“The issue of women being exploited, mistreated and devalued is a global concern,” and Chris Gilge of the Starfish Project will be one of our featured panelists at the Tillicum Woodbrook Neighborhood Association (TWNA) meeting on January 3, 2013.
In Time for Christmas
As the Starfish Project has developed a jewelry business in order to provide women with alternative employment enabling them in turn to provide for their families, you can support them by purchasing their products in time for Christmas, all the proceeds of which go back into the program of “rescuing women from the streets and providing a healthy and life-giving working environment.”
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Sex and labor trafficking is a state issue
Joining Gilge on the panel Jan. 3rd at the TWNA will be Rose Gundersen, co-founder and executive director of Washington’s Engage, a program whose “vision is to eradicate sex and labor trafficking through providing knowledge and tools that empower government, business, and grassroots leaders to take action in communities across Washington State.”
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During her law school years, Gundersen “conducted policy research on human trafficking at the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and in that role she helped to create the research basis for Rob McKenna’s Presidential Initiative on Human Trafficking launched in 2011. This Initiative resulted in the creation of the Pillars of Hope Agenda and a Resolution to End Human Trafficking by leaders of the National Association of Attorneys General.”
Teenage Exploitation is a Local Concern
Though the Starfish Project was established in 2006 focusing on the exploited women in Asia where it has since expanded to two cities and now reaches 35 women, rescuing teenage girls is of great local concern as well and this issue will be addressed by the panelists at the TWNA January 3rd meeting.
Two years ago this last month “one-third of the teenage girls rescued by the FBI – of the sixty-nine children rescued in 40 cities across the country in its annual national operation, the ‘Innocence Lost National Initiative’ - were found in the Puget Sound region topping the national list of recoveries for the third year in a row.
“At any given time, there are 300 to 500 juvenile prostitutes — most of them girls ages 11 to 17 — in King County, mostly in Seattle and cities to the south, some brought to the area from other states, according to a 2008 report on juvenile prostitution.”
Reading-glass distribution in Siberia – Our featured presenter at the Tillicum Woodbrook Neighborhood Association Dec.6th (6:30 P.M., Tillicum Community Center, 14916 Washington Ave. SW) will be our own local Tillicum resident Carol Kohl who recently returned from Siberia. Carol writes, “I was recently reading a book that challenged me to do something for others but where I would be out of my comfort zone. An opportunity to go to Siberia opened up so I decided to go. The journey to get there was challenging as well as the time in Siberia. I look forward to sharing about some of my experiences of helping people receive reading glasses.”
