8 Reasons Why You Should Support Respire Haiti.

Here are eight reasons why we at Conspiracy Of Hope think you would love to support Respire Haiti's work in Gressier, Haiti. In no particular order, the following reasons highlight the methodology, the core beliefs, and the ongoing commitment of RH to the people of Gressier.

From Bellevue Mountain. At the heart of Respire Haiti's story and at the heart of Gressier itself. The story of Respire and Gressier's future will always be inextricably linked to this pristine peak.

Stability and Strength: The earthquake of 2009 devastated Gressier, destroying 70% of the homes and leaving many vulnerable people and especially children at the mercy of the elements. It was in this post-apocalyptic landscape that Respire's founder Megan Boudreaux found herself. That reality stayed with her, the fragility of life, the realization that more storms would come. For that reason, RH is building a school and a community hub that can withstand another earthquake of similar magnitude and be ultra resistant to hurricane force winds. The attention to detail in this respect has been painstaking and sometimes slow, but the reward is safety and security for the impossibly gorgeous children of Gressier.

The deep footings and steel re-enforcement that will help the Gressier school withstand another major disaster. Cutting corners is not an option when the lives of children are at stake.

Social Justice: One of the most exciting things about the school RH is building, and the most compelling for us at COH is that many of the students will be restaveks. In a country of 9 million people there are an estimated 300,000 restavek children. Through education, opportunity, and a true sense of community that the school will afford these kids, RH hopes that tolerance of this injustice will quickly become a thing of the past in Gressier. There are 300 thousand children with no voice in Haiti, Respire is deeply committed to being a voice for those voiceless kids.

Stewardship: Part of every NGO and non-profit's reality is limited resources. Respire Haiti is ever mindful of this. When many other humanitarian orgs in Haiti ride around in new Landcruisers, the staff of RH takes a tap tap or hires a driver for longer trips. This keeps them intimately connected to the community, engenders respect and doesn't foster mistrust, and besides costing less, it also keeps money in the community by using these local businesses. RH shops locally, buys building supplies locally, and in every sense is committed to helping the local economy by buying Haiti first. The majority of RH's staff are Haitian, in fact other than RH's founder Megan Boudreaux, the only other resident non-Haitian is Kyle Fishburn the general contractor who oversees the day to day construction on site.

Kyle the contractor and Bernard, translator and backbone of so much of Respire Haiti's day to day operations.

Sustainability: One of the keys to self-reliance for the Haitian people and one of the tenets of stewardship for RH is sustainability. This means that even as they provide food for local orphanages they also facilitate those same orphanages in planting crops and raising livestock. RH will also use solar panels and wind power at the school and surrounding buildings to lower the communities dependence on an ever temperamental power grid and keep utility costs affordable.

Self-reliance: The reality of humanitarian aid is that sometimes helping hurts. The best intentions of the kindest people often provide immediate relief but do permanent damage or provide no lasting change. Respire Haiti understands this implicitly. In every sense they elevate the people of Gressier by staying out of the way. From the construction of the school to the weekly feeding programs, Haitians serve Haitians. There is no breeding of dependence on foreign hand-outs, no heavy American footprint, only the desire for the Haitian people to be self-reliant. Respire knows that the people of Gressier want to work, and that they work extremely hard when given the chance. Every day 60-70 Haitian men and women walk to the top of Bellevue Mountain and build the future of Gressier: a school for their kids, and soon a church, a medical clinic, a computer lab, a market, a library, and more. The residents of Gressier are pouring their blood and sweat and prayers into these buildings and beautifully taking ownership of the project in their hearts and minds. And, they are being paid almost double the average worker's daily rate! Money that goes back into the local economy and stimulates growth for all of Gressier.

Above, the residents of Gressier, men and women, build a school for their children and their brothers and sisters in the Haitian sun. Below, food is prepared on site everyday.

Scholarships: One of the realities of poverty is that sometimes even a free education is unaffordable. RH partners sponsors with impoverished children to put education within their reach. This means smart new uniforms for children who have never had a brand new piece of clothing. This means two meals a day for a child who would otherwise be hungry and restless, unable to concentrate on learning. This means school supplies and books in the hands of children like Floencia (below), who at 8 will be attending school for the very first time. She was one of the last children to register and I had the deeply humbling honor of walking with her and her precious mom to the little concrete church house that glorious Monday afternoon to sign her up!

Floencia in pink pants!

