Concert Update

Hello friends!

Love Sticks Around: A Love146 Benefit Concert was last Saturday. Our team worked really hard to make your time worthwhile, and we hope you enjoyed yourselves! 

We painted the cannon a couple of days before, and got our friends to camp out with us! Our fingers felt like they were falling off after, but we think it’s worth it.

A huge thank you to all the amazing performers – Anchord, Emmanuel and his band, Stephanie Vasquez and BEATs! You guys truly outdid yourselves.

Apart from performances, we also had food, merchandise, a Childhood Memory Project corner, and of course, Mr Rob Morris from Love146 speak.

Dewick was filled! We hope you all enjoyed the performances, felt inspired by Rob, and feel empowered to join in the fight to end child sex trafficking.

Last but not least, a huge thank you to all our sponsors - LGBT Center, International Center, Women’s Center, Women’s Studies Department, Child Development Department, Peace and Justice Studies Department, Tufts Association of South Asians, Leonard Carmichael Society, Association of Latin American Students, Fletcher Christian Fellowship, Protestant Students Fellowship, Tufts and Fletcher Amnesty International, Global Women, Public Health at Tufts, Tufts Christian Fellowship – for making this happen! We are truly grateful for the support of this campus and hope to continue to work to make Tufts a place where people care about ending child sex slavery.

Love Sticks Around

Our biggest event of the year, Love Sticks Around, is here. We can’t wait. See you there!

Click here to find out why we named this year’s theme Love Sticks Around.

A Dorm Special

Love Sticks Around, our second annual benefit concert and biggest event of the academic year, is in two days! The team has been working hard to produce a wonderful show for all of you. On Monday, we got the chance to publicize the concert in Haskell, where the RAs generously organized a hall snacks event where Love146 could talk about our work! 

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

We prepared chocolate fondue,

displayed an interactive survey,

and continued our Childhood Memory Project!

We had such a blast. Special thanks to the RAs for helping us organize this! 

The Abolitionist Curriculum

Two weeks ago, the Love146 Tufts Chapter began its Abolitionist Curriculum. For one hour on Sunday nights, we go through  facts, read articles, watch videos and have discussions- all in an effort to fight ignorance and raise awareness on child sex trafficking. Our goal is for our Tufts Chapter to be educated, equipped and empowered for action! 

Our first session! Glad to see lots of new faces

Last Sunday, we delved deeper into the topic of domestic trafficking and exploitation in the US. It was a topic that hit close to home, since most people usually only associate child sex trafficking with developing countries. It was shocking to find out that almost 300 000 US Children are at risk for trafficking into the sex industry (US State Department) and that the average age of a US trafficked child is 12-14 years old (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children). 

To better understand the causes and nature of the problem in the US, we watched the following videos, The Making of a Girl and Teen Prostitutes in the US:

Some points from our discussion:

The Girls: Many of them were tricked into exploitation because they thought the pimps were showing them the “love” that they lacked in their life. The pimps would first shower the girls with praise and attention, and then later simply make use of them to earn money. We realized how powerful psychological control can be- it is not so easy for the girls to just walk away from the exploitative situations when they have no where to turn to,  and when the only “real” relationship they have in their life is with the pimp. 

The Pimps: Apart from psychological control, they also use violence to threaten the girls, as well as drugs to keep them addicted and unable to run away. We also noticed how technology is making it so easy for the pimps to advertise the services they have to offer, and how easy it is for customers to just do a search on the Internet to find a prostitute. 

The Law: It may seem like trafficking should not be happening in a city where there there is law enforcement and a strong legal system, but that is usually not the case. Police officers don’t always see the girls as victims of exploitation but as criminals, prostitutes who are offering services out of their own free will. Sometimes, the girls, instead of the pimps, are arrested! We read an article on Massachusetts’s  new bill against human trafficking and were encouraged by how the law will now crack down on the pimps and johns instead of the exploited children, but were still surprised that the bill was only signed last year- and that there are still many states that don’t have such laws yet!

Although most of the things we learnt were depressing,  those who attended the session were encouraged to find out more about trafficking in their own hometowns and think about next steps to take. We ended the night more determined than ever to fight child sex trafficking.

