APPENDIX
ORGANIZATIONS COMBATTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING
International Organizations
Not for Sale
(United States, Thailand, Philippines, Mexico, Uganda, Peru, Ghana, Canada, and Cambodia): www.notforsalecampaign.org
Not for Sale started in San Francisco in 2006 as an abolitionist movement. It reaches out to survivors of human trafficking by mapping and documenting situations around the world and supporting projects abroad to help those in bondage.
International Justice Mission, Canada
(Head Office: London, ON; Field Offices: Bolivia, Cambodia, India): www.ijm.ca
IJM is a human rights agency that assists in rescuing and caring for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression in developing countries. IJM staffers also work with local officials to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.
World Vision
(Active in nearly one hundred countries): www.worldvision.ca
World Vision is a Christian relief, development, and advocacy organization that works with children, families, and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. They try to prevent and mitigate the effects of human trafficking through awareness raising, education, victim care, and advocating for change both in Canada and abroad.
Shared Hope International
(United States, Jamaica, India, Fiji, Nepal): www.sharedhope.org
Shared Hope International works to prevent, rescue, and restore victims of sex trafficking by raising awareness, empowering communities, and developing holistic restoration facilities. They’ve compiled several key reports on the international and domestic exploitation of women and children.
The Ratanak Foundation
(Canada, United Kingdom, Cambodia): www.ratanak.org
The Ratanak Foundation has worked exclusively in Cambodia since 1990 and focuses on the secure aftercare, rehabilitation, and social reintegration of trafficked children rescued from brothels. The founding director, Brian McConaghy, was previously with the RCMP.
Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center
(Washington, DC)
The HSTC serves as a multi-agency platform for the United States government on matters concerning illicit travel. It collects, collates, and vets information and disseminates actionable leads to U.S. law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic agencies, as well as U.S. foreign partners.
Ukrainian World Congress Task Force to Stop Human Trafficking
(Head Office: Toronto, ON; contacts in over thirty countries, including Ukraine): www.ukrainianworldcongress.org
UWC coordinates Ukrainian communities in the diaspora, representing the interests of over twenty million Ukrainians. More specifically, the UWC Task Force to Stop Human Trafficking coordinates the anti-trafficking activities of UWC member organizations worldwide and provides awareness resources and educational assistance. To encourage future collaboration, UWC strives to connect member organizations with local NGOs.
Help Us Help the Children Anti-Trafficking Initiative
(Toronto, ON, and Ukraine): www.chornobyl.ca
This project of the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund is committed to improving standards in orphanages throughout Ukraine. The initiative began because many young Ukrainians, some of them orphans, are being used as pawns in prostitution rings throughout Europe. The organization’s objectives include exploring ways to eliminate the exploitation that many orphans experience after leaving the institutions; organizing anti-trafficking educational seminars for orphans and orphanage directors; and providing trafficking awareness and life skills for high school students and graduating orphans.
National Organizations
The Salvation Army
www.salvationist.ca/trafficking
The Salvation Army is an international Christian organization that began its work in Canada in 1882 and has become the largest non-governmental direct provider of social services in the country, supporting four hundred communities across Canada. In 2004, the Canada and Bermuda Territory of the organization created an anti- trafficking network that seeks to raise awareness of sex trafficking and empower people to do something about it.
Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres
This is a pan-Canadian group of sexual assault centres that have come together to implement the legal, social, and attitudinal changes necessary to prevent, and ultimately eradicate, rape and sexual assault. As feminists they recognize that violence against women is one of the strongest indicators of prevailing societal attitudes toward females. The Canadian Association aims to act as a force for social change regarding violence against women at the individual, institutional, and political levels.
Canadian Centre for Child Protection Inc.
www.protectchildren.ca and www.cybertip.ca
A charitable organization dedicated to the personal safety of all children, the Canadian Centre aims to reduce child victimization by providing programs and services to Canadians. Initiatives include public awareness activities, a personal safety education program (“Kids in the Know”), a national tip line to report online sexual abuse of children (Cybertip.ca), and a program to help organizations prevent child sexual abuse (“Commit to Kids”). Cybertip.ca is a part of the Government of Canada’s national strategy to protect children from online sexual exploitation.