Sublime Beauty: The Caribbean Sea and the mountains of Gressier are the stuff of poems but their majesty pales in the presence of the Haitian people themselves, especially the children. What a noble people, unconquered in spirit in spite of the deluge of despotic rulers and natural disasters. And what hard workers, what gentle souls, what deeply passionate people are the Haitians. No wonder they so captured Respire's heart. No wonder they have rebounded so quickly with just a little help from their friends.

Haitians are hard workers, from the fisherman and farmer above, to the lovely girl below who helps her mom collect bottles for a recycling program that cleans up the cities and countrysides while putting money in the pockets of Haitians facing an 80% unemployment rate.

Below, some of the beautiful children of Gressier. The future of Haiti.

Sisters: RH began in the heart of Megan after she met a little girl on Bellevue mountain where the school is being built. Michaelle was throwing rocks in the air trying to kill a bird to eat, such was her hunger and her relentless determination. Megan was deeply affected and through a whirlwind of events Megan now has legal guardianship of Micha and her younger sister Jessica. These two girls have become the lifeblood of Respire and the endless stream of guests that come to Gressier to see what God is doing. These girls change everyone they meet with their indefatigable smiles and constant mischief. I have never loved a child other than my own more than I love Michaelle. There is a look she gets in her eyes that reveals a hint of the hurt she still holds but then that unsinkable smile breaks across her face, joy dawns, and the whole world is brighter because she is loved, because now, Michaelle is free.

Human Trafficking In The News 9-03-2011

Human Trafficking in the news. Stories of forced labor, sex trafficking and child exploitation. Click the bold headings for links to the whole story.

45 states bring lawsuit against The Village Voice's Backpage.com: Backpage.com makes an estimated $22.7 million per year from ads in their “adult” section. Backpage.com vice president Carl Ferrer acknowledged the company identifies more than 400 “adult services” posts that may involve minors.

Dutch probe uncovers child porn sites in US: Investigators found some 220,000 child pornography photos and videos. One of the hidden sites police discovered was called "Violent Desires". Along with child pornography, it also contained "a discussion forum that included chats about abducting, abusing and killing children," prosecutors said.

Woman gets life plus 20 in child-sex-for-sale case: Rebecca Wiggins (pictured below) took $10,000 in payment from an east Cobb man, David A. Ray, in exchange for providing access to her 7-year-old niece, who was in her custody.

House introduces H.R.2830!: The bill will re-authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 for the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Read the entire text of the bill here. National call-in day to voice support for the bill is Sept. 8th. Info here.

Justin Timberlake featured in new anti-trafficking ad: The 30 year-old actor for Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" campaign.

As always, from all of us at Conspiracy Of Hope, thanks for caring about justice and for being a voice for the voiceless victims of trafficking.

The Dancing Boys Of Afghanistan.

There is a tradition in Afghan society called Bacha-bazi, literally "boy-play". Bacha boys are 8 to 15 year olds who put on make-up, tie bells to their feet and slip into women’s clothing, and then, "to the whine of a harmonium and wailing vocals", dance seductively to smoky roomfuls of leering older men. This wretched practice that ends with the boys being auctioned or rented out for rape is an old tradition in the northern and southern provinces of Afghanistan.

Above, an Afghani teen dances for a roomful of men.

According to Senior Afghan journalist Musa Khan Jalalzai, “The interior ministry has failed to arrest powerful rapist warlords in northern Afghanistan, as the police administration has long been involved in many illegal businesses like drug trafficking, prostitution, and playboys. Corruption in the Afghan justice system is another problem. Courts are helpless before war criminals. Judges are the most corrupt people, who bail out or release criminals and receive millions in Afghan currency."

He goes on to say, “Local residents now have demanded for a crackdown against these elements, but are skeptical because criminals are powerful and well-armed. War criminals have representation in Afghan parliament and in government institutions."

Unemployment, poverty and repressive sex laws have been cited for the recent resurgence of Bacha-bazi in Afghanistan but whatever the reason, recruitment of young boys is on the rapid rise.

A "dancing boy" and his "master".

According to press reports "Wealthy warlords in northern Afghanistan, recruit young boys for sex and dance, while local authorities remain powerless in stopping the practice. Bacha-boys dance all night, and then are abused by several men.”

Jalalzai continued, “A former warlord in Kunduz province told Afghan press that normally criminals first select boys in the village and later trick them into coming with them. The boys get a monthly allowance, and in return [the criminals] can have them any time they want. Last week, an Afghan student from northern Afghanistan informed this author (Jalalzai) by an e-mail that at midnight when the dance is over, the boys are frequently shared by war criminals with close friends for sexual favors.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Above, part of Najibullah Quraishi's documentary titled "The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan". Please watch this entire documentary.

