Day 4 and 5!

Our ASB trip has been wonderful thus far. We have learned so much more about the issue of human trafficking through various information sessions with leaders in the fight against it, including Tyra from Fair Girls, Rachel from Courtney's House, human rights advocates from Vital Voices and numerous videos. Volunteering at Calvary Women, Courtney's House and teaching at Thurgood Marshall have all been ways for us to truly showcase our newly gained knowledge about the subject and to help those who are helping human trafficking survivors on a daily basis. Aside from the context of the trip, bonding with our team has been an incredibly fun and exciting experience. I have loved how we have progressed from some nervous tension the first day to now being friends, open with each other and acting stupid together constantly. It is refreshing to see just how quickly we have been able to bond and create friendships, thanks to the nature of our trip, our wonderful trip leaders, Sarahann, Sam and Mandy, and the character of every participating individual. I cannot wait to continue growing this friendship and spending time with everyone even beyond the end date of this trip.

Three highlights from this trip thus far for me are speaking with an incredibly inspiring woman at Calvary Women, listening to how Courtney's House functions/what it does for its survivors and discussing the issue of human trafficking with seniors at Thurgood Marshall Academy (charter high school). I love going to Calvary because we can sit down around dinner and talk with women who are living there. The woman I talked to on Tuesday was incredibly inspiring. She did not even know our names and willingly and enthusiastically opened up to us, telling her story. To hear about all of the obstacles she has faced in the past decade was extremely disheartening. However, to also hear and observe how strong she is still and how passionate she is about moving on and changing her life by starting over is incredibly inspiring. The strength and openness this woman portrayed around us as strangers was very cool and made for a very impactful dinner conversation. By the end of the night, I was upset when Chef Barbara came around, telling us that it was time to clean up, because I wanted to continue talking! 

Upon arriving at Courtney's House, their Director of Operations, Rachel, talked with us about what exactly their organization does and the difficulties involved in their work. She discussed the different aspects of support and care they provide their survivors and the work of the investigative/street outreach and public awareness team. She mentioned how they have a staff of only six employees while working with 20 survivors in the program currently. When I heard this, I was completely blown away. I could not comprehend how, with only six employees, Courtney's House was so well-known in the human trafficking combatant sphere and how effective they are at what they do. These six women truly touch and change the lives of the survivors in their program. It is incredibly inspiring to know that the work of so few can have such a profound impact. This idea truly reflects the passion they have for the work they do, which was clearly portrayed while talking with Rachel. The way in which she talked about the survivors, the issue and the confidential nature of their organization's work beamed with passion and genuine care. It was truly a wonderful experience to be able to help such an incredible organization significantly through just some simple spring cleaning!

Today we were given the privilege to talk with a class of seniors at Thurgood Marshall Academy about the factors involved in human trafficking. Our goal in speaking with these students was to hopefully raise awareness about the seriousness of the issue, break misconceptions and to both equip them with the tools and to inspire them become advocates of fighting human trafficking. Going into it, no one knew how the students would respond because of the nature and seriousness of the subject. Being one of the team members facilitating the introduction, I was very excited to be able to start off such a cool experience, but also slightly apprehensive how effective I would be at engaging the students. However, from the very beginning the students made my job extremely easy because they were engaged, excited and interested to discuss human trafficking and more than willing to contribute to the conversation. Seeing such participation and interest so quickly made me very excited about the rest of our introduction and of the lesson plan. It was a really neat experience to be able to walk the students through the concept of human trafficking while they were so responsive. However, the best part of the experience was seeing just how emotionally effected they were by the severity and seriousness of the issue. You could tell that we brought them new information that really broke down those pop culture induced misconceptions of human trafficking and showed them just how sad and frustrating this issue is. Multiple students were yelling that we should conduct undercover missions to catch the pimps in action and arrest them. The emotional response that the students experienced made me very happy because it showed that we accomplished our goals in talking with the class about such an important issue today.

This trip rocks!!! Thanks for reading :)