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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: The Miami Movement Against Human Trafficking
Sector Focus - Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2006
Project URL: http://trafficking.meetup.com/42
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Using entertainment to spread Human Trafficking Awareness.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - The general public does not consist of activists, otherwise our world would be a more humanitarian place. People are more likely to attend an event for entertainment value rather than to educate themselves about crimes against humanity. This is not a criticism of mankind, but rather an understanding of the current state of mind. As such, we use entertainment as a guise for our awareness campaigns. Audiences attend our events (dance productions, themed parties, etc) for entertainment and social interaction. Once we have captured their attention, we give a presentation about Human Trafficking. By this time our audience is receptive. We proceed to empower our guests by informing them that their entrance fees will be donated to survivors of HT. We further empower them by telling them how they can join our crusade….all they have to do is tell 1 person about HT. That’s all we ask. Just mention it to someone, and that takes us one step closer to eradication through awareness.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - The challenge we face when running awareness campaigns on this issue is how to reach audiences on a mass scale. I am familiar with the efforts of the current NGOs and they are doing magnificent work. However, the target audience is always the same....service providers or individuals that are already involved in activism. But how do we reach the average individual? The people that work all day and take care of their families all night? We give them a fun outlet. We offer them an event that they can attend with the entire family....with food and entertainment....a fun outing after a long week of hard work...and while they are relaxing at our event, we educate them in a very laid back, un-intrusive manner. The people described above are the majority of the working class, and they are the majority.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - We are in the stages of creating a theatrical production in which the story line revolves around slavery. The show will incorporate dance as well as other art forms including Capoeira and
Eastern/Asian martial arts, and live sections of percussion including Afro-Caribbean, Arabic, Classical Indian and Japanese Tiko drumming. The show will not be marketed as a “human trafficking” production, but rather a romantic tale of love and war. This will allow us to reach audiences on a larger scale, and they will unknowingly be entering a story of human trafficking while at the same time be completely immersed in entertainment. Ofcourse there will be information about HT in their programs and other HT related materials will be available in the theatre lobby. Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - One of our beloved partners, “Keeping Hope Alive in Talented Teenagers,” attended one of our awareness meetings and were horrified at what they learned. They jumped into action and co-hosted an event with us, allowing us to reach an audience of 150 people and to raise funds for HT survivors. We formed a beautiful partnership with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking by attending their events and helping to raise funds and supply remedial services to their victims. We formed a partnership with the break dance group, “Ground Zero Miami” by simply approaching them with our vision of using their art form as a way to spread awareness. We have partnered with the Ricky Martin Foundation by hosting toydrives and bookdrives for their affiliated orphanage in India. We partnered with Americans for Informed Democracy at an awareness event, and ended up co-hosting the 2008 Human Trafficking Summit. We strongly believe in forming alliances.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - We will spread human trafficking awareness to the masses with the use of entertainment.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - We have reached out to a large part of the local community. By doing this, we have served current victims by providing all of those extra pairs of eyes and into the community....people that are now familiar with the signs and indicators, and that now have the potential to have a hand in the liberation of modern day slaves. We will continue to do the same nationally and globally.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - While it is extremely important to prosecute the criminals and to help the survivors, prevention is the key to eradication. We acquire prevention through awareness. The more people that know the crime exists, the more people that know the indicators of a victim, the less of an opportunity will be provided for the perpetrators. It’s easy to hide a gun. It’s easy to hide drugs. But it’s a little more difficult to hide a human being when the eyes of the public are open.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - The beneficiaries are the current survivors and the future victims of HT. Through our innovation we have helped raise funds for survivors, as well as provide them with remedial services in the form of yoga and dance workshops. But more importantly, our innovation will decrease the number of future victims. The more informed individuals that exist, the less likely they are to become victims and the more likely they are to notice and report suspected victims.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - We use local sponsorships for our events, including small businesses, cultural organizations, and individual and corporate donations. We are also a sub-contractor of a larger organization who helps supply partial funding for our awareness campaigns.