Help Stop Human Trafficking

The Emancipation Network
Slavery was outlawed in the US in 1864, and it is not legal anywhere in the world, yet there are more slaves in the world TODAY than at any time in human history.
27 million people around the world are estimated to be victims of slavery, for forced prostitution, labor, domestic work, and other forms of exploitation, with approximately 50% of victims being under the age of 18. UNICEF estimates that one million children will be forced into prostitution this year.
In South Asia, traffickers will pay $150 to parents for their child's life. Brothel owners can purchase the same child from the trafficker for about $1000. For traffickers, sex slavery is a lucrative business, generating over 7 billion dollars a year. Trafficking is often controlled by organized crime syndicates.
Victims of human trafficking are subject to gross human rights violations including rape, torture, beatings, starvation, dehumanization, and threats of murdering family members. In the case of traffficking for sexual exploitation, girls often have their virginity sold first, followed by multiple gang rape to break down their resistance. Since the bodies of young girls are not ready for sexual intercourse, this often results in abrasions, making the girls susceptible to HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Currently, the regions of the world with the most severe trafficking problems are Southeast Asia (the Mekong region including Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar/Burma), South Asia (the Indian subcontinent, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), the former Soviet Republics (including the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic).
But every country in the world is involved in the web of human trafficking. Most of the victims come from poorer countries, which serve primarily as source countries or countries of origin. Richer nations, such as the US, Australia, or Japan, are primarily destination countries, where victims are taken to. Many countries serve as transit countries, where victims are held temporarily en route to destination countries. For example, many women from the former Soviet republics are trafficked to the US through Mexico. Israel is another transit country for people sold into Europe. The FBI estimates that as many as 18,000 are trafficked into the US each year, to work in brothels, strip clubs, nail salons and massage parlors, or as domestic servants, nannies, and farm laborers. People can also be trafficked within their home countries, often from rural areas to large cities. Trafficking can be transnational, meaning across country borders, or internal, meaning within one country. For example, children who are commercially sexually exploited in the US are defined by the US government as trafficking victims, even though they have not been taken across borders.
Governments in much of the world are only just beginning to address this issue, under pressure from anti-trafficking organizations and the international community. Government inaction is compounded by apathy and a lack of awareness in the general public.


The Emancipation Network (T.E.N.) was founded as an organization dedicated to fighting human trafficking and modern day slavery. We help survivors build businesses and help prevent slavery by creating jobs in high risk communities.
The Emancipation Network helps survivors of human slavery, and women and girls at high risk for being trafficked into slavery, by offering them a means for self-sufficiency and an economic alternative to further exploitation. TEN partners with anti-slavery organizations and women’s craft collectives around the world, including Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Russia, Ukraine, Uganda and the United States.
We buy gorgeous and unique handicraft products from our partners, and sell them at home Awareness parties, colleges, and community events across the US, raising awareness of this human rights crisis among Americans at the same time.
TEN offers concerned persons in the US the opportunity to take action to fight human slavery, and to make a real impact in the lives of survivors and high risk girls. Ultimately, we plan to help create a critical mass of concerned persons who can work together to bring pressure to bear on those who tolerate the modern practice of slavery.
TEN was launched in 2005 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on a relatively small scale with minimal capital and all-volunteer labor. In 2007, we sent over $200,000 in purchase orders and direct donations to our anti-slavery partners, where the funds pay survivor salaries and contribute to prevention, aftercare and rescue work.
We have also educated thousands of Americans about human slavery and trafficking, mostly in small groups of 10 or 20, in volunteers’ homes, schools, and places of worship.
South Asia and Southeast Asia are two regions of the world with the most severe sex trafficking problems, so we started our programs there. The target age for girls sold into brothels in this region is 11 to 14 years old. If these girls are fortunate enough to escape or be rescued from brothels, it is extremely difficult for them to reintegrate into society due to discrimination, lack of education or skills, and the physical and emotional damage resulting from years of exploitation.
TEN has so far chosen eighteen partner organizations, from which we buy our products. Many of these organizations provide slavery survivors with a safe place to live and a full range of support services to help them heal and reintegrate, including job training jobs, and therapeutic handicrafts programs. Others operate trafficking prevention programs for children born into brothel districts, or for girls in remote, impoverished villages where they are likely to be sold into slavery.
TEN also addresses one of the primary difficulties in stopping modern slavery – the fact that the areas that the girls are taken from often have depressed economies and few employment options to “compete” with the profits of slavery. TEN is a source of economic opportunity for young women in areas vulnerable to slavery and trafficking.
We import and sell beautiful handicraft products made by survivors of slavery and persons at risk of being trafficked into slavery.
There are many aspects to fighting slavery, so we link our income generation programs with public outreach and education programs about human trafficking and slavery. TEN’s Staff members, "Ambassadors" and volunteers organize awareness events across the country to educate people about human trafficking.
Reprinted with permission from T.E.N.





Sarah Symons, artist, non-profit guru, music composer, singer, mother and wife turned human rights activist, founded The Emancipation Network (T.E.N.) in 2005 because she knew, as a mother of two young children, she must help in the global fight against human trafficking of women and children.









WWW.MADEBYSURVIVORS.COM
You can purchase TEN products online, or check the website for opening date and new address of our retail store on Cape Cod - Emancipation Imports.