Shared Hope International (SHI) awarded subgrants in each of the locations examined in the DEMAND. project totaling $124,000. Subgrants funded projects for public awareness and outreach to at-risk and exploited women and children and for direct care and shelter to victims. Subgrants were funded by the U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Jamaica

• Historical and current economic dependence on tourism
• Extensive poverty
• Cultural phenomenon of “making do” – a mentality that allows girls to be prostituted to provide for families and boyfriends, resulting in pregnancies which put girls at greater risk of being trafficked and being dependent on their pimps.

To address this need, SHI funded the expansion and improvement of the Hebron House in Montego Bay, an established crisis pregnancy shelter for up to eight girls to reside through their pregnancies. While residents, the girls continue vocational training at the partner institution Y.E.S. and learn life skills to allow them to live independently and raise their children in a healthy environment. When Shared Hope International first visited Hebron House, it was a condominium in poor condition. Subgrant funds refurbished the house with proper beds and appliances for healthy and dignified living and provided computers and desks to allow the girls to succeed at school and vocational training. SHI will continue supporting the Hebron House’s outreach and services privately to ensure continued restoration to prostituted women and children in Jamaica.

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Japan

• Equates sex with physical health thus fueling and normalizing the sex markets
• The patriarchal culture alienates modern Japanese women from the workplace but supplies numerous work alternatives in the commercial sex industry.
• Foreign women are also recruited to meet the increased demand

Investigation in Japan confirmed the critical need for shelter and outreach services in Tokyo. To address this need, subgrants were awarded to two organizations.

HELP is one of the few women’s shelters in Tokyo serving victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. Due to a recent forced move to a new location, HELP was ill-equipped for the number of women and their children seeking shelter. Shared Hope International (SHI) funded a renovation of the shelter to include furnishings for the dining room, meeting room, and consultation room, as well as beds for the bedrooms and sinks for clean-up.

Polaris Project’s Japan Trafficking Intervention Program (JTIP) is a comprehensive victim outreach and services program to combat trafficking in persons in the Tokyo Metropolitan region. SHI awarded a subgrant to fund an Outreach Coordinator Position for the Tokyo Office to facilitate victim outreach, client services, community mobilization and public awareness activities.

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The Netherlands

• Legalized prostitution creates increased expectations among tourists and locals.
• Supply cannot meet demand, leading to an illegal marketplace that avoids regulations and taxes that come with legalization.

The Scarlet Cord provides outreach and hope to the women in the Red Light District of Amsterdam. Scarlet Cord published the story of one victim’s survival and escape from forced prostitution with encouragement for other women to follow her courage. Shared Hope International (SHI) provided funding to translate the booklet into several of the most prevalent languages – Hungarian, Czech and Russian – to broaden the reach of this message.

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The United States

• U.S. pop culture glamorizes pimping and prostitution
• The media bombards all age groups with explicit sexual imagery
• Strong facilitator industries and influencers, and a reluctance to interfere, result in an environment of permissiveness for illegal commercial sex markets where increasingly younger victims are exploited.

While conducting the investigation in the U.S., Shared Hope International (SHI) discovered a critical need for shelter, holistic services, and outreach to at-risk and exploited youth. To address this need, SHI funded organizations in each of the three target cities.

Covenant House Georgia in Atlanta has been serving Atlanta-area youth since 2006 through its Crisis Center and street outreach. SHI funded services and bed space at the Covenant House Georgia Shelter for at-risk and trafficked youth.

Polaris Project operates The Nightingale Center, the only transitional shelter exclusively for victims of trafficking in the Washington, DC area. SHI awarded a subgrant to fund costs associated with the comprehensive, holistic, victim-centered support services for victims of trafficking.

WestCare Nevada is a comprehensive service facility and shelter in Las Vegas, Nevada which provides shelter and treatment to juvenile victims of sex trafficking. WestCare NV began operating the Dusk to Dawn Street Outreach Program in the Las Vegas Metropolitan area in 1998, targeting street youth at a high risk of sexual exploitation. SHI funded the expansion of WestCare’s Dusk to Dawn Street Outreach Program to specifically include victims of human trafficking, primarily prostituted juveniles.

You Are Never Alone (YANA) operates the drop-in center YANA Place in Baltimore, Maryland – a place of services and care for prostituted women and girls. SHI funded a three-stage outreach and training program in the greater Baltimore area focusing on intensive outreach to four known “strips” in Baltimore City in an effort to identify child trafficking victims and assist them in immediately accessing services. The project also included supporting efforts toward the organization of a Baltimore human trafficking task force and training within at-risk communities to identify and serve prostituted/trafficked children and women.

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