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: While I am the president/director of the organization, we do not have paid staff. We rely solely on our wonderful volunteers. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - We are based in Miami, Fl, one of the entertainment capitals. Locals and tourists are constantly seeking entertainment, and we provide them with such. Furthermore, Miami has been termed a “melting pot” due to the diversity of cultures that coexist. By gearing our shows to the different cultures, we often generate demand for our productions as we are able to incorporate a wide variety of genres.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - The state of the economy will be our main barrier to financial sustainability. There is always demand for our shows, but we need to keep costs at a minimum so that our public will be able to attend. We are not looking to generate funding and ticket sales for profit. Our interest lies in educating the masses, and in the event that there are profits, they are donated to HT survivors.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - I first learned about Human Trafficking on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The singer Ricky Martin performed, after which he mentioned the term “human trafficking.” I had never heard of the phrase, so I did not really pay attention. What caught my interest was the fact that he put his hands together and prostrated to Oprah and to the audience. I thought to myself, “what the heck does Mr. Shake Your Bon-Bon know about prostration?” Being of Indian descent, I knew it to be specific to my culture. A friend informed me that Ricky did humanitarian work in India. I was curious, so I decided to “Google” his work. The more I researched, the more information I found on human trafficking. The more I learned, the more horrified I became. Without a moment’s hesitation, I knew that I needed to get involved. At that point in time, I was working on my Masters degree in Physical Therapy and teaching dance full time. I decided that it was time to educate the public about HT. I formed my company and advertised several awareness meetings. But no one attended. So I decided to follow in Ricky’s footsteps. I decided to use entertainment (in my case, dance) as a way to entice people to attend my meetings, and then to educate them about HT. It worked!
It worked so well that I quit school, opened up my own dance studio, and began the beautiful journey of using entertainment to spread HT awareness. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - I am originally from the dear, sweet island of Trinidad. I was raised in Miami, where my parents migrated so that my brothers and I would have better opportunities. I will be eternally grateful for their struggles and sacrifices, as I would not be the person I am today without their blood, their sweat, their tears. I hold a Bachelors of Science in Biology as my original intention was to become a doctor, as many Indian children are expected to. However, after some years in the field, I realized that I had a greater capacity to help people through yoga and dance, which were my hobbies. I left my Masters program (Physical Therapy) and opened a dance and yoga studio. Around the same time was my eye-opening discovery of HT, and so the story continues!
Contact Information:
Shivanna Lalla
Director The Miami Movement Against Human Trafficking (NGO) Discussions about this entry
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Using Entertainment to Spread Human Trafficking Awareness
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Hi Shivanna!
I think what you are doing is great. I'm a current physical therapy student and involved in human trafficking awareness activities. Your article says that you left your Masters degree in PT to pursue HT activism, but I'm curious, do you know of any ways to tie PT into HT? I'm trying to get my class involved and many people are interested, but still its hard to relate the two things. They're all good people and what to help, but I could get m ore support if I related the issues more (besides the fact that slavery is against human rights).
Thanks! Keep up the good work!
~Bridget
I think you are doing a great job, my comments are in regards to your major concern--how do reach a mass audience? In terms of expanding your reach, i am curious if you could go beyond the meet-up website. It seems that you have made great use of the site and have found like-minded groups (Washington D.C., L.A.) that focus on human trafficking. It would be interesting to have an independent site that is completely linked in to all other sites that focus on this issue. At that point I would think that your pool of interested people would swell, and those people could offer help in terms of advertising for events, helping to film/edit events for distribution and/or sale. Also, I would think that there may be groups in the Miami area that are focused on this and perhaps interested in some sort of documentary.
Brad
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Portland State University, Master of International Management, current student
Hello Bradly,
Thank you for taking the time to inquire. We use our personal site that links directly to the meetup. So when clients visit our site seeking services for entertainment or instructional classes, they immediately see the human trafficking information. So far, it has proven to peak most of our clientele's curiousity.
Check it out at www.shivanna.com
Also, because of the meetup site, we have been contacted by local film makers for documentary purposes. It's nice to see that your queries are running parallel to our reality!
Peace & Love,
Shivanna
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Portland State University, Master of International Management, current student
Hi Shivanna,
This sounds like a great idea, and a model that has been applied successfully in other issues (such as the Beastie Boys concerts in support of the the Tibetan liberation movement). I like that you've included different kinds of arts from different cultures and countries of origin, as well.