Boys without beards who are intelligent are a status symbol for their masters. Mohammad Zaher Zafari, head of the Northern Branch of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, said: "Sexual abuse and even the sale of boys has been going on for years; the boys involved are usually poor, underage or orphans, and they are forced into it by their economic circumstances."

Another senior official, Hafizullah Khaliqyar, head of the prosecutor’s office for Baghlan province says the teens "are sexually abused, even bought and sold. Fights take place over these Bacha-bereesh (literally boy with-out a beard). It’s increasing day by day, and it’s catastrophic," he said.

Above, Radhika Coomaraswamy, one of the first and bravest international figures to speak out about this crime. Read her PBS interview here.

Jalazai quotes another Afghan reporter, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, who recently interviewed some warlords saying that they play with dogs, boys, and love teenage girls. "Some men enjoy playing with dogs, some with women. I enjoy playing with boys," warlord Allah Daad told Ibrahimi.

According to Jalazai, after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Bacha-bazi increased tremendously and is still on the rise. He says, “Local officials in northern provinces of Afghanistan admit the practice is prevalent but show no specific interest to intercept it. The authorities are in much dismay about the police officers’ involvement in this business. Members of Afghan police in various provinces are deeply involved in male prostitution. The interior ministry in Kabul has received thousands of complaints from locals regarding sexual attacks by police on young boys.”

Reuters, in its November 19, 2007 report and Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan [RAWA], quoted a 42-year-old landowner, Inayatullah, of Baghlan province as saying, ‘Having a boy has become a custom for us. Whoever wants to show off should have a boy.’ In his short interview with Reuter’s reporter, Mr. Inayatullah vowed: ‘I was married to a woman 20 years ago; she left me because of my boy,’ he said. ‘I was playing with my boy every night and was away from home. Eventually my wife decided to leave me. I am happy with my decision, because I am used to sleeping and entertaining with my young boy,’ He told Reuters.

The video clip above is graphic and blood-chillingly cavalier in its description of rampant pedophilia in Afghanistan.

According to Jalalzai, “There are thousands of young boys who have undergone ordeals. But the actual numbers of these vulnerable boys are not known." In Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz, Takhar, Baghlan, Samangan, Panjshir, and Herat bazaars, Bacha-bazi CDs and DVDs are widely circulated serving an audience who can’t afford the real thing.

In every documentary clip or interview the story is the same, whether it's corporate or private pedophilia, young boys are talked about like food, like dessert. The men are completely disconnected from the child's will and rights, they objectify the boys past the point where they exist on a similar plane with their own children. To them these pre-teens are no one's child. They do not have dreams, they are for sport, for pleasure. To be devoured, a perverse banquet of innocent flesh.

These men are sub-human. How else can they recount with smiles and wistful nostalgia a night of drunken revelry where each man had his turn with a 13 year old boy in a car. The boy who just laid there, presumably frightened for his life, shamelessly raped by one sick twisted man after another. And no one denies, not on any level of Afghani society or Government. They may question the veracity of the numbers but they never question the truth of the accusations.

This must stop. These poor boys, destroyed by lust and demonic control. Tricked, coerced, brokered into short but painful lives of exploitation only to be thrown out like yesterdays meal. This must end now. My heart is breaking tonight. My mind reeling. My spirit cries out for justice. They are just little boys!!! They are not sex toys!! They are not the playthings of the perverted and powerful. They are the future of Afghanistan. Her brightest and best. They are her sons and they have become the food for vultures. No not even vultures, for even vultures wait for death before they desecrate flesh.

God save us.

Human Trafficking In The News 8-24-2011

Conspiracy Of Hope's blog will have a new semi-regular feature highlighting sex trafficking, forced labor, and child exploitation in the news. We will compile a brief synopsis of each story with the link (click on the bold heading of each story). This will allow us to highlight those individuals and groups responsible for stopping trafficking and those who are the most egregious perpetrators of human rights violations.

9 charged in sex trafficking investigation in Chicago. -Dozens of girls, some as young as 12, were forced into prostitution. The girls and women, some of them homeless, were recruited on CTA trains, the Internet or during random meetings on the street.

Rachel Weisz stars in new film about Sex-Trafficking.-A drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the U.N. for covering up a sex trafficking scandal. Watch the trailer below.

