I walked down the infamous Street in
Calcutta India for the first time in
2003 10,000 women and girls standing in
line waiting for a customer to choose
them from the line girls face is caked
with makeup and plastered smiles it took
me a while to understand what I was
witnessing the sexual exploitation of
women and girls for profit this was a
business at first I was shocked and then
I was sad and then I was angry I started
to work with these women in Calcutta
India and this red-light district
10,000 women and girls 30 percent
underage that’s 3,000 girls aged 17 and
under but the youngest being as young as
12 this was my introduction to human
trafficking in 2003 human trafficking is
the use of force fraud or coercion to
perform a sex act for the sake of profit
or to cause a minor to perform a sex act
for profit you don’t actually have to be
moved anywhere to be trafficked you just
need someone with a vulnerability that
someone else will exploit for their own
personal gain for 2 years I sat and
listened to stories of women in Calcutta
India and this red-light district
stories of crushed dreams of shame and
survival
and after two years of listening to
these stories my friend Sarah Lance and
I couldn’t just sit and do nothing so we
started a business called sorry Bari to
give women away out in 2005 we started
with three women when I left in 2008
that same company employed 30 women and
now over 10 years later that company
employs 120 women when I came back from
India and returned to the States I found
that the same thing that was happened in
India was happening right here in my own
backyard the same force fraud and
coercion used to exploit people’s
vulnerabilities was right here in
Jacksonville Florida and once again i
sat with women and I listened to their
stories and once again I couldn’t just
sit and do nothing so we started a
business called rethreaded rethread its
mission is to renew hope and reignite
dreams and release potential for
survivors of human trafficking through
business we’ve created ashamed free and
grace-filled community where women can
be safe and reclaim their lives since
starting in 2012 we have helped over 40
women reclaim their lives and I love my
job I love my job
but we are doing nothing to stop human
trafficking rethreaded could hire as
many women as possible but it will not
stop human trafficking until we end
demand the current strategy to end human
trafficking is to arrest traffickers
give women services and raise awareness
has been off the mark we’ve been
treating the underlying symptoms that
are actually driving this industry the
buying of sex and as much as I love my
job wouldn’t it be great if I didn’t
have to have this job
what if traffickers had no one to sell
to what if the websites that made
millions of dollars selling women and
children were shut down and what if all
of this happened because in our cities
no one was buying human beings for sex
the exploitation of our men women and
children will not stop until we in
demand it is basic business principles
according to the world labor
organization human trafficking globally
brings in ninety nine billion dollars a
year web-based sex spying on
backpage.com
starting in 2004 has brought in five
hundred million dollars of prostitution
related income in a study done by RIA
house in Boston over a three-month
period an estimated two point five
million dollars of sex was bought human
trafficking is a business but people
will not create a product if there was
no one to buy it if we in demand we can
end human trafficking now most people
think that human trafficking is a female
issue but we have to realize that it
takes all of us women and men to come
together to change the culture of demand
in our cities but men I have some bad
news for you 99% of customers are men
men are driving and
industry of exploitation and men are
driving an industry that exploits
vulnerabilities but this is what I
believe and this is what I know that a
man’s journey to buying sex is broken
and a woman’s journey to being sold is
broken I was talking to one of our
employees at rethreaded
who’s a survivor of human trafficking
and I asked her the question how can we
stop men from buying sex she gets really
quiet and looks at me and says Kristin
it’s like the brokenness of my addiction
and exploitation would meet a man’s
brokenness of loneliness and after our
interaction we both got nothing we
wanted and both left worse off and stats
prove this woman’s experience men are
buying sex for a need for power to avoid
intimacy and loneliness and a study done
by demand abolitionists of sex buyers
64% of men wanted to stop what they were
doing and it is so easy for us to shame
men it’s so easy for us to be angry but
what I have learned is that shame heals
no one
it does not heal the survivors of human
it does not heal or stop a man from
buying sex so what does
there are countries around the world who
are stopping human trafficking by
addressing the issue of demand one of
the most successful models has been the
Nordic model which Sweden adopted in
1999 the Nordic model has three
components number one stop arresting
woman for prostitution number two
instead of arresting offer women
services so they have a chance to
reclaim their lives the third part is
start arresting sex buyers this creates
a deterrent for men and holds them
accountable for driving an industry of
exploitation and guess what
this is working according to a study by
the Nordic gender Institute over the
past 15 years Sweden has reduced demand
and other countries are starting to
follow in the footsteps of Sweden
including Norway Ireland France and
Canada in our own country over 900
cities have started to address the issue
of demand whether it be the Nordic model
or a version of the Nordic model in
Seattle they’ve taken things a step
further after men are arrested they take
a course that was created by the
organization for prostitution survivors
called
ending sexual exploitation a course for
men this is a 10-week course
and three of the instructors are
previous sex buyers these are men who
are once driving the industry and have
now been healed and are going back to
stop it so what will we do now that
you’ve heard this you have to be just
like me you can’t just sit here and do
nothing we have to continue to support
organizations who give women a chance to
reclaim their lives but we have to start
having the difficult and uncomfortable
conversation about demand well we start
to address this issue with
accountability and compassion will we
come together women and men to end this
and you all know I love my job but please put me out of this job
