{"id":1338,"date":"2013-08-05T14:53:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T14:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2013-08-05T14:53:01","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T14:53:01","slug":"ways-to-help-stop-survival-sex-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/?p=1338","title":{"rendered":"Ways to Help Stop Survival Sex Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

I admit it: I get angry when I see the media refer to ‘prostitutes’ or ‘sex workers,’ which implies a girl has a choice between selling herself or doing something else. \u00a0For rescued girls and women, there is no choice.<\/p>\n

On my last trip to India in Dec ’12\/Jan ’13, I taught self defense to girls between the ages of 15 and 18\u00a0at a government shelter home who had been rescued from brothels. \u00a0Many of the girls had been kidnapped and sold as young as 10. \u00a0Even before being kidnapped, most of the girls had probably not attended school because, in India, boys are favored over girls, and girls’ only long term value is seen as being household help, which does not require education. \u00a0Speaking with some of the shelter staff, I learned that,\u00a0without education or vocational skills, as much as 70 percent of the young women I taught would have to revert to the only thing they knew could earn money: sex. \u00a0Put yourself in their shoes: \u00a0Faced with the choice of starving to death or selling yourself, what would you do? \u00a0Is that a choice, or just basic survival?<\/p>\n

How can we help stop this from happening? \u00a0By buying stuff,\u00a0but not just any stuff: \u00a0Stuff made by survivors. \u00a0The demand for survivor goods is a powerful tool to break an economic cycle that might otherwise trap a girl in survival sex work. \u00a0There is a multitude of organizations that employ survivors to make handicrafts. \u00a0Buying beautiful scarves, or jewelry, or kitchenware, drives demand and keeps these survivors employed. \u00a0Pinterest<\/a>, a popular\u00a0pinboard-style\u00a0photo-sharing\u00a0website, features several online shops and artisan cooperatives that offer lovely handicrafts. \u00a0Check these out, and be prepared to find something you just can’t live without!:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/pinterest.com\/burkemuseum\/empowering-objects\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"True<\/p>\n

http:\/\/pinterest.com\/search\/pins\/?q=survivor%20made%20artisan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"iSanctuary<\/p>\n

http:\/\/pinterest.com\/source\/fairtradewinds.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I admit it: I get angry when I see the media refer to ‘prostitutes’ or ‘sex workers,’ which implies a girl has a choice between selling herself or doing something else. \u00a0For rescued girls and women, there is no choice. On my last trip to India in Dec ’12\/Jan ’13, I taught self defense to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1341,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions\/1341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}