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Combating the Culture of Tolerance
Article by Founder Linda Smith Published in
Everyday Women Magazine
Dolls are for little girls to play with, but Kristi Powers wanted to know why the dolls she looked at in FAO Schwarz wore garter belts, bustier, fishnet stockings and high heels. "As small children filed by, I felt myself panicking, wanting to cover their eyes or steer them away," she wrote in the New York Post, "as if they were going to be exposed to something they weren't meant to see. Never mind that they were the target audience for these hyper-sexualized dolls. I was, after all, in a toy store."
Tesco, a European retailer, was recently forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of "destroying children's innocence," according to The Mail, a blog out of the UK. "Unleash the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peek-a-boo pole inside the tube, slip on the sexy tunes and away you go!" said the advertisement for the child's play. "Soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peek-a-boo Dance Dollars." The kit came complete with an eight-foot-six-inch pole, a garter belt and how-to DVD.
Lawrence Downes wrote a horrifying account in the New York Times recently in which he described attending a Long Island middle school talent show with his 10-year-old daughter. "Girls in teams of three or four are bopping to pop songs at a student talent show," Mr. Downes wrote. "Not bopping, actually, but doing elaborately choreographed re-creations of music videos, in tiny skirts or tight shorts, with bare bellies, rouged cheeks and glittery eyes. They writhe and strut, shake their bottoms, splay their legs, thrust their chests out and in and out again. Some straddle empty chairs, like lap dancers without laps. They don't smile much. Their faces are locked from grim exertion, from all that leaping up and lying down without poles to hold onto. The girls spend a lot of time lying on the floor. They are in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades."
Clearly, a battle is raging for our little girls. What Ms. Powers and Mr. Downes described is a culture of tolerance – an industry that thinks it's normal for 12-year-olds to pretend they are mere objects. It's time to take back our culture. There is no longer a margin of assuredness when it comes to the sexual exploitation of our children. The innocence of this generation is being taken steadily and surely purely for profit. True woman empowerment is not letting your 6-year-old swing around a pole, it's protecting them against marketing that tells little girls it is fun to play this way.
Parents, it's okay to protect your child's innocence.
With this type of marketing by the commercial sex industry to our children, is there any question why 12 is now the average age of entry into prostitution in the U.S. or why patrons of the sex trade eagerly seek younger and younger victims, or why predators on-line are seeking relations with pre-teen and teenage girls. For almost a decade, Shared Hope International has dedicated its efforts to rescuing and restoring women and children who have been forced into the sex trade. We will not stop providing secure places of refuge for those who have been heinously victimized.
We also recognize the importance of going after the root of the problem and hence have implemented a preventative strategy that includes enlisting men in this fight through The Defenders USA (www.thedefendersusa.org).
Our ultimate goal is to reduce demand by exposing the cultural of tolerance that grows the marketplaces of exploitation. If there wasn't a buyer, there wouldn't be a seller and there wouldn't be a need to snatch, deceive and brutalize young women and children. Thank you for your continued support of Shared Hope International. Because of you we can put a halt to this horrific crime.
The Celebration
Join Shared Hope for a time of celebration Saturday, June 30, 2007. The event includes a golf tournament, tropical barbeque, live music and international guests. The golf exhibition will begin at 12 noon, shot gun starts at 1:00 p.m., and barbeque at 6:30 p.m. Join Congresswoman Linda Smith, founder of Shared Hope International, on Saturday, June 30, at the beautiful Cedars on the Salmon Creek golf course in Vancouver, Washington. Proceeds from the golf tournament and tropical barbeque will go towards helping women and children rescued and restored from sexual slavery. Even non-golfers will love the great food, live Caribbean music, raffle and auction following the tournament. Participants will also hear an update from Linda Smith on Shared Hope as well as from our international guests from Homes of Hope India and Fiji. The Cedars on Salmon Creek golf course will stun you with its beauty and challenge you with its layout. Thirty-six teams of four will enjoy a shotgun start, scramble, contests and awards. Special guest Josh Olson, world class long drive golf professional and trick shot artist, will give an amazing pre-tournament show including a bomb drive with a 28-inch shaft driver or a putter and much, much more.
