iEmpathize

We spent the day in Toledo capturing the story of  14 and 15 year old girls brutally kidnapped and prostituted to motels and truck stops along the highway between Toledo and Detroit. Shari, now 20, is an incredible survivor and passionately shared her story in hopes of making a real difference in the lives of other trafficking victims. Her story is being featured in a film and mixed media exhibit we are producing on domestic trafficking.  We are also partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking on an industry training film to help truckers identify and intervene in trafficking situations they might encounter. The projects will be released late Summer / early Fall. We will provide blog updates over the next few weeks from different parts of the U.S. Follow along and partner with us!

Toledo Teens Trafficked at U.S. Truck Stops from Brad Riley on Vimeo.

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The average age for a young girl to enter the sex for sale industry in the United States is 12. There are an estimated 200-400,000 prostituted minors in the US. 50,000 persons are trafficked into the US each year. Due to the transient nature of truck stops much of domestic sex trafficking takes place along our nation’s highways and at its truck stops.

iEmpathize is partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking to produce a film that will bring awareness to the trucking industry and give truckers a way to engage the issue and save kids. The short film will feature footage from truckers, survivors of trafficking, and expert commentary from law enforcement and practitioners. It will also serve as a training film to educate and enlist trucking companies, safety directors, and the truckers themselves who will join together to end this heinous crime.

On this domestic iEmpathize Expedition, iE will go undercover to gather story-telling artifacts, photography, and film footage that will be incorporated into trucking industry events and be integrated into our exhibit on human trafficking.

This very important advocacy tool still needs funding and we can’t do it without you! Contact us for more information and consider contributing today.

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Students from the U.S. paired up with Mexican students to tour the street exhibit around Mexico City. The street exhibit was featured on university campuses, at a benefit concert, and at Mexico’s Congressional Hall. The media loop was aired on one of Mexico’s national news broadcasts.

Mexico Street Exhibit Media Loop (Spanish) from Brad Riley on Vimeo.

Congresswoman and Abolitionist Rosi Orozco at a press conference where the iE Street Exhibit was featured.

Mexican pop star Kalimba preformed at a benefit concert that drew hundreds of people and raised thousands of dollars for the vulnerable children of Mexico City.

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iEmpathize is run almost entirely by volunteers. This makes us proud because so many people are empathizing with the hardships faced by victims of the sex trafficking industry. It also means that virtually every dollar given to iEmpathize is used to educate people about the horrors of this crime, prevent it from happening, rescue victims or rehabilitate them back to manageable lives.

In the next several blog posts, we are highlighting some of the groups of people who are doing amazing volunteer work for iEmpathize. The Outlet is one of those “abolitionist” groups dedicated to advocating for iEmpathize.

The Outlet is a group of both married and single people in their 20’s and 30’s.  Every week they gather from 4:00 to 5:45 p.m. at the Venue to discuss and share life.  They do fun things together like go to movies, parties, football games, skiing and camping, and adventuring to foreign countries! Most importantly, at least once a month, they do a service project – sometimes it ends up being three or four. There are over 230 people involved in this group.

The Outlet heard about iEmpathize in June 2009. Since their passion is to make the world a better place, they were inspired to join us in our pursuit to end child trafficking. Their goal is to help iEmpathize continue raising awareness through fundraising, volunteer service, and wherever we need their help.  They believe that no task is too little or insignificant.  Right now, The Outlet is teaming with iE on a trip to Cambodia to assist in building a safe home. And they have a large group participating in the Scooter Hero Ride and Rally on Saturday, July 24^th at the Pepsi Center. We appreciate every ounce of their time and energy.

If you are interested in connecting with The Outlet, you can contact them through their website.  Everyone is welcome!!!

This summer, on July 24th, Colorado will come together to raise thousands of dollars in one day for the protection and restoration of vulnerable children. YOU can make a tangible difference and have a blast doing it.

Scooter Hero

The Scooter Hero Ride and Walk is a city-wide publicity, awareness, and fundraising event inspired by one of our Cambodian field partnerships. Yeng runs a child protection program where he rides his scooter to villages training the community on how to protect their children from traffickers. With Yeng as our inspiration, let’s join together to raise significant resources for iE’s field partners and projects.

The Scooter Hero Pledge Invite your friends to walk or ride… inspire your friends to sponsor your walk or ride with a donation. Click here to join now!

We will walk and ride through LoDo escorted by the Denver Police “parade style” from the Pepsi Center to Coors Field and back again. Whether you are a scooter rider or a walker, let’s come together to make a difference!

Participation

Participate as an individual or a team to benefit the kids we support and the people who dedicate their lives to them.

• Scooter Rider Ride your own, borrow one, buy one, rent one. We don’t care how you get here, just get here if you can. (Legal scooters and operators only.)
• Walker Not into scootering? Walk the route to raise funds for our amazing partners!
• Virtual Participant If you can’t make it to the event raise money from anywhere in the world on the behalf of a friend, a Scooter Hero team, or to simply help vulnerable kids!
• Volunteer Help with planning and recruiting today or help serve the day of the event.