Stop the Trafficking Coalition
STT was formed in Toronto and consists of members from numerous organizations and motivated individuals across the country. The group coordinates anti-trafficking efforts in the Ukrainian Canadian community, as well as liaising with other anti-trafficking organizations in Canada and abroad. Activities include lobbying and supplying information to government and police organizations, organizing human trafficking awareness events, and providing a valuable internet information service about current events (pertaining to Canadians) surrounding human trafficking. Goals include raising awareness, prevention of sex trafficking, and victim support.
Beyond Borders
National, bilingual, and volunteer driven, Beyond Borders is the Canadian affiliate of ECPAT International, a global network of more than eighty groups in seventy-five countries. Activities include awareness initiatives, advocacy for improved legislation, monitoring of court cases, and promotion of effective prevention and protection strategies. Beyond Borders also provides education and training and intervenes in court cases to make sure victims have a voice.
Sex Trade 101
(Toronto, ON): www.sextrade101.com
Sex Trade 101 offers training on all aspects of the sex trade and trafficking in Canada, replacing myths and stereotypes about prostitution with facts and true stories from women who’ve experienced it. Likewise, the group believes in helping those trapped in the sex trade to get out alive, with their minds and their lives intact.
The Future Group
TFG’s work has centred on confronting human trafficking and child sexual exploitation in Canada and abroad. The organization co-operates with source countries to address the root causes of human trafficking, working closely with local NGOs. In Canada, TFG conducts awareness raising activities and policy research to improve the country’s response.
Walk with Me
Founded in May 2009, this NGO provides education, awareness, and training programs for the public, law enforcement officers, social agencies, and others who are concerned about human trafficking in Canada. Walk with Me also offers immediate victim services and longterm case management for human trafficking victims in collaboration with other organizations across Ontario.
Provincial and Local Organizations
B.C. Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons
OCTIP is responsible for the development and overall coordination of British Columbia’s strategy to address human trafficking under the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. Hotline: 1-888-712-7974.
REED (Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity)
(Vancouver, BC): www.embracedignity.org
REED works to end trafficking and sexual exploitation and strengthen the anti-trafficking movement. It provides safe spaces and companionship for women, public education on trafficking, and community empowerment on how to end prostitution through systemic change.
Servants Anonymous Society
(Surrey, BC): www.sasurrey.ca
This is a non-profit organization that provides long-term safe homes, free education and pre-employment training, hope and wholeness for women and female youth who’ve been sexually exploited and trafficked. Servants Anonymous Society works to sensitize and promote awareness of the special needs of survivors of human trafficking while offering women and female youth a way out of sex trade slavery. It serves local and international victims from across Canada.
Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter
(Vancouver, BC): www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca
A member of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, VRRWS is a non-profit feminist group that collectively operates a twenty-four-hour rape crisis line and a transition house for battered women and their children. VRRWS sees prostitution and trafficking of women for the sex trade as part of the same continuum of male violence against women and fights for the abolition of prostitution. The group houses women escaping any form of male violence, including prostitution and trafficking, and offers advocacy and accompaniment to hospital, courts, and the police. All services are free and confidential.
SCION Project (MOSAIC)
(Vancouver, Burnaby, and Lower Mainland, BC): www.mosaicbc.com
The project, which is part of MOSAIC’s settlement services, assists separated minors, including trafficked children, who are outside their countries of origin without parents or legal guardians. Support can include settlement and integration services, help with immigration, and employment and translation assistance. Designated as representatives at the IRB, MOSAIC also can assist adults with the same services.
Safe OnLine Outreach Society (SOLOS)
(British Columbia): www.safeonlineoutreach.com
SOLOS educates youth, parents, professionals, and the public about online sexual exploitation, cyber-bullying, and online gang recruitment. SOLOS representatives travel throughout British Columbia speaking to youth, parents, educators, child protection, and criminal justice professionals. In particular, they explain how these activities can put young people at risk and they outline strategies for effective responses.