If you are interested in learning together with us, join us at Eaton 204 on Sundays, 8pm, for the Abolitionist Curriculum! 

Broken Hearts: Something Worth Celebrating

Thank you all who came out to our Valentines’ Day event last Thursday! We had tons of fun, raised over $500 for Love146 and were inspired to continue the fight to end child sex slavery.

Titled Broken Hearts: Something Worth Celebrating, last Thursday night was a chance for the Love146 Tufts Chapter to put up our first big event on campus this spring. We screened Love146 video clips, served desserts, told some stories and had educational discussions about the issue.

The week was spent baking, baking and baking!

We had an interactive survey for folks to fill out!

Vanessa sharing about how she got involved in the issue.

Jane sharing her story.

SoGo was a little crowded! Not that we're complaining, of course.

If you haven’t yet, check out our feature in the Tufts Daily the next morning as well as Jane’s article! Hooray for journalism!

Thank you all once again. You guys made the event and we are blessed to be on this campus and have such support. Next up: Abolitionist Curriculum and our biggest event of the year, Love146 Benefit Concert: Love Sticks Around. Stay tuned for updates!

Questions? Comments? Want to get involved? Email us at love146tufts@gmail.com.

BITAHR Hosts Weekend of Sex Trafficking Awareness

Recently, some of us at Love146 Tufts Chapter attended the 2nd annual BITAHR film forum on human trafficking. Our awesome team member Ruth Tam volunteered at the event and has some important things to share.

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BITAHR Hosts Weekend of Sex Trafficking Awareness
Ruth Tam

At a benefit auction for the Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights (BITAHR) on
Thursday, February 2, former US Ambassador Swanee Hunt recounted an interview with a
former john, a man who had admitted to abducting young women for sexual exploitation.

“I go to the mall,” he said. “I look for girls walking alone and when I spot one, I go up and
tell her she has beautiful eyes. If she looks me back in the eye and says ‘Thank you,’ I move
along. But if she look down and says quietly, ‘No, I don’t,’ then I know I’ve got her.”

Stories like Ambassador Hunt’s don’t have happy endings. As an underreported crime,
human trafficking is often seen as a problem abroad when it has an alarmingly strong
presence domestically. According to the U.S. State Department, modern slavery in the
U.S. is a $16 billion business that has manifested itself through sex trafficking, forced
labor, bonded labor, and domestic servitude creating 14,500 to 18,000 victims of women,
children, and men.

Attempting to combat these figures, BITAHR held Thursday’s benefit to raise funds and
celebrate local policy makers for creating the nation’s harshest punishments for convicted
sex traffickers. As of last fall, Massachusetts imposed the life sentence for those guilty
of trafficking children for sex or labor and became one of three states with anti-human
trafficking laws.

In addition, the funds raised from Thursday’s benefit sponsored BITAHR’s second film
forum, which opened the next day at Suffolk University’s Modern Theatre in downtown
Boston. Over the course of the weekend, BITAHR screened eight films on the human sex
trafficking and provided panel discussions featuring the leading experts on the subject.

Friday night focused on the film, Whistleblower (2011), the true story of UN International
Police Force monitor Kathryn Bolkovac and her discovery of the American force’s
involvement with sex trafficking in post-war Bosnia. Bolkavac herself was present in the
following discussion, which also featured writer Siddarth Kara, filmmaker Kat Rohrer, and
philanthropist Roger-Claude Liwanga.

The films shown on Saturday culminated in a keynote address by Congresswoman
Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), co-chair of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus and
cosponsor of the “Trafficking Victims Protection Act.” Recounting MA’s recent legislation
penalizing sex traffickers, Maloney praised MA lawmakers and urged audience members to
fight for similar legislation on a national level.

After her address, Very Young Girls (2007), a documentary on domestic sex trafficking was
screened. The film largely focused on several adolescent girls in New York City dropping
in and out of “the life” of the American sex industry. These girls, who were fortunate to
be found alive by the law, were court ordered to visit Girls Educational and Mentoring

Services (GEMS), a nonprofit service organization for sexually exploited and trafficked
women. GEMS founder and director, Rachel Llyod, was in the audience Saturday night and
sat on the discussion panel following the film.

