Human Trafficking Forum Draws Capacity Crowd – Malibu Times

Malibu is ready to take a stand against human trafficking.

I think this is the hottest ticket in town! said emcee and event organizer Lori Lerner Gray as she kicked off a free community forum on human trafficking to a capacity crowd of about 220 people last week.

The event, co-hosted by the Malibu Jewish Centers Sisterhood group and the Malibu Film Society, featured special guest speaker State Senator Henry Stern, representatives from New Light India Anchal project, Courageous Girls India and Nepal project, and a showing of the feature film Sold.

The purpose of the forum was to educate residents about what human trafficking is, and the fact that it happens all over the world, including Southern California.

When you think of human trafficking or sex slaves, you tend to think of places like India or Thailand, but no country is immune to this growing epidemic, Gray said, introducing the subject. Its now the second biggest criminal activity in the world drugs are number one and in the U.S., California is No. 1 in terms of the number of criminals and victims.

She explained that her Sisterhood group is dedicated to tikkun olam, Hebrew words for repairing the world, which they carry out through social actions and the pursuit of social justice.

Im especially inspired by my daughter Rachel, who made two trips to India through the New Light organization, Gray continued. She came home with stories of women and children living in a world where they can still be sold.

State Senator Henry Stern, who represents Malibu in Sacramento, talked about the updated Human Trafficking bill SB 225 he introduced in the wake of a major human trafficking sweep in California a couple of months ago that yielded 474 arrests and identified at least 55 survivors.

If Sterns bill passes, all state hotels, motels, inns, B&Bs and transient lodgings (other than personal residences) will be required to post human trafficking hotline numbers that the public or victims can call or text to seek help or report unlawful activity. He says the ability to text would help empower millennials and Generation Z, because hotlines dont work for those age groups.

Ever since I arrived in the State Senate, Ive found that battling issues like this is a lonely business, Stern said. The people who live in the shadows dont have lobbyists and super PACs behind them ... Each of us has a role to play with an issue like human trafficking, because these issues are right under our nose, not just in India. Its very easy to not notice, but if you happen to be in a hotel lobby in a place like Canoga Park and see two people go off to a room together and it looks suspicious, do something.

California is the conscience of this nation, and we have to say were not going to be a culture based on misogyny and our baser instincts, Stern added. The victims in California tend to be [girls] ages 12 to 14.

The feature-length 2014 film Sold was based on the critically acclaimed and fact-based eponymous novel by Patricia McCormick. It was executive produced by Emma Thompson, stars Gillian Anderson and David Arquette, and directed/written by Oscar winner Jeffrey Brown. Screenings of the film help support the nonprofit Courageous Girls, and tell the story of a young girl from a mountain village in Nepal who is sold by her father and ends up in a nightmarish and brutal brothel-prison in Kolkata, India.

We set out to make a movie to change the world, Samantha Kinkaid, a local representative of that organization said. We wanted every person who saw it to feel compelled to do something. She said the global average age of trafficked children is 12, and that most come out of it with tremendous PTSD issues. Her organization helps them to re-enter society, overcome stigma and find employment.

Malibu native Rachel Gray, who inspired her mother to organize this program, has been to India several times first in a study abroad program, and later to make a documentary as part of a traveling for social change program for the nonprofit New Light.

New Light fosters children whose parents are sex workers and creates opportunities for women who have been sex trafficked, Rachel said. Traveling to India completely changed my world view... It planted a seed for me about doing meaningful work and being involved.

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Human Trafficking Forum Draws Capacity Crowd - Malibu Times