Raise at least $100 and get your Scooter Hero T-Shirt plus two Denver Nugget Preseason Game tickets. Raise at least $250 and get an official Scooter Hero Cape, SH T-Shirt, and two Denver Nugget Preseason Game tickets.

We are very grateful to Kroenke Sports Enterprises Charities for thier generous sponsorship.

Casa Alianza has 22 years of experience as a street outreach to vulnerable kids. We have connected with them to tell the at-risk and prevention story. They are an amazing prevention org that serves as a drop in shelter and home for abandoned children and youth. They have some great programs and 150 beds. We will be featuring them in our media communicating prevention and child protection work. David, their street outreach director, took us to the areas of the city where kids are most vulnerable living on and under the streets. We hung out and played Uno and Soccer to break the ice. The kids then opened up and gave us tours of their homes. A group of about 20 teens live in a small tarp village. Another group lives under the streets. We climbed though drainage pipes and tunnels under the city where we sat and talked with them. In spite of it all, they have made these places home. They were so gracious and hospitable. We definitely made some new friends.

Each of the street tribes have girls that live with them. The leaders have their pick. We hung out with one 15 year old girl who is two months pregnant. All of the kids are so addicted to sniffing/huffing that they will do anything for it. There are crack pipes and PVC glue cans laying around everywhere. They pour the PVC glue into plastic water bottles, dip tissue in the solvent then huff and sniff the soaked tissue. Local pimps use this to exploit the girls and force them into prostitution in exchange for the glue. Four of the girls at the safe home were rescued from this very scenario. Two of the safe home girls have had babies from when they lived there… one from a pimp. One of the girls was 13 years old when she had her baby. We gathered some great artifacts for our exhibit, including the bottles, tissue, PVC glue can, and a crack pipe… all given to us as gifts from the kids.

We were escorted by armored/bullet proof SUV through the most dangerous and infamous areas for street prostitution in Mexico City to gather exploitation media. We were in one place there where you can rent a motorcycle and machine gun by the hour to do drive-bys… not joking. Many underage girls are being exploited here. Women in these areas line up on the streets to be chosen by clients. In another area the girls are paraded in the alley one by one in front of a lineup of men until one chooses her. This is where Rosi Orozo, the founder of the safe home that we partner with, personally rescued the first girls three years ago.

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We regularly host iEmpathize Showcases that immerse people in our advocacy experiences and feature ways to partner with us. The showcase highlights our field partnerships and projects explaining how and why we support them.

This Saturday at 7PM we will be in Colorado Springs at the Loft. RSVP if you would like to come.

iE Gallery – Thanks to the generosity of a few of our supporters the iE Gallery will be available through the end of May. Our SE Asia Child Trafficking Exhibit is installed in our gallery space in downtown Boulder, CO. The space is available for  your own private awareness and fundraising event. Just schedule the date with us and we will help you with the rest. Brad, iE’s President, will personally share the stories behind the film, photographs and artifacts. If you live in the Colorado Front Range area book an evening and invite your friends to come be a part!

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Mexico City Update 3 from Brad Riley on Vimeo.

iEmpathize was in Mexico City gathering media that will be used to raise awareness and funds to end the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children in Mexico. In addition to partnering with a safe home that is restoring 25 girls ages 9-18, we are rallying behind a movement of mass anti-trafficking legislation, rescue efforts, and prevention programs. There is a powerful group of Mexican abolitionists that are passionately leading the way and we are proud to come along side them. The media is being developed into two Mexican street exhibits to be used by university students, and an iE mixed media immersive exhibit that will be in English and Spanish. We believe these tools will have a profound impact both in Mexico and the US.

We had a film interview and photo shoot with Rosi Orozco who is the founder of the foundation that runs the safe home. We filmed interviews with survivors and gathered all kinds of candid media of all the girls throughout the safe home. It was terrific and aesthetically beautiful. We spent time at the safe home sharing stories, laughing with the girls, and holding the babies of a couple of the girls. The stories are heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time.

Maria was 9 years old when she was first prostituted. She was trafficked from Guatemala to Mexico. Her father killed her mother and she went to live with her grandmother.  Her aunt brought her to Cancun, where her alcoholic uncle pimped her out to neighbors. Her victimizations included being raped by two men at same time. To this day, she uncontrollably wets and soils the bed from the damage she suffered. She is now safe and experiencing deep love and profound healing. We enjoyed her laughing, smiling and teasing us all day. (name changed in behalf of her dignity)

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Mexico Update 2 from Brad Riley on Vimeo.

We attended a Presidential event where President Calderon lit us up with a passionate address specifying the fight to see organized crime crumble. Among other things, he shared his disdain for the trafficking of children. It was such an inspiring evening and we were honored to be a part of it.

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