Day 3

Vital Voices, K Street, American History Museum, and Calvary Women

Today was filled with a lot of exciting experiences! We began our day by visiting the Vital Voices offices in downtown DC. The office building had marble floors and mirrored elevators, and as we all piled into the conference room to meet with Emily, a staff member, everyone was remarking at how different this space looked from the other organizations we visited. Although at first the luxury of the office felt wrong, as if more money was funding the facility than the issue at hand, we realized that Vital Voices truly has played a vital role in responding to human trafficking abroad. Emily told us about her experiences working with women and girls in the Peace Corps, and how that lead her to join Vital Voice where she manages the company finances, and travels around the world aiding community leaders fight human trafficking in her spare time. Gigi, one of Emily's colleagues, also wowed the group with her story about working as a prosecutor on a landmark case against human trafficking in New Jersey before joining Vital Voices' legal team. By the end of our visit, the entire group felt inspired- and a little stressed out- by the seemingly endless career opportunities we were now aware of!

Renewed after Vital Voices, we took some time to reflect on the new information we had about human trafficking while walking down K Street, one of the DC tracks where human trafficking takes place. During the day, the street bustled with businessmen and women, workers talking over their lunch breaks, and sounds of construction. In the distance, the peak of the Washington Monument towered over the skyline. K Street looked like an average stretch in the city- nothing like the images of tracks that we had seen in documentaries. Because of this, I found myself constantly forgetting- and then forcing myself to remember- that at night and in the early hours of the morning a much darker scene takes place. We walked in silence to help ourselves keep this in mind, and I found the dramatic contrast of the situation moving. Many members of the group shared in this experience, and I think we all felt even more motivated to take action after the walk. Luckily, we had the chance to do exactly that serving women experiencing or at risk of homelessness at Calvary Women's Shelter at night.


A lot of the members of our ASB group did not get to go to Calvary on our pre-trip service, so it was nice to have everyone experience Calvary together this time around. Many of us were able to engage in conversations with the women staying at the shelter and we all learned so much through these interactions. Some women were not as open; however, some surprised us with the information they were willing to share. I was personally touched by how much one of the women I spoke with encouraged me with her positive attitude and joy despite the situation she is in. She was so thankful to have us around that night and it was amazing to receive that encouragement and to leave fulfilled when we were the ones trying to offer up an act of service by serving dinner. For those of us who were able to go to Calvary last time, it was amazing to see the turn over in the women staying there and witness who was able to find homes and who Calvary was able to take in as a result of those women finding homes. During reflection we all remarked at how interesting the day was, because it exposed us to vastly different- but equally as important- methods of contributing to improving the lives of those in need around us.

-Caroline and Chloe