“People’s perception and culture needs to change,” Lloyd said about her ideal solution to
the problem. In addition, she stressed the need for survivor led and survivor informed
organizations for girls.

Sunday’s screening featured two short films and two documentaries, bringing an end to the
BITAHR’s weekend film forum. At the event’s closing remarks, its coordinators expressed
hope that the sentiment generated over three days would burgeon into action.

For audience member Anisha Reza, 20, the event was the springboard she needed.

“After the films, I struggled to sleep for a few nights,” she said. “It’s going to be a long fight,
but I’m holding onto hope as tightly as I can or else remain paralyzed. Our job is not to
make the public feel worse, but to inform, act, and fight to end this one person at a time.”

THE ALLIGATOR RIVER STORY: AN ADAPTATION

Instructions: Please read the following story. After reading the story, rank the 5 characters in the story beginning with the one whom you consider as the “most guilty” and end with the one whom you consider the “least guilty.”

There lived a beautiful girl named Abigail who was in love with a man named Gregory. Gregory lived on the shore of a river. Abigail lived on the opposite shore of the same river. The river that separated the two lovers was teeming with dangerous alligators. Unfortunately, the bridge had been washed out by a heavy flood the previous week. So she went, dressed in an alluring manner, to ask Sinbad, a riverboat captain, to take her across. He said he would be glad to if she would consent to go to bed with him prior to the voyage. She promptly refused and went to a friend named Ivan to explain her plight. Ivan did not want to get involved at all in the situation. Abigail felt her only alternative was to accept Sinbad’s terms. Sinbad fulfilled his promise to Abigail and delivered her into the arms of Gregory. 

When Abigail told Gregory about her amorous escapade in order to cross the river, Gregory cast her aside with disdain and told her he never wanted to see her again. Later that night, he invited another girl into his cottage. Heartsick and rejected, Abigail turned to Ralph with her tale of woe. Ralph, feeling compassion for Abigail, sought out Gregory and beat him brutally. He later goes to Abigail and comforts her. The two are seen embracing.

What are your thoughts? Post them on our Facebook page!

Childhood Memories Project

Hi folks!

In light of the Christmas season, we’ve come up with a little project related to Love146. The project is entitled Childhood Memories. We’ve been going around to different events this week to table and hope to continue this project next week at the Campus Center during open block! Be sure to join us.

It’s really easy to participate:

1. Make a Christmas ornament! We’ll provide all the materials. And don’t worry if you’re not artistic; your ornament is meant to look childlike.

2. Write your favorite (or most embarrassing, if you want to gain a chuckle) childhood memory on it.

3. We’ll hang these ornaments around campus (or on a Christmas tree if we can find one in Dewick)

Our hope is that by thinking about your favorite childhood memory, you’ll be reminded that every child deserves to have these awesome memories as well. But not every child has had that right. The hard truth is that there are 27 million people currently enslaved and that two children are sold every minute. Even in our backyard – over 100,000 children in the United States alone are engaged in pornography or prostitution each year. And closer to home, in Boston, sex trafficking is still prevalent.

We’re looking forward to hanging your ornaments around campus and raise awareness about child sex trafficking. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, here are some pictures from our tabling event at Vietnamese Students Club’s Winter Wonderland on Friday night:

Hope to see you at the Campus Center next week and be sure to look out for a special surprise in the dining halls too!

For Abolition,

Love146 Tufts Chapter

Remember us from the spring?

Hi! Welcome to the Love146 Tufts Chapter blog. On this blog, we hope to inform you about events and raise awareness about the issue of child sex slavery.

If our name sounds familiar, it might be because we had a huge concert in the spring. It was really successful and we raised over $1000 for Love146! It would not have been possible without the help and support of the Tufts community, so thank you. We even got a surprise: a nomination for the Office for Campus Life’s Synergy Award for uniting various student groups on campus for one cause!

Here’s some images to jolt your memory:

We made postcards...

Made T-shirts...

Got some talented people to perform...

SoGo underwent a major makeover.

After the concert, some of stayed back and had a dance party... in the shape of a heart. It was kinda crazy.

We’re hoping to continue our work at Tufts in the upcoming semesters, so thanks for visiting and stay tuned! Get excited; big things lie ahead.