WASHINGTON, D.C. – Polaris Project, a leading organization in the global fight against human trafficking and modern slavery, released a video today featuring a survivor of human trafficking who bravely reveals the exploitation faced by victims in the United States and the resilience it takes to rebuild their lives. The spoken word poetry featured in the video, “America’s Daughters,” was written and performed by a survivor of sex trafficking.
“Artistic expression can be extraordinarily effective to help survivors of human trafficking process their trauma and rebuild their lives. The author of the poem, ‘America’s Daughters,’ made the brave decision to share a personal and powerful narrative on the exploitation facing so many individuals throughout the United States today,” said Kate Keisel, Director of Polaris Project New Jersey. “This poem is just one example of the resilience demonstrated by the survivors we serve every day at Polaris Project. Survivors are increasingly reaching out for support, and it is vital that all of us work to empower the women, men, and children who are exploited for profit by traffickers across the country.”
The video encourages viewers to join survivors in the fight against human trafficking by going towww.polarisproject.org/americasdaughters and pledging to get involved. By sharing the video and the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline number (1-888-373-7888) with their network, viewers can make a concrete difference in raising awareness of the issue and alerting people that there is a hotline where victims can get help and community members can report tips.
Polaris Project provides direct services for human trafficking survivors in the Washington, D.C. metro area and in Newark, New Jersey. Staff provide crisis intervention, clinical case management, counseling, transitional housing referrals, job training and placement assistance, art therapy programs, and support group therapy and empowerment sessions. Approximately 650 survivors of sex and labor trafficking – including U.S. citizens and foreign-national men, women, and children – have received support to rebuild their lives through Polaris Project’s Client Services program.
The video was produced and directed by William Caballero and Kate Keisel, and edited by Caballero. The individuals appearing in the survivor expression piece are volunteers, including human trafficking survivors. Click here to view additional survivor expressions.
Human trafficking is a thriving criminal industry, with traffickers making billions in profits by using force, fraud, or coercion to rob victims of their freedom. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, with hundreds of thousands of victims forced to provide commercial sex, labor, or services against their will in the United States.
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