Visit our website at www.sharedhope.org or contact Kristy for more information on this event at Kristy@sharedhope.org. WIN Program Changing Lives in Fiji – A Message from our Partners
Women Investment Network (WIN) is off to a great start at Homes of Hope Fiji thanks to a three-year financial grant given by Shared Hope International. The WIN program is designed to train and employ single mothers. These women recently signed one-year contracts for their particular jobs on campus, ranging from: campus nurse; primary school teacher and aide, preschool teacher and aide; outreach leader; head baker; supervisor of the guest house; nursery supervisor; campus coordinator; and campus accountant. These women are then required to learn what it means to have a "real job" in the "real world" with actual requirements and demands. They are also required to budget and pay their own bills, such as: school fees for their children; food; electricity; rent; medical; etc. This is a gigantic step towards self-sufficiency and poverty alleviation in a nation in the midst of a coup and subsequent economic crisis. To God be the glory! Hospitality Training on Campus We are nearing the end of a three-month professional hospitality training course that was done on campus for all of our girls. Each girl has been taught the intricacies of professionalism in the hospitality industry. In a nation where tourism is one of our major industries, these certificates of completion that each girl will hold will be one more step towards poverty alleviation as they are each equipped in one more area of job expertise. In addition, they are now able to offer service of excellence in our own Homes of Hope Guest House!
Moms Attending Training for Hospitality Industry Homes of Hope India Celebrates the Graduation of 13 Girls Our Homes of Hope in India has been an incredible refuge and place of restoration for so many girls. We recently had 13 new graduates at Ashagram. These are girls that only a few short years ago were struggling on the streets begging and being prostituted in the brothels of Falkan road. Thank you to those who have supported our efforts in India and walked this journey of faith with us. We are so excited to see what God will do in each of these girls' lives and look forward to seeing another group graduate soon.
In addition to this great news, one of our first girls, Renu, now a beautiful woman of God, has completed a course for a Diploma in Christian Ministry at Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore and will be continuing her education for a Bachelor of Theology. Walls Go Up in Jamaica
Shared Hope has begun the renovation process in Jamaica on a shelter that will be the future Homes of Hope to women and children who have been exploited in the sex tourism markets in Montego Bay. In Partnership with Vision Makers Shared Hope will provide shelter to girls as they attend vocational classes to prepare for legitimate work in the hospitality industry. In nearby Negril, Shared Hope will partner with Reverend Fowler of the Theodora Project, in building a new home and vocational school for children pulled out of the sex tourism industry's grip. Both of these new partnerships will provide places of refuge and long term restoration including educational and vocational training opportunities. The shelters will be in full operation by October 2007. This past year Shared Hope spearheaded a human rights investigation in parts of Jamaica including Kingston, Negril and Ocho Rios, to reveal the level of exploitation of women and children in the commercial sex industry. These findings will be released in a report and documentary in early fall 2007. In Jamaica, street hawkers, hotel porters and valets, taxi drivers, and other members of the tourism industry take a proactive role in marketing commercial sex to visitors through word of mouth. It is very easy to locate young girls for sex. A simple stroll outside any of the major hotels in Jamaica will invite a flurry of solicitations by local Jamaican men. Sadly, underage girls as young as thirteen are offered and delivered for sex. This is why Shared Hope feels compelled to have a presence and take action there.
Shared Hope Helps to Rebuild Shelter for Sex-Trafficking Victims in Tokyo
HELP is an emergency shelter in Tokyo that provides a safe place and support for women and children, regardless of nationality or visa status that are fleeing from violence and other human rights abuses like trafficking, forced prostitution, domestic violence, homelessness and other difficult situations. In April 1986, as a 100th anniversary project for the Japan Christian Women's Organization Kyofukai, HELP Asian Women's Shelter was established to reach out and help women who are faced with violence and human rights abuses. For these 20 years, HELP, which stands for House in Emergency of Love and Peace, has provided telephone counseling and a temporary emergency shelter for women and children in need, regardless of their nationality or immigration status. At first, the majority of the trafficking survivors who came to HELP were of Asian origin, but nationalities have gradually diversified. In spite of HELP's petition against human trafficking to Japanese government, their voice was too small to be heard for almost 20 years. Even the Japanese media did not take up this issue in a serious way. A few years ago, the U.S. State Department listed Japan as one of the major destinations of sexually victimized women and criticized Japan's inadequate response. In August of 2004, under pressure from the global community to take measures against human trafficking, criminal law was revised so that the traffickers are prosecuted and women are no longer viewed as criminals violating prostitution and immigration laws. They are given a legal means to leave Japan instead of being deported.
HELP will continue to monitor government actions in connection with the relevant laws of anti-domestic violence and anti-human trafficking to protect the rights of these survivors and support them to prepare for new independent life. A recent inspection of the earthquake readiness of the HELP facilities found them to be inadequate, necessitating reinforcement construction work and the shelter's relocation. However, the building HELP was relocated to was not equipped for use as an emergency shelter. Shared Hope has provided funding through a grant from the United States Department of State to renovate a portion of the shelter, giving shelter to victimized women and children.
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