Hannah and Sarah: Inspiring a Generation of Advocates
Our global Dressember advocates never fail to give their all each year. We’d like you to meet the Canadian sister advocate duo—Hannah Lee, an ambitious 1st-grade teacher, and Sarah Chin, a spontaneous stay-at-home mom. These two inspiring advocates were on the 2020 advocate team called “Making Freedom the New Normal.”
Hannah’s Story
In 2016, Hannah and her husband Eugene started to question what they could do to serve others as a teacher and lawyer respectively. At a missions conference, the pair came across an International Justice Mission booth and discovered a fire inside them that burned to combat human trafficking. “There are a lot of opportunities in missions for teachers!” Hannah tells me. “And also to have an opportunity to work on the field as a lawyer with specialized experience and professional background, I think, is quite special!” Hannah and her husband served in India for a full year where Hannah learned to write grant proposals and wrote a TedTalk script for the director of International Justice Mission while her husband served as a legal fellow. Upon their return home, Hannah and her husband knew what they wanted to do, and planned an international conference to bring awareness to human trafficking in Canada.
Sarah’s story
Sarah thinks that her identity, age, and focus—even when she was a child—allows her to feel interconnected to advocacy. “It’s really easy to let life go in a certain direction,” Sarah asserts.“Especially living in North America, we are privileged in so many ways.” Now as a parent, Sarah can attest to how consuming child-rearing responsibilities can become when seeking opportunities to dive into advocacy. From supporting Black Lives Matter movements and denouncing Asian hate crimes to recognizing the true price behind clothing, Sarah and her family aim to make informed decisions in their everyday lives.
How did Hannah and Sarah become involved with Dressember?
Hannah first heard about Dressember through a former coworker who has been an advocate with Dressember for six years. “My husband works in fundraising and has done fundraisers with fitness goals like running or riding. And I thought: ‘I can’t do that, but I can wear a dress!’” Although Sarah is not a governmental official or a lawyer, she believes that accepting the invitation to support Dressember has allowed her to make an effective contribution. Drawing on her creative side, Sarah sewed dresses for herself and Hannah last Dressember in their second year advocating. The idea came from sewing masks as a hobby; the more dresses she sewed, the more empowered Sarah felt about contributing to a cause beyond material wealth.
I asked Hannah and Sarah how we can inspire future generations to partake in advocacy and learn about human trafficking.
For Sarah, every day is an opportunity to teach her son and other children about human trafficking. For instance she finds herself discussing the importance of ethical labor laws while at the dinner table.. Looking up to his parents, Sarah’s son selflessly decided to turn down gifts for his 5th and 6th birthday, asking guests to donate to International Justice Mission. Sarah and Hannah both agree that intentionality and educating oneself and the people around you can effectively help youth and adults alike to speak up and amplify their voices.
As a teacher, Hannah thinks it is imperative to pair her teaching style with the human trafficking knowledge she acquired in India: “Even 6-year-olds can understand when something is not fair and when something is not right.” Hannah often tells her students about the story of the Good Samaritan and applies the parable to real-life scenarios, like when she challenges her students to consider ways to support children who are being trafficked. Sadly, Hannah has found that adults often turn a blind eye when confronted with the needs of human trafficking survivors, especially because “[w]e often think that human trafficking is a third world problem and we don’t think we are complicit in it, but really we are.”
How do you connect with donors and prevent donor fatigue/advocacy fatigue?
Although the sister-duo are not very active on social media, their impact is still tremendous. Their ongoing efforts have helped to fund five projects to protect human trafficking survivors. Hannah asks her students not to buy her mugs and candy for the holidays; instead, she encourages them to donate to Dressember. Sarah urges donors to go beyond social media, where repetitive posts have conditioned many to have short-term attention to particular issues. The sisters also shared that emailing potential donors (family, coworkers, neighbors and close friends) and connecting with and communicating to others that their donations are making a name for the nameless is helping to overcome donor fatigue and continue to stay motivated.
Both Sarah and Hannah know that wearing a dress every day for Dressember has and will continue to spark conversation with donors and future advocates. As Sarah puts it, “Wearing the dress is like wearing a uniform. When I put it on it reminds me that I have a job to do and that job is to talk to someone about human trafficking.”
Hannah's Dressember page From a teacher's heart
Sarah's Dressember page Sewing hope
About the Author
Porsche Smith is a biracial young woman who is a rising college freshman based in North Carolina. Her mission is to couple community involvement and psychology to impact the youth internationally. She believes the socioeconomic status of an individual should not limit their ability to receive adequate resources. When Porsche isn't challenging global systems today, she enjoys diving into self-care by engaging in Bible studies, appreciating nature’s beauty and coffee dates with friends.