Taking action.
Across North America, God is calling Baptist women to reach out to and speak up for women and children caught in the trap of human trafficking, prostitution, and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation. American Baptist Women’s Ministries have led the way with their Break the Chains campaign (below). In 2009, 2010, and 2011, NABWU has allocated Day of Prayer offering grants to programs that reach out to women in prostitution or girls at risk in Canada, the USA and Guyana. Here are some of the other initiatives NABWU has encouraged.
AWARENESS, ADVOCACY, AND ACTION IN CANADA
Here’s how NABWU works: The Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking urges persons to wear white on January 11, 2011, Human Trafficking Day. Virginia Holmstrom e-mails this suggestion to her American Baptist Women’s Ministries constituency, encouraging them to sponsor or attend an event to raise awareness about human trafficking. Her e-mail is forwarded to Brenda Mann of Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec. Result? Brenda and the CBWOQ board don white T-shirts at their January meeting (above).
On Canada’s west coast, Michelle Miller of REED received a 2009 Baptist Women’s Day of Prayer grant for outreach to prostituted and trafficked women during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. “We had 357 people, largely women, volunteer with us! They came from England, Texas, Finland, Toronto, Michigan, and other spots on the globe,” Michelle reported to NABWU and the BWA Women’s Department.
Her team decided that the best way to create long-term change for trafficked women was to stand against the male demand for paid sex, and to do it very publicly. “The Salvation Army and others were doing outreach directly to the women, so we decided to tackle the root issue of demand,” Michelle said. “There is currently a challenge to [Canada’s] Charter of Rights and freedoms around the prostitution laws, and there is a good chance that it will become legal to buy and sell women. It was critical to make a strong statement that we will not tolerate the normalization of trafficking.”
Leading up to the Games they held twelve public forums about trafficking. Speakers included formerly prostituted women, Aboriginal women, Christian women, and men speaking about demand. “We found that many women caught the vision and were ready to go out into their own spheres of influence to work on ending the demand for sexual access to women’s bodies,” Michelle said
Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec helped Michelle and her friends bring their “Buying sex is not a sport” campaign to Toronto and raise awareness of the reasons why prostitution should not be legalized in their province. Several CBWOQ leaders joined Brenda Mann in the 2010 “Black Tie Dash” Human Trafficking Awareness event in Toronto.
WOMAN’S MISSIONARY UNION RESOURCES PROMOTE “PROJECT HELP”
The Woman’s Missionary Union has embarked on Project HELP. In 2010-2012 publications and resources for all ages are exploring responses to the “unethical, selfish use of human beings for the satisfaction of personal desires and/or profitable advantage.”
Within the WMU, Sharon Fields-McCormick of Atlanta, Georgia, became a leader in the anti-trafficking movement after she discovered that her city is a hub for human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children. She addressed the 2010 WMU annual meeting and led a packed workshop--which immediately led to requests for workshops in at least eight states. She has discovered other Southern Baptist women who share her passion and call.
Lynn Latham ministers to Orlando women who are prostitutes or work in clubs. Tomi Grover recently left a secure position with the Baptist General Convention of Texas in order to pursue her mission to stop trafficking. The Christian Women’s Job Corps partners with Triad Ladder of Hope, a North Carolina group dedicated to the abolition of modern-day slavery and the rescue and rehabilitation of its victims.
BREAK THE CHAIN CAMPAIGN EXCEEDS GOALS,
SPARKS NEW MINISTRIES AND EXPANDS INITIATIVES
Since launching Break the Chains: Slavery in the 21st Century three years ago, American Baptist women have raised over $480,000, far exceeding the initial fundraising goal of $250,000. This national mission project was scheduled to end in July, 2009, but women were so passionate about the project that it continued through 2010 with new awareness-raising activities, events, and fundraising projects planned for the rest of the year. In 2011 they expanded the initiative to Break the Chains and Stop the Pain. Each year will address a different facet of oppression, beginning this year with violence.
Through workshops, preaching, community events, online discussions, a trip to Washington, and a variety of other methods, AB Women’s Ministries inspired women across the U.S. and Puerto Rico to support ministries with trafficking victims, survivors, and at-risk women and children. Due to the success of the fundraising efforts, AB Women’s Ministries was able to provide grants to four national and four international projects in 2010 alone. Read this story by Beth Fogg.
“When AB Women's Ministries first planned its Break the Chains mission project and grant program, it was our hope and dream that American Baptists would be inspired and motivated to learn about the issue of human trafficking and hear God's call to respond in a variety of ways, perhaps by even starting a ministry to trafficked survivors or at-risk populations,” said executive director Virginia Holmstrom, “Indeed, this has happened. Break the Chains grants this year are providing start-up funds for new ministries that have emerged since Break the Chains was launched."
