Supporting Artisans in Kenya with SOKO
Shop SOKO's ethical jewelry and use our exclusive discount code "DRESSEMBER20" for 20% off your purchase!
Did you know that when shopping at Madewell, Anthropologie, Reformation, or Marine Layer, you could be supporting independent artisans and a certified B Corp?
Since 2015, SOKO, a women-led, people-first ethical jewelry brand that connects marginalized artisans in Kenya to the global marketplace using mobile technology partners with retailers like the ones above to sell their products. SOKO connects more than 2300 independent and distributed artisans, creating an efficient and demand-responsive "virtual factory." Unlike centralized factory production, SOKO uses technology to enable the human workforce to make a meaningful impact and lasting change.
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The Dressember Network: Training Frontline Workers
A critical way to prevent human trafficking and intervene in trafficking situations is to equip those who may encounter potential victims in their everyday jobs to spot the signs of trafficking. Those in the hospitality, transit, and travel industries have an immense opportunity to help saves lives on a regular basis. Over the last year, the Dressember Network has provided crucial training to empower these frontline workers to recognize and report potential instances of human trafficking.
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The Dressember Network: Looking Upstream to Vulnerable Youth
*Kayla, an 11-year-old daughter of a single, working mother, experienced severe childhood trauma which led her to seek attention from men she met on social media. After Kayla drove her mother’s car to meet one such man with her little sister, the girls were placed with a relative caregiver. To ease the transition, Kayla was connected to Operation Independence, a program within the Dressember Network that provides outreach and support to vulnerable youth. With this support, Kayla has become involved with soccer, been able to set goals to improve her self-esteem and self-confidence, and now looks forward to a week-long summer camp and playing basketball.
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Update: Survivor Tiffany's Simpson's Habeas Hearing
Last Spring, Dressember partnered with Karana Rising to launch the Survivor Justice Initiative and advocate for the freedom of Tiffany Simpson, a survivor of human trafficking who is currently wrongfully incarcerated. We have shared her story and advocated for the reform that is needed in the US criminal justice system to protect the rights of victims and survivors of human trafficking. We’re so inspired by the way the Dressember community has advocated for Tiffany and other wrongfully incarcerated survivors, and we’re sharing this update to invite you to show up loudly for Tiffany again.
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5 Ways to Be a Conscious Consumer on Valentine's Day
I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine’s day. I love a day to celebrate love, I love the idea that the whole world is celebrating love together, and I even love the pink and red hearts that flood marketing emails and grocery stores. At the same time, February 14th is a day that has been steeped in consumerism. Every year, whether out of love or obligation, people buy chocolates, flowers, jewelry, and more for the special people in their lives. In spite of the enmeshment of consumerism with Valentine’s Day, it is possible to approach this holiday ethically and consciously.
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Things Survivors Wish You Knew About Psychological Coercion
Psychological coercion is an important concept to understand when it comes to the powerful dynamics of human trafficking. Dr. Evan Stark likens psychological coercion to being taken hostage: “The victim becomes captive in an unreal world created by the abuser, entrapped in a world of confusion, contradiction, and fear.” Psychological coercion is an intentional pattern of behavior (often used alongside other forms of abuse) which can include threats, excessive regulation, intimidation, humiliation, and forced isolation. It is designed to punish, dominate, exploit, exhaust, create fear and confusion, and increase dependency. It strips a person of their identity and breaks down the very core of who they are.
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Things Survivors Wish You Knew: Sean's Story
Sean shares his story of exploitation and his journey as a survivor of human trafficking. This story is part of the series, “Things Survivors Wish You Knew,” where we hear directly from survivors in the Dressember community about their experiences and perspectives on human trafficking. *Trigger Warning: The following is a true story of a survivor of human trafficking. This story includes sensitive language surrounding sexual assault. Please consider this before reading further.
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Things Survivors Wish You Knew About Sustained Liberation and Long-Term Recovery
People often wonder about survivors of human trafficking: Why would anyone ever go back after they’ve escaped? It can be difficult to imagine someone returning to an exploitative situation, and yet 80% of trafficking victims are revictimized after finding freedom, according to Kristi Wells of the Safe House Project.
The question we should be asking isn’t why a survivor would go back, but instead, how do we empower survivors to the level that they can achieve real, long-lasting success and live relationally healthy lives? What is necessary for survivors of exploitation to reach sustained liberation?
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Things Survivors Wish You Knew: Citlali's Story
Citlali shares her story of exploitation and her journey as a survivor of human trafficking. This story is part of the series, “Things Survivors Wish You Knew,” where we hear directly from survivors in the Dressember community about their experiences and perspectives on human trafficking. *Trigger Warning: The following is a true story of a survivor of human trafficking. This story includes sensitive language surrounding sexual assault. Please consider this before reading further.
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Things Survivors Wish You Knew About Trauma-Informed Language
Language binds a culture. It determines the way we view and respond to various social justice issues, such as the anti-trafficking movement. We must be thoughtful about the language we use surrounding human trafficking and trafficking survivors because it has the potential to propagate sterotypes, disempower survivors, and prevent survivors from receiving the help they need. By being intentional with our language, we can become better advocates and restructure our cultural narratives surrounding human trafficking.
