return to Duke enlightened by experiences that span beyond Durham and New York and have global impact on policy and programing to make the world more peaceful for men, women and children.
[1] https://traffickingresourcecenter.org/state/north-carolina
[2] https://traffickingresourcecenter.org/state/north-carolina
[3] support available to survivors emotional and practical support, including health care, legal aid, psychological assistance and referrals
[4] https://www.ovc.gov/pubs/FederalHumanTraffickingStrategicPlan.pdf
[5] https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258876.pdf
[6] https://historicaldialogues.org/mhdp/
[7] https://humanrightscolumbia.org/sites/default/files/documents/ahda/Program_Report_AHDA_2015.pdf
[8] Ibid
[9] Ibid
[10] https://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/our-gpi-findings