WALK 4 FREEDOM
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles is considered as one of the top three points of entry for human trafficking to the United States. It is also home to over 600,000 Filipinos.
According to nonprofit Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST), human trafficking is a serious and growing problem in neighborhoods throughout LA.
CAST Executive Director and CEO Kay Buck said in a statement that this human rights violation often happens behind closed doors, hidden from the public eye.
On January 11, Saturday, various community organizations, students, trafficking survivors and concerned citizens joined CAST in the streets of LA to raise awareness about the horrors of human trafficking.
They all took part in “Walk 4 Freedom,” a 2-mile walk around Koreatown, to kick off the National Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
Koreatown is a local neighborhood in LA where cases of human trafficking have been reported.
During the walk, participants trudged through the route and distributed brochures and flyers containing information about human trafficking.
The route started and ended in front of St. Basil’s Church on Wilshire Boulevard and lasted around one hour.
“Today, we are walking to shed light on this issue,” Buck said in a statement.
“Traffickers often exert control over victims by tearing down their self-esteem, saying that nobody cares whether they live or die. Walk 4 Freedom sends a very different message: the people of Los Angeles do care. There is hope,” she said.
Buck said that the more people talk about trafficking freely and discuss ways that the community can get involved, more victims can be rescued.
“That’s why events like today are so important,” Buck was quoted as saying in an ABS-CBN News report. Walk 4 Freedom is already on its seventh year of celebration.
According to Buck, the organization’s cases of trafficking has doubled through the years, and that 20 percent of their cases involve a Filipino victim.
Filipina victims of human trafficking also participated during the walk.
Among them was Angela Guanzon, who hails from Bacolod City and was a victim of a trafficking ploy in 2005.
She worked 18-hour and 7-day weeks as a caregiver. She also lived in dire conditions, sleeping on the floor in hallways and eating table scraps, until a neighbor tipped off the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Currently, Guanzon works as a Certified Nursing Assistant and is now a green card holder.
“I can go home, visit my family. I’m free, I can do whatever I want,” Guanzon told ABS-CBN.
Guanzon emphasized the importance of fighting for one’s rights, especially in the US.
“Here in the United States, everyone has rights. Fight for your rights,” she said.
“Don’t give up,” Ima Matul, another trafficking victim, said in an ABS-CBN report. “There is still hope and there is help out there.”
Kathleen Bryant of the Religious Sisters of Charity said that human trafficking “should be in the trash bins of history.”
“We all want to work to raise awareness because each of us as human beings has a responsibility to end this,” Bryant said.
(With reports from ABS-CBN News)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend January 18-21, 2014 Sec A pg.6)