Whistleblower Trailer by teasertrailer

Sex Trafficking bust in Fairfax County. -13 women and girls forced into prostitution in and around the nations capitol. According to the article, "The pimp's prostitution ring frequented certain areas, so much so that an unidentified Falls Church hotel gave Cornejo a discount because he rented rooms so often, the affidavit said. Cornejo also used a Super 8 Motel in Manassas, his mother's house and locations within the Four Mile Run area of Arlington."

Czech Police charge Nigerian Black Magic Sex Traffickers. Girls were promised jobs as hairdressers or as hospitality sector workers and then forced into prostitution. Some of the girls were forced to take part in black magic rituals that included ceremonies that took place in mortuaries with the girls being forced to drink their own blood and warned their families would die if they broke their oaths. (warning: link contains semi-graphic photo.)

The Spanish clothing giant behind the Zara brand is being investigated over the use of slave labour in Brazil. The 15 workers, one of whom was reported to be just 14 years old, were understood to be living in dangerous conditions on the factory floor.

Zara of India. The Spanish retail giant has stores in 73 countries and according to a recent statement has a "zero tolerance for infringements of this kind."

Southeastern Connecticut pediatrician arrested on federal child pornography charges. Todd Parrilla, 47, of Stonington, was arrested on August 23 by members of the Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force and charged in a federal criminal complaint with possession, receipt and distribution of child pornography.

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From all of us at Conspiracy Of Hope, thank you for caring about justice and for being a voice for the voiceless.

Sex Sells.

A Diesel Jeans ad lamenting that they aren't pimping girls??

Sex sells. It's as ingrained in advertising as celebrity endorsements and those nauseating sing-song jingles that weasel their way into your subconscious. Over half of all ads featuring women present them in a sexual manner. That percentage jumps to 75 in men's magazines and hovers around the 60% mark even in female fashion magazines. (Julie M. Stankiewicz and Francine Rosselli in their article “Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements”)

But the women aren't always women, increasingly major publications and ad campaigns are using young girls in sexual presentations to sell their product. The sexual objectification of children is nothing new but the frequency and blatancy with which these kids are exploited is troublesome, especially in a world so charged with evil intent, so bent toward the sexual domination of children.

Recently dialogue on the subject has been re-opened due to the French Vogue photo shoot featuring Thylane Loubry Blondeau (above), the 10-year-old daughter of Patrick Blondeau, a former soccer player, and Véronika Loubry, a French TV star. Another non-Vogue affiliated shoot features her topless and without pants, both images have been called "implied nudity". These are NOT OK!

Some within the industry have spoken out against the inappropriate nature of these pictures but others defend them under the tired banner of freedom of expression. But this is NOT art, not satire as some have suggested (although Vogue maintains their spread was), nor is it the last vestiges of puritanical society raining on your pedophile parade. This is the stealing of innocence. This is the blurring of lines, the concerted effort to weaken the resolve of decency. This is NOT OK!!!

Recently we featured a story of the largest online child porn bust in history. 600 pedophiles from around the world engaged in some of the most grotesque and gruesome deviancy with children as young as 3 or 4 months old. This is currently only the perverted fringe but for how long? Sex sells and people are buying. How about lingerie for your 1st grader? Words that should never, ever be in the same sentence. The French lingerie company Joures Apres Lunes disagrees.

According to Dr. Eileen Zurbriggen, Chair of the APA Task Force, "there is ample evidence to conclude that sexualization has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development." Our little girls will learn to see themselves as valuable only to the degree they are sexually viable, and it affects our boys too. Boys "are also learning to value women only for their sex appeal, leading to increased incidents of sexual harassment, sexual violence, and increased demand for child pornography," Zurbriggen adds. There is the very real connection of print exploitation to the physical abuse of children. As we previously detailed, 90% of child rapists use child porn. The visual stimulus of sexualized and sexually abused children a part of their ritualistic fantasy.

Above, a Manga image, the popular graphic novels are full of sexualized child-looking characters. Below, a child models a bikini. Brands such as Abercrombie and Fitch have even marketed thongs to pre-teens.

When the fashion industry, the gaming industry, the music and graphic novel industries objectify girls and portray them as sex trophies to be won or sex goddesses to be worshiped the pedophiles win. Society is being reformed, remade into their imaginations, vile and reprobate. And as the average consumer, who shops those stores and buys those products and is inundated by sexual images of kids, there comes a point where those images cease to shock. And slowly we are immunized, slowly our will to resist fails, and each day our little girls are sold and we are the ones buying.