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The Dressember Network: Survivor Leadership in Anti-Trafficking
In September, the Dressember Network’s partner ECPAT-USA filed information with the U.S. Supreme Court on the rights of child trafficking victims and in support of the petition of Courtney Wild, a young woman victimized by Jeffrey Epstein. ECPAT-USA teamed up with a phenomenal team at the law firm WilmerHale that provides free legal services. The Dressember Network recognizes that policy change is most effective and sustainable when it is survivor-informed. ECPAT-USA Survivors’ Council members provided powerful statements to the U.S. Supreme Court on how the law can best support young victims. Survivors play an integral role in our partner’s policy efforts on federal and state levels, to build a system that treats all children with dignity.
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Things Survivors Wish You Knew: Hannah's Story
Hannah shares her story of exploitation and her journey as a survivor of human trafficking. This story is part of the series, “Things Survivors Wish You Knew,” where we hear directly from survivors in the Dressember community about their experiences and perspectives on human trafficking. *Trigger Warning: The following is a true story of a survivor of human trafficking. This story includes sensitive language surrounding sexual assault. Please consider this before reading further.
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The Dressember Network: Eliminating Child Labor
Archie, who is 11 years old, works 10 to 12 hour days digging for gold in a pit often flooded with water. During this time, he breathes through a hose connected to a diesel-powered air compressor. At the end of the day, he eats dinner and then goes to sleep to prepare for the next day.
Rafael, who is 12 years old, shares a watering hole with the bulls on a farm where he has worked for five years, paying down his father’s debts.
Taisha, who is 16 years old, spends her days taking care of her grandmothers around the house. Though she is the first member of her family to attend formal schooling, she receives very little support and the extent of her chores has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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The Dressember Network: Legal Services and Policy Reform
Kelly, a survivor of human trafficking, told the Polaris Project, “Every time I sent [my application for a potential job] in, I got it returned. It was frustrating. I was finally just going to forget it and say to myself ‘I just won’t ever get a job doing [what I want] because everyone is going to judge me and I have to keep reliving my past.’” Kelly, like many other survivors, has a criminal record as a result of being forced to engage in illegal activity. Her situation is not unique, and, unfortunately, criminal records hold survivors back, impacting their ability to obtain employment, housing, education, benefits and financial assistance, immigration relief or adjustment of status and family stability. Solving the issue of criminal charges for forced crimes requires a holistic approach to providing survivors with access to the resources that they need for successful reentry into society.
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Gaining Freedom for OSEC Survivors like Ruby
Every young girl dreams of making her mark in the world. For Ruby*, she thought this would begin when she was given the chance to prove her independence. As the youngest of ten siblings, she thought her opportunity came when a recruiter sent her a private message on social media offering her a position in a computer shop. The recruiter won her trust by offering free room and board and paying for the travel fare from her hometown to a place 650 kilometers away. The shop even sent a houseboy to pick her up from the port. Ruby was so pleased by the opportunity to start a new life that she jumped in right away.
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The Dressember Network: Economic Empowerment in NYC
If we’re at a dinner party and someone asks what we do, we are unlikely to highlight the awesome cross stitch we completed while watching our new favorite Netflix series, the weekend trip we took to Acadia National Park, the hug we gave our significant other, the long run we went on the other day, or even the book that we read that completely changed our life. We know that what we “do” is inherently our job.
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Preventing Young Women Like Sasha From Being Trafficked
When Sasha’s* mother started noticing a change in her daughter’s behavior, she didn’t know who to turn to. She felt helpless as she watched her daughter withdraw from her to spend more time online and engage in sexual relationships with men she didn’t know. After a simple Google search, she found one of the Dressember Network partners in her local area in Atlanta.
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The Dressember Network: Fast Track Vocational Training
As Malala Yousafzai wrote, “When someone takes away your pens you realize quite how important education is.” For so many women who are able to access exit pathways from trafficking situations, particularly in East Asia, this is precisely the situation. Women who escape brothels in East Asia are often unable to finish basic schooling before they are trafficked. As a result, they often lack the personal and professional skills to be economically independent and are therefore vulnerable to revictimization.
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Dressember Network: Care for Survivors in Uganda
Talia is an 8-year-old survivor of human trafficking. She was deceived by her older brother and trafficked for the purposes of human child sacrifice. During a police raid, her brother was murdered by the witch doctor, but Talia was rescued. Her condition at the time of rescue was severely physically, mentally, and emotionally abused. When she arrived at the Dressember Network partner’s comprehensive residential Aftercare Program, she was extremely traumatized. She relayed to Joy, her case manager, that she wanted to be a policewoman when she grew up so she could find the man who killed her brother and take revenge.
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The Dressember Network: Mentorship and Scholarship in Northern Thailand
An estimated 60,000 children are involved in the Thai sex trade every year. A significant number are girls who come from the Northern region of Thailand, where poverty forces many to drop out of school while young. Uneducated, yet expected to help provide for their families, these children are easily lured into the sex trade.
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