Tina Frundt and Bukola Oriola are members of the U.S Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, a panel created following the enactment of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act during the Barack Obama administration. In separate encounters, both survivors who lead nonprofit organizations fighting labour and sex trafficking respectively, share insight about their works with HANNAH OJO.
Tina Frundt, the champion for sex trafficked youth
Ms. Frundt is the founder and executive director of Courtney’s House, a nonprofit which provides direct services for domestic sex trafficked youth, ages 11 – 21 in the Washington D.C. metro area. A high profile national advocate on the issue of domestic sex trafficking and a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), she trains law enforcement and other non-profit groups to rescue and provide resources to victims.
What is the child sex trafficking situation in the D.C region and how does Courtney’s House advocate for minority groups?
Most of my populations are U.S citizens, 85 percent are African-Americans while 15 percent are Latinos. We are the only survival run, African American nonprofit in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area with a specific mission to serve survivors of sex trafficking. We are able to provide programmes relative to their experience and culture. We are also able to form strong connections which allow us to provide space for survivors to feel safe. Not only are we changing the narrative that our young people can trust the police, we also provide parent support where parents are educated on the red flags for tragic sexual experience in children.
Since child sex trafficking in the U.S happens across diverse groups, why focusing solely on youths who are U.S citizens?
There are 70 organizations that focus on some type of human trafficking in the D.C/ Virginia area. Courtney’s house is the only one African-American run, one survivor run that focuses on U.S. citizens and children including boys. Our referrals not only come from the police, the FBI but also parents, teachers and community members. We get 7/8 referrals a week without us soliciting and it is also important to know that the age of victims of sex trafficking in the U.S is getting younger.
Are there circumstances which make children more susceptible to sex trafficking in the U.S than other parts of the world?
Organized crime is the same and all trafficking cases are the same in most part of the world. It’s the same way that traffickers recruit at airports in the U.S that they recruit at airports everywhere else in the world. It’s the same tactics. I have done stuffs in Nigeria and Ghana and even on the street outreach, it’s really the same thing. The same tactics of saying they want to help girls, they say the same thing here. The only difference is that here they work more with guns. It can also be another female recruiting girls to dance at a strip club or pimp control. It’s the same thing done in other countries.
You have done some works in Nigeria and Ghana, what was your experience implementing survivors programmes in these two places?
I don’t restrict my services to the U.S because I want everyone to know how to get through survivors and to help them with the services they need. I worked with a nonprofit in Ghana and other places to help them identify survivors in their countries. What I see here in the U.S is what I see in other countries and that is people not staying in their programmes. What I see in Africa now is that you have some organizations doing some amazing works, but they don’t even know how to connect, not even on the survival aspect. Sometimes survivors may be willing to get all the help, but they won’t be able to share information about their trafficking situations. I think that’s really important because everyone is having the same problem.
Bukola Oriola; advocating for victims, empowering survivors
Ms Oriola, an ex-journalist with the Century Media Limited, publishers of the defunct New Age newspaper is a survivor of labour trafficking and domestic violence. In 2013, she founded the Enitan Story, a non-profit organization which advocates for survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence. Also, an entrepreneur, she has published books on human trafficking and presently leads advocacy programmes in Minnesota and Nigeria.
You just completed a term on the U.S Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, how did the position enhance your passion as an anti-trafficking activist?
The U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking gave me a platform to influence federal government policies in a survivor-informed manner. It afforded me the opportunity to help the government see through the eyes of survivors when drafting or amending policies and programmes that affects victims and survivors of human trafficking within the United States and around the world. As you may already know, I am one of the 11 members of the Council. We published two annual reports that shed light on our findings with federal agencies and provided recommendations. I am very grateful that some of our recommendations from the first annual report are already being implemented. It ranged from engaging survivors in an empowering manner where they are paid as subject matter experts for their labor and expenses, to becoming more trauma-informed in the way that the government and its grantees provide services to victims and survivors of human trafficking.
What role has The Enitan Story played in preventing human trafficking in the U.S?
The Enitan Story’s mission is to advocate for victims and empower survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence. As a result, the organization has, and will continue to engage in in-depth community outreach both face-to-face and virtually to capture every audience possible to help them understand that anybody can be vulnerable, and that anyone can become a victim of human trafficking. That way, people are able to recognize the red flags and signs that could potentially lead them into becoming victims of human trafficking.
The U.S government is targeting professionals such as health and aviation workers to detect and report cases of trafficking, is this a model that can be implemented in Nigeria?
Yes. Health care providers are more than likely to come in contact with a potential or vulnerable victim of human trafficking within a community. Airport and airline staff on the other hand are also strategically positioned to come in contact with victims or potential victims that are being transported across borders of various countries. Training these sets of professionals could help in prevention or help victims have access to services in a timely manner.
How can members of the media and the civic society advocate for human trafficking to be made a top priority in developing countries?
As watch dogs in the community, members of the media can help the government understand the importance of making human trafficking advocacy a priority. Most especially, they can help the government understand the fact that prevention cost less by encouraging the government to provide funding to nonprofit organizations and NGOs for in-depth community outreach in a manner that is educational rather than creating fear. In addition, engaging survivors as subject matter experts, rather than just to share their tragic stories when rolling out such campaigns will be very effective in helping the public understand the dangers of becoming victims of human trafficking within or outside their own countries.
Do you mind telling us about the project you are working on at the moment and how will this benefit Nigerians?
The Enitan Story has just been awarded a federal OVC (Office for Victims of Crime) grant through the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) called the Safe Harbor Expansion Grant for Labor Trafficking to identify and serve labor trafficked youth in Minnesota. It is a two-year grant from January 2018 until January 2020. Minnesota is a diverse state in terms of ethnicity and there is a large population of Nigerians living in Minnesota. One way that this grant can benefit Nigerians is for Nigerians living in Minnesota to reach out to us in case they come in contact with any youth, who may be victims of labor trafficking. In addition, we launched Students Against Abuse and Slavery International (SAASI) shortly after my return from Nigeria on a human trafficking awareness tour to five higher institutions in 2015. The goal of SAASI is to engage the youth across various countries, including Nigeria to serve as community advocates. Interested students can fill out an application on our website, www.saasi.org.
