At one convenient store, right around the corner from a massage parlor we were lucky enough to find an English speaking woman who worked there. She was familiar with human trafficking, and thrilled to receive our poster, compact mirrors, and chap sticks. And to me, knowing that she could bring help to one victim made the whole afternoon worth it.

But more importantly we were trying to spread awareness to businesses that might come in contact with women who might have been trafficked. We explained what trafficked women might look like, and also gave out compact mirrors, and chap sticks that the businesses can pass onto who women they suspect could be victims of trafficking. These items have contact information printed on them so that if the women decide they want help, they know who to call.

At first I found going out and talking to these people intimidating. I’m not used to just walking up to people and asking them about trafficking. I was scared that maybe I wouldn’t be able to answer there questions or that they wouldn’t make time to talk to me, but neither of those things were actually a problem! The language barrier however was a problem for my group. Only a few people spoke English, because we were in China town, so often all we could do was hand them a poster and some brochures to look at. Thank fully SAGE was well prepared with compacts, chap sticks, brochures, and posters in numerous Asian languages! But I do feel like even if we were able to discuss trafficking with them they did understand what we were doing, and what trafficking is.

Even though I have only been interning for BJM for about six weeks, it’s hard for me to remember that there was a time that I had never heard of human trafficking. So when we went out to talk to people in local businesses about the subject, I was surprised to see how many people had never heard of the term. We worked with some members of SAGE (Stand Against Global Exploitation) we went to various businesses in China town that surround massage parlors that are suspected of holding trafficked women. When talking to the businesses we promoted a 24-hour social service line called HELPLINK 2-1-1, anyone can call at anytime and they operate in 160 languages, by calling this number people can get help with food, clothing, and even child care.

http://www.sagesf.org/

-Julie

Wow! Where to begin? My name is Kelsey and I am an intern with Because Justice Matters. There are five of us total and we’ve all been interns for about four weeks now. It has been very interesting learning about human trafficking. We meet every Wednesday to do an activity around the city, as well as share our research from the past week.

As an intern we were asked to pick 1-2 massage parlors to track in The Guardian, a news paper here in the city with ads for adult escorts, strip clubs, and “massage parlors”. We track the ad and also walk by them in order to check for signs of trafficking by the way the building are set up. Each week when we record our finding in The Guardian we keep a log of what the ad says, the picture, the phone number, the address, and other information such as, recording how often they advertise a “grand opening” or new girls.

We have also learned a bit about prostitution in the city, and spent a night giving out roses to prostitutes. After giving them a rose we would just try to open up conversation, just to be a friend and a listening ear. It’s simple yet so meaningful at the same time. To me, a rose makes you feel special and beautiful, and I think it’s the same for most women no matter your occupation or place you are at in life. Through handing out roses we are also trying to make connections to offer options for life off the street and refer the women to agencies in the city. We plan to do this again, maybe with baked goods or just something along the lines of that! We just want them to know that there life matters, and someone out there does care.

We also got to see a movie called “Call + Response”. This film is a “rockumentary” that connects music to modern day slavery, and 100% of the proceeds go to projects that are affecting slavery and after care programs from people coming out of slavery. Some of the bands featured in the film are Imogen Heap, Cold War Kids, Switchfoot, and Justin Dillon, the musician that became aware of trafficking and felt compelled do something to come against it. It was a very well made film, and I really did love it, the music, the information, and the general production was very well done. It will open your eyes to all that is going on out there that most of us don’t even know about. I encourage you to go see it and tell all your friends about it. You can check out the website at www.callandresponse.com for more information.

I would also like to bring to your attention the upcoming election. If you are a registered voter in the city of San Francisco, please inform yourself on Proposition Measure K. A proposition that seeks to decriminalize prostitution, but the issue is much deeper then prostitution, it is a sex trafficking issue. If this measure passes it will make it impossible to investigate trafficking in massage parlors, eliminate the ability to prosecute pimps and traffickers, and pretty much put a welcome sign on the Golden Gate Bridge to traffickers, like it’s not already a problem in this city as it is! So vote NO on Prop K! For more information visit www.noonk.net.