Please boycott companies that use the sexuality of children to sell their product. If you walk into a store and there are images of sexually objectified children, walk out. Put down the magazines with the offending ads, cancel your subscriptions. Send emails to the CEO's and editors. Let your voice be heard. And parents be careful what your children watch, play, read and listen to. Re-enforce with them what true beauty is. They are only young for such a short time. Let them be kids, please.

Respire Haiti.

Restavek, is a Haitian word for a child slave. Today, 300,000 children are bound by this heartbreaking tradition that exploits their labor, their very life . Respire Haiti is changing that in the city of Gressier, Haiti.

This is Respire Haiti's story. One girl, with a heart for the exploited, left the comforts of the first world to make Haiti her home. And now hundreds, one day thousands of Haitian children will be free.

Please support Respire Haiti in building a school for the Restaveks. Please give them back their lives. From all of us at Conspiracy Of Hope. Thank you!!

Gypsies.

There is an old Gypsy plea for redress: "Bury me standing when I die, 'cause I've been on my knees for my whole life." What a tragically beautiful, if not colossal understatement. For it seems every society, in every age has sought to subjugate the Gypsies. And yet the Gypsies have remained wild if not at times defiant....

All across Europe from the 1300's on, anti-gypsy laws sprung up. Many were meant to expel them from one sovereign country only to be enslaved by the next. Hitler's genocide of the Gypsies, an estimated 400,000 brutally murdered, the culmination of years of mistrust and prejudice against the Gypsies. There have even been state sanctioned sterilization programs aimed at the Gypsies as late as the 1960's.

Gypsies in Hitler's death camps. An estimated 400,000 men, woman and children murdered.

Though the Gypsies are found all over the world they are still a nation-less people, their history shrouded in romance and mystery. Some say they are Indians, forced from the North West Indian continent or wandered from there, artisans following military regimines. Others have said Persia or Turkey because of the linguistic syncretism. But call them Rroma, or Dom, or Sinti, or tigany, citani, or zigeuner or one of the many other usually derogatory names the fact remains, whether it is borne or forced into them, they are Gypsies and Gypsies are wanderers.

Today the great forests where the Gypsies roamed have been bulldozed, the sprawling steppes paved, and the wild-hearted wanderlust of the Gypsies is hemmed in on all sides, making them, once again an easy target for exploitation. The statistics on the number of Gypsy victims of trafficking is as hard to pin down as the Gypsies themselves. When so many gypsies still live in a citizenship limbo, when there is centuries of bad blood between them and authorities, when many in power would be glad to be rid of the "plague" of the Gypsies; it is easy to see why Gypsies wouldn't report the crimes, or when they do, not get the full cooperation of police. As always, the children suffer most....

Below, beautiful Gypsy children from Albania to Macedonia.

The trafficking of Gypsy children rarely makes the front pages unless it of such a scale that cannot be ignored. Roma gangs, and even some Roma parents were involved in this massive ring in the UK. And this story out of Scotland will make your blood boil. Though the children involved were not expressly called Gypsies, Bulgarian and Romanian Gypsy children are among some of the poorest and most susceptible to being trafficked and many indicators suggest that at least some of the children were.

Romania, and in particular Bucharest, is one of the key travel destinations in Europe for pedophiles. The street-children are frequently victims. It is estimated that five per cent of the homeless children in Romania are forced into sexual exploitation and many of these are orphaned Gypsies. The trafficking of children to Greece for begging and forced labour is no less alarming. There are 1000 mainly Albanian gypsy children in the city of Thessaloniki alone. They tell stories of violence and exploitation at the hands of their traffickers. Yet the Albanian Ministry of Public Order claims to have no evidence and the general public appear to be largely indifferent.

According to the Council of Europe, Gypsy children are smuggled into Italy from the former Yugoslavia to work as forced labourers in gangs where they are trained and then sold into crime rings in large cities. Similar phenomena occurs all over Europe where Gypsy children are trafficked and sold into organized crime rings and trained to pick pockets or worse. Public reaction has been tepid in the UK. It seems that many are more concerned with the rising crime rate attributed to the influx of these kids.

But our outrage, our response to the trafficking of children must always be the same, no matter if the children involved are from a transient group with an embroiled history, we must demand justice for them. We must act as if they are our kids. And if you're like me, and you suffer a bit from wanderlust yourself, and if you've ever been fond of the gypsies as I have, join the fight against the trafficking of humans. There is no greater cause.

From all of us at Conspiracy Of Hope. Thank you for everything you do to fight injustice.