Covenant House Vancouver
(Vancouver, BC): www.covenanthousebc.org
Covenant House Vancouver is a non-profit crisis intervention centre for homeless youth from sixteen to twenty-five. It’s one of twenty-one Covenant House sites throughout North and Central America that assist young people to exit the dangers of street life. Covenant House runs an outreach, drop-in, temporary shelter, and transitional living program through which youth can gain the skills needed for independent living.
ACT Alberta—Action Coalition on Human Trafficking
(Alberta): www.actalberta.org
ACT Alberta is a coalition of government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, survivors of trafficking, and the general public who help to identify and respond to human trafficking in Alberta. The coalition raises awareness of human trafficking and encourages community dialogue to develop locally relevant solutions to the problem.
Maple Leaf Alberta Projects
(Edmonton, AB): http://mapleleafap.wordpress.com
This organization is supporting the creation of recovery centres in Western Ukraine with Nashi, a Ukrainian NGO. The proposed residences for at-risk teens and trafficking victims will be places where they can gain vocational, language, and life skills. Maple Leaf Alberta Projects also raises awareness about human trafficking in Canada and collaborates with churches, service clubs, the media, police, and individuals.
Manitoba Trafficked Persons Response Team
(Winnipeg, MB): Dianna_Bussey@sacorrections.ca
This team responds to the needs of human trafficking victims in Manitoba. Members represent various organizations and agencies that can help trafficked persons both immediately and in the longer term.
Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, Inc.
(Winnipeg, MB): www.mamawi.com
Directed and controlled by Aboriginals, this community-based non-profit organization provides family resource support services for Aboriginals in Winnipeg. Currently, the centre operates three community care centres (public access) in inner-city Winnipeg, four group homes for youth in the care of a child and family services agency, and one Rural Cultural Learning Centre.
Canada Fights Human Trafficking
(Ontario): www.CanadaFightsHumanTrafficking.com
CFHT is an organization dedicated to the annihilation of all crimes associated with human trafficking, and is committed to rescuing and rehabilitating victims of human trafficking within Canada. It runs public education and awareness campaigns, legal teams, safe houses, reintegration homes, and professional services for victims.
FCJ Refugee Centre
(Toronto, ON): lolyrico@on.aibn.com
Since 1991, the FCJ Refugee Centre has offered shelter to over one thousand women and their children. The project now operates four houses that afford refuge to twenty-five women with their children. In addition, FCJ provides counselling, advocacy, and support services to uprooted persons (i.e., refugees, people without status, and trafficked persons). Services include interpretation, referral to legal assistance, settlement and integration programs, and educational and training workshops for service providers and the public in general.
Peel Children’s Aid
(Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon, ON): lbaistrocchi@peelcas.org
Peel Children’s Aid protects children and strengthens families, ensuring the safety and well-being of children in the Region of Peel in Ontario. Initiatives include caring for children under sixteen who arrive unaccompanied at Pearson International Airport.
Toronto Police Service, Special Victims Unit
(Toronto, ON): wendy.leaver@torontopolice.on.ca
SVU is a specialized investigative unit dedicated to protecting prostituted persons from sexual predators by investigating sexual offences committed against them.
Streetlight Support Services
(Greater Toronto Area, ON): streetlight@live.ca
Streetlight Support Services is a community-based NGO that provides alternatives for individuals involved in sex trade activities. Streetlight uses a non-judgmental holistic approach that recognizes the interdependence of the emotional, cultural, economic, and broader social issues that affect individuals.
Temple Committee Against Human Trafficking
(Montreal, QB): human@templemontreal.ca
Affiliated with Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal, TCAHT provides public education programs with emphasis on adolescents. The committee is part of an interfaith coalition that is represented by diverse faith-based and secular human rights groups. An additional focus is on U.S.–Canada border trafficking.
Canadian Religious Conference—Action Committee Against Human Internal and External Trafficking
(Trois-Rivieres, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Gatineau, QC; Ottawa, ON): jbellefeuille@crc-canada.org
Formed by ten Catholic religious congregations, researchers, and a representative of the Canadian Religious Conference, the committee undertakes strategies to counter human trafficking, including raising awareness and offering education and training about human trafficking.