I don't think it would be too difficult to incorporate a policy piece to your work. I think with all of the information you'll be providing, people will want some concrete ways to take action - and getting them to do so while they're inspired is key. Couldn't you have some local or national groups working on these issues table with each one providing a separate policy-related action item? For example, one table could provide basic information on writing letters - to Congress people, or company owners, or editors - pressing for specific actions that could be taken. Partnering with these groups could also increase your capacity to provide education.
What do you think?
R.E. Szego
Portland, Oregon
Hi Shivanna,
It is clear you are passionate about this issue and your organization is working very hard to combat it. Could you describe a bit more about how your organization uses the money it earns from the events. Is it for support for survivors? Do you offer support services?
Thanks for elaborating a bit more.
Amelia Forrest Kaye
Ashoka's Changemakers
Greetings Amelia!
100% of the proceeds go directly to the survivors. For example, at one event we collected both toys and monetary donations. The money was used to ship the toys to an orphanage in India that houses children who come from the red light district. At another event, we used the financial donations to ship books to the same orphanage. At our most successful event, we were able to purchase $1200 worth of gift cards that went directly to a large group of survivors that had just been rescued from our region.
As far as support services are concerned, we do offer them but in a slightly untraditional method. We offer remedial services in the form of yoga and dance workshops, giving the survivors a fun outlet....something outside of formal rehabilitation. We have been successful on the local level and would embrace the opportunity to do the same on a national and global scale.
Peace & Love,
Shivanna
I think the idea of merging education with entertainment is a really great tool. Most people will have no problem being informed about human trafficking while expecting to be attending a strictly entertainment based event; however bringing people to these events under false pretenses may get mixed responses. But I guess any response is a good response.
It seems to me that informing people that the proceeds from the event would go towards HT awareness would grab people’s attention without compromising the size of the audience. This would also address your barrier concerns. If people think that they are just attending a great entertainment event and a bonus of attending the event is that the proceeds will go to survivors and potential victims of HT, it will give them an incentive to spend during recession. You would be able to reach those who are interested in the entertainment and those interested in the social good as well.
I personally would love to attend an event like the ones that you are throwing. Not only for the entertainment value but for the educational value and the benefit I would be passing on to others. I think your organization would benefit many communities around the globe!
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MIM, Portland State University
Hello Courtney!
I love your message! Actually, on all of our PR materials, we always make sure to include that human trafficking will be addressed...of course it's in a slightly smaller font! We do make sure to state where the proceeds are going and the purpose of the event...so we don't completely blind-side our guests! :)
God Bless and we hope to see you at one of our events...perhaps when we take our efforts to the national level!
Shivanna
Dear Shivanna Lalla;
What an interesting idea- and truly a way to raise awareness in the general public about human trafficking. It is certainly necessary! I am wondering if you could elaborate s bit more on the focus and types of messages created by your organization. Do you focus exclusively on trafficking for sexual exploitation or do you also try to raise awareness about other types of trafficking such as for domestic work or agricultural labor- which are actually very common and often overlooked forms of trafficking in the United States? Maybe you could describe a current performance and its message as an example!
Keep up the great work!
Laura Cardinal
Public Health and Human Trafficking Specialist
Thank you for your inquiry! While the sexual exploitation of women and children is the area that I feel extremely passionate about, the majority of cases that have been uncovered in Florida have been labor trafficking and domestic servitude. As our population in South Florida consists primarily Latinos and Haitians, the information specific to labor and domestic servitude does capture the attention of our audience, because they do not realize that the farm workers that they drive by every morning or the "maid" in the house around the corner may not be there on accord of their own free will. The documentaries that we show often give more information about sexual exploitation, but we try to balance the information.
In regards to your performance question...(With the exception of the current project):
Our shows are designed as a way to capture attention. The performances themselves are designed purely for entertainment (hiphop, breakdancing, bellydancing, Indian dancing, etc)...and as our guests are entertained and relaxed, they are more receptive to the information we provide them with during the show.
The current project we are working on will contain both entertainment and a deep message about the reality of trafficking...once we are out of the pre-production stages I will be happy to provide a synopsis!