Fighting Human Trafficking: An Info Session with Lamont Hiebert of Love146.

It was my first night in Phnom Penh, Cambodia when I entered the hostel I was supposed to stay in for the next two weeks. I was tired, overwhelmed, and sixteen. I got out of the van with thirteen other students to check in, and I was exhausted and sore from the long plane ride. As we walked in, I noticed an unusually large amount of women standing outside of this hostel, checking out each of us as we walked in. In my naïveté, I thought maybe they were just women who liked to hang out near the hostel lobby, which served alcohol and food. After finally checking in, we got into our rooms. I had two roommates, but before we could say anything, we heard loud squeaking from not just the room above us, but the room next to us. Everything suddenly made sense. Those women were sex workers, and we were staying at a brothel.

Our group leaders realized this the next day, and we moved out of the hostel immediately. Our next hostel was in a better area of town, surrounded by restaurants and nicer bars to cater to tourists. But just down the alley next to our hotel, I saw an even more horrifying sight. Young girls and boys hanging out together with one adult lurching over them, approaching white, male tourists to offer drugs, weapons, and sex. When I first realized this, all I wanted to do was tell the police, tell the government, tell anyone who might help the kids. I learned that there was nothing I could do. Where would the police put them? Back on the street so a pimp could take them again? The government is too corrupt to create a real plan, other than a paper campaign against sex tourism. I worked with organizations that helped and tried to save young men and women who were forced into sex slavery and exploitation, but there were so few organizations that there was no way all of these children could be helped. The situation seemed hopeless.

On Februrary 11, Lamont Hiebert of Love 146 led a discussion about child trafficking, slavery, and exploitation. Listening to the passion he had for his work gave me some hope, and hope that more people would get involved. Lamont explained that Love 146 fought child trafficking and sex slavery through “prevention and aftercare: defending the rights of the vulnerable, restoring hope to survivors, multiplying safe homes, empowering survivors through education.” The philosophy of Love 146 is “love restores, love inspires.” After sharing some moving stories about the children Love 146 has worked with and rescued, Hiebert played the group a song he wrote called “Fragile.” The song was even more moving when Hiebert explained plans for a music video and website photo gallery that would have children who went through exploitation to write down “It’s not my fault” and show their picture. Hiebert explained that his work for Love 146 is part of his love for making music, and has managed to intertwine the two through the Love 146 his website, videos, and other creative outlets. Hiebert used a school of rock quote to explain his work, “Social justice is the ultimate form of sticking it to the man.”

Hiebert’s presentation also included some frightening facts about slavery and trafficking: it is estimated that 27 million people in the world are enslaved, $32 billion is made off of human trafficking each year, 1.2 million people are trafficked annually, and the average cost of a slave is $150. The numbers are scary, but it is good to know that there are growing organizations that are building safe homes that will help more and more children get out of this dire situation. Sex trafficking is a huge problem abroad, whether of children or adults, and something many people are unaware of. One thing that even more people are unaware of, however, are the issues going on right here in the United States.

Hiebert shared information about trafficking in the United States: 30,000 children are at risk, 1 in 3 runaways is approached by a pimp or trafficker, 12-14 is the average age in which people enter into prostitution, and children are usually exploited through a false friendship/romance. I had never really thought about sex slavery as an issue in the United States, as I had always associated it with extremely corrupt police and a failed government, and was completely shocked to hear this more than anything else. It’s so easy to get caught up in what is going on abroad, which is often glamorized, when there are so many problems at home.

So, what can you do? Hiebert gave many ideas. For U.S. Prevention, there is the Safe HS, FairFund, Barbara Institute, and Love 146 who are involved and have websites that everyone could look into. There’s a national hotline for trafficking (1-888-373-7888), a text-messaging donation service for Love 146 (Texting to 85944: “LOVE” is a $5 donation, “LOVE146” is a $10 donation), and many ways to get involved with advocacy (pressuring child safe policies at hotels, pushing for hotels that have more respect for women, etc.). Visiting Love146’s website (www.love146.org) also has more information.