By: Emily Stepnowsky
Posted In: News
Photo credit: Emily Stepnowsky
Carol Gomez, co-founder of the Boston-based Trafficking Victims Outreach & Services Network, spoke about trafficking and domestic abuse issues facing contemporary society.
You have to be home every night by 10 p.m. and can only use the phone for 10 minutes a night. These are examples of the real life circumstances South Asian American women find themselves in. Melindah Sharma and Carol Gomez, founders of the Boston-based Trafficking Victims Outreach & Services Network, spoke at the Pell Center recently on the issues of immigrant exploitation, trafficking, and domestic abuse that affect society today.
Two to four million women experience Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) each year in the United States alone. “The lack of awareness and statistical knowledge result in a lack of funding and acknowledgement, thus limiting research”, says Melindah Sharma. People are not conscious to the lack of safety, health, economic, and legal issues facing immigrants every day. It is due to such fears as deportation, overwhelming language barriers, economic policies, and war and civil strife that lead women into such professions as sex and drug traffickers. Carol Gomez defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining, by any means, any person for forced labor, slavery, or servitude in any industry or site such as agriculture.prostitution.domestic service or marriage.” Hitting close to home, in Massachusetts there are domestic workers that are treated as slaves, landscapers living in shacks with guard dogs keeping them inside, internet brides being sent here from abroad, and women in the workplace being subjected to more sexual harassment because of their inability to just walk away or report it. These aspects alone are among the reasons why Sharma and Gomez dedicate their lives to improving the situations immigrant women are unfortunately finding themselves in. “I’ve been drawn to community mobilizing of immigrant needs”, says Sharma. Dispelling minority myths and getting the word out as to the plight they are up against daily is what will motivate populations to make a change. “Do we address root causes or focus on short term problems?” asks Gomez. Among the root causes are civil wars, trade policies, restrictive immigration policies, and debt bondage. When you have a family to support and find yourself at the end of your rope, with a dire need to make fast money to protect your family, there are not always many options to choose from. The only plausible solution appears to be education. Sharma says, “The more educated a population, hopefully we will reduce the numbers one by one.” Education is the only way to preserve a people and their future, so it seems only appropriate to start educating ourselves on how to help.