Calcutta India for the first time in
2003 10,000 women and girls standing in
line waiting for a customer to choose
them from the line girls face is caked
with makeup and plastered smiles it took
me a while to understand what I was
witnessing the sexual exploitation of
women and girls for profit this was a
business at first I was shocked and then
I was sad and then I was angry I started
to work with these women in Calcutta
India and this red-light district
10,000 women and girls 30 percent
underage that’s 3,000 girls aged 17 and
under but the youngest being as young as
12 this was my introduction to human
trafficking in 2003 human trafficking is
the use of force fraud or coercion to
perform a sex act for the sake of profit
or to cause a minor to perform a sex act
for profit you don’t actually have to be
moved anywhere to be trafficked you just
need someone with a vulnerability that
someone else will exploit for their own
personal gain for 2 years I sat and
listened to stories of women in Calcutta
India and this red-light district
stories of crushed dreams of shame and
survival
and after two years of listening to
these stories my friend Sarah Lance and
I couldn’t just sit and do nothing so we
started a business called sorry Bari to
give women away out in 2005 we started
with three women when I left in 2008
that same company employed 30 women and
now over 10 years later that company
employs 120 women when I came back from
India and returned to the States I found
that the same thing that was happened in
India was happening right here in my own
backyard the same force fraud and
coercion used to exploit people’s
vulnerabilities was right here in
Jacksonville Florida and once again i
sat with women and I listened to their
stories and once again I couldn’t just
sit and do nothing so we started a
business called rethreaded rethread its
mission is to renew hope and reignite
dreams and release potential for
survivors of human trafficking through
business we’ve created ashamed free and
grace-filled community where women can
be safe and reclaim their lives since
starting in 2012 we have helped over 40
women reclaim their lives and I love my
job I love my job
but we are doing nothing to stop human
trafficking rethreaded could hire as
many women as possible but it will not
stop human trafficking until we end
demand the current strategy to end human
trafficking is to arrest traffickers
give women services and raise awareness
has been off the mark we’ve been
treating the underlying symptoms that
are actually driving this industry the
buying of sex and as much as I love my
job wouldn’t it be great if I didn’t
have to have this job
what if traffickers had no one to sell
to what if the websites that made
millions of dollars selling women and
children were shut down and what if all
of this happened because in our cities
no one was buying human beings for sex
the exploitation of our men women and
children will not stop until we in
demand it is basic business principles
according to the world labor
organization human trafficking globally
brings in ninety nine billion dollars a
year web-based sex spying on
backpage.com
starting in 2004 has brought in five
hundred million dollars of prostitution
related income in a study done by RIA
house in Boston over a three-month
period an estimated two point five
million dollars of sex was bought human
trafficking is a business but people
will not create a product if there was
no one to buy it if we in demand we can
end human trafficking now most people
think that human trafficking is a female
issue but we have to realize that it
takes all of us women and men to come
together to change the culture of demand
in our cities but men I have some bad
news for you 99% of customers are men
men are driving and
industry of exploitation and men are
driving an industry that exploits
vulnerabilities but this is what I
believe and this is what I know that a
man’s journey to buying sex is broken
and a woman’s journey to being sold is
broken I was talking to one of our
employees at rethreaded
who’s a survivor of human trafficking
and I asked her the question how can we
stop men from buying sex she gets really
quiet and looks at me and says Kristin
it’s like the brokenness of my addiction
and exploitation would meet a man’s
brokenness of loneliness and after our
interaction we both got nothing we
wanted and both left worse off and stats
prove this woman’s experience men are
buying sex for a need for power to avoid
intimacy and loneliness and a study done
by demand abolitionists of sex buyers
64% of men wanted to stop what they were
doing and it is so easy for us to shame
men it’s so easy for us to be angry but
what I have learned is that shame heals
no one
it does not heal the survivors of human
it does not heal or stop a man from
buying sex so what does
there are countries around the world who
are stopping human trafficking by
addressing the issue of demand one of
the most successful models has been the
Nordic model which Sweden adopted in
1999 the Nordic model has three
components number one stop arresting
woman for prostitution number two
instead of arresting offer women
services so they have a chance to
reclaim their lives the third part is
start arresting sex buyers this creates
a deterrent for men and holds them
accountable for driving an industry of
exploitation and guess what
this is working according to a study by
the Nordic gender Institute over the
past 15 years Sweden has reduced demand
and other countries are starting to
follow in the footsteps of Sweden
including Norway Ireland France and
Canada in our own country over 900
cities have started to address the issue
of demand whether it be the Nordic model
or a version of the Nordic model in
Seattle they’ve taken things a step
further after men are arrested they take
a course that was created by the
organization for prostitution survivors
called
ending sexual exploitation a course for
men this is a 10-week course
and three of the instructors are
previous sex buyers these are men who
are once driving the industry and have
now been healed and are going back to
stop it so what will we do now that
you’ve heard this you have to be just
like me you can’t just sit here and do
nothing we have to continue to support
organizations who give women a chance to
reclaim their lives but we have to start
having the difficult and uncomfortable
conversation about demand well we start
to address this issue with
accountability and compassion will we
come together women and men to end this
and you all know I love my job but please put me out of this job
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