AJWS Reports Spring 2009 | American Jewish World Service

American Jewish World Service is proud to announce the release of the spring 2009 issue of AJWS Reports: Displaced by Endless War

The world’s poor are increasingly on the move, forced to migrate to escape war, genocide and human rights abuse, to rebuild after natural disasters and resettle when ancestral lands are exploited. This global movement destroys lives, communities and livelihoods around the globe. The spring 2009 issue is dedicated to this critical global crisis.

View the entire issue on-line here.

Enjoy videos, profiles and special features not found in the print version below.

Watch “Paying the Price,” humanitarian filmmaker Alex Halkin’s collaborative documentary on the conditions of Guerreren migrant workers. Halkin explores the tragic deaths of child laborers like David Salgado Aranda in the context of an unjust system.

In this moving tribute, CNN honors the librarian who transformed literacy in Ethiopia, Yohannes Gebregeorgis, founder of AJWS partner Ethiopia Reads.

Read about AJWS’s partners in Africa, Asia and the Americas who are working to help refugee and internally displaced populations find shelter, security and independence.

Burma

Purpose: To increase food security by strengthening local livelihoods and self-reliance in conflict-affected areas of Burma.

Sri Lanka

Purpose: To combat gender- and ethnic-based inequality and violence through a strong network of women activists leading public advocacy actions and organizing community discussions of women’s rights and women affected by violence.

Sri Lanka

Purpose: To provide economic and psychosocial support and a space for free dialogue for war affected female headed households.

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A portrait of modern-day slavery in central India.
AJWS partner Shaheen Resource Center works to curb the incidence of sex trafficking in the slums of Hyderabad. Read about its work and the brave women it empowers to find life after trafficking.

“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude,” states the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet human trafficking, particularly for sexual slavery, is a flourishing industry. In Hyderabad, India, as in many parts of the world, poverty cripples the ability to have a safe and secure life—particularly for women and girls.

By Sara Hahn

“One member of our staff interviewed a local family in Hyderabad. The whole day she was there, they had no meals to eat. One of their children brought back a meal from school—and the whole family crowded around to share it.”

In situations like this, it’s not surprising that humans are vulnerable to devastating forms of exploitation. So says Jameela Nishat, founder and secretary of the Shaheen Resource Center for Women in Andhra Pradesh, India. Shaheen works in the slums of Hyderabad’s Old City, where young women and girls are easy targets for sex trafficking.

“Many families are so poor that they will sell their daughters, many under the age of 18, to wealthy men from India or Gulf states,” says Nishat. “The girls are taken to the Gulf and exploited. They are cut off from communication with their families, made to do labor and to satisfy the man. But when the man loses interest in the woman, he deserts her. The girl is married off to many people, one after the other. In this way, some women are sold 10, 15, 20 times.”

Extreme poverty makes people vulnerable to manipulation and abuse. Women bear a disproportionate burden in this scheme, and are most commonly trafficked for the sex trade. This is particularly true in the Old City, where women and girls are treated as subordinates and given little freedom to make choices. Coupled with poverty, these conditions make females especially susceptible to deception, coercion and debt bondage. In essence, they become slaves.

“When I was very young, I saw my own cousins sold off,” says Nishat. “I didn’t understand what was happening—I didn’t understand that it was because of poverty. Finally I said: enough!”

Nishat founded Shaheen a decade ago. Now, the organization provides opportunities for women in 20 of Hyderabad’s slums to improve their social status and exercise their rights. “We organize meetings with these girls, we provide a resource center, we help them talk about the issues,” says Nishat. “We discuss how exploitation is wrong, we provide education about HIV/AIDS and we offer counseling.” If a girl chooses, Shaheen will help her go to the police to lodge a complaint.

Shaheen’s staff are a mix of Dalits (untouchables), Hindus and Muslims who come from the Old City and are themselves survivors of domestic violence and/or trafficking. They make regular home visits to encourage women to come to Shaheen and receive the support that they need.

“Girls and women who are trafficked deserve to live a peaceful, happy life, with an education and three meals a day,” says Nishat. “Once these girls are educated, they know how to say—‘My body is my body, it’s my property.’”

Unfortunately, sex trafficking is not unique to Hyderabad, nor to India. An end to sex trafficking will require a global change in the landscape of poverty, women’s rights and human rights. One by one, Shaheen is working to ensure that the women of Hyderabad understand their freedoms, earn their own incomes and defend themselves against trafficking and other forms of abuse. This will open many doors for women’s futures—and firmly shut the door on exploitation.