For 2 years, I worked as a social work case manager, helping newly arrived refugees and survivors of human trafficking adjust to their new lives in the U.S. On a regular basis, my co-workers and I would discuss our work, new issues that came up with clients, new things we learned, but always circling back to 2 issues:
- the anti-trafficking activist movement and all the social workers and law enforcement who are helping trafficking survivors are really just putting a bandaid on the issue;
- so how do we stop trafficking, prevent it before it starts, and decrease the demand for forced labor? and how do we empower people to avoid becoming vulnerable to the fear, deception, and violence that traffickers utilize?
I left that job for various reasons, but that 2nd point– preventing trafficking and empowering vulnerable people– stayed with me. Over the next few years, as I got back to my creative roots and my love of fashion, I saw the potential of the internet and the fashion industry to create change. So here we are.
As with anything that has to do with human beans, trafficking is hella complicated— its causes, prevention, and rehabilitation (aka "rescue") of survivors.
One thing that is a common thread, though, is that ultimately all trafficking survivors were taken advantage of by someone who knew they needed to make money to survive. They were preyed on because of their need for an income and their dream of the better life that would bring.
So, from early on, I realized that one way to keep people out of such a desperate economic situation, is to work to make fair trade the rule rather than the exception.
#ClothIsCulture