The One You've All Been Waiting For

And if you haven't been waiting for it, I have. We've got audio of Jency's interview, which aired last week on Around and About. Jency talks about human trafficking, the experiences she and Nathan had as they traveled to India, and her dream to stop the exploitation of women and girls through an act as simple as selling bags.
Her radio interview is posted below.

Listen Up!

Listen for us in the coming week on 88.1 WUTC, Chattanooga's NPR affiliate. Jency met this week with Julie Burrage of Around and About to talk about fair trade and share stories from the trip she and Nathan took to India and Nepal.
Not sure yet when this will air, but we'll keep you updated!

I fear that we are about to beat a dead horse into the ground on this blog with our continued talk of Freeset and Sari Bari, but we're putting a press release out on Monday and I thought I'd post it on here for you to see.
Thanks for your continued support of all we're about here at World Next Door!

The designs are simple: swirling daisies, the dark silhouettes of gnarled trees, cheerfully placed dots. A recycled sari, once used as a traditional Indian dress, is now a bamboo-handled purse.
The stories behind these bags, however, are more complex. The purses, available at World Next Door, downtown Chattanooga’s fair trade store, are made by women who were formerly forced to work in the sex industry in Kolkata, India. Today, thanks to fair trade, the women are able to support themselves and their families by creating and marketing the bags.
World Next Door managers Jency and Nathan Shirai traveled to eastern India in April and May, where they were able to meet some of the women who make the bags that line the shelves of their store.
“Every time I sell a Freeset or Sari Bari bag, I picture the women’s smiling faces and the joy in their eyes from having a job where they are treated with dignity and respect,” Jency Shirai said. “By selling their bags, we are playing a small part in Chattanooga to transform a community from the inside out.”
Sari Bari and Freeset are two of the companies the Shirais met with while in India. Sari Bari takes its name from two symbols: a sari, which is the traditional clothing worn by Indian women and the representation of womanhood, and bari, which means house or home. The company seeks the freedom and restoration of Kolkata’s red light districts by giving women affected by the sex trade industry dignified employment opportunities.
Freeset employs former prostitutes, many of whom were trafficked into Kolkata’s sex districts from neighboring countries like Bangladesh or Nepal. Today, more than 140 women work for the company, which produces approximately 1,000 bags each day. Employees at Freeset are paid a fair wage for their labor and receive health insurance and a pension plan with their job.
World Next Door’s relationship with these Kolkata-based businesses is living proof that local consumers who shop with their conscience in mind can make a global difference.
Fair trade is an alternative business practice that hinges on guaranteeing fair wages and dignified working conditions for producers in marginalized economic systems.

The Red Light District

Nearly every city has its own version. In this place, women and girls stand saucily on darkened streets or wait silently in one-room hovels. Their product is their body, and there is no shortage of takers.
Make no mistake, the sex industry is worldwide big business. The trade of humans ranks as the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world, coming in behind only drugs and weapons. (U.S. Department of State) While statistics on the grim business are difficult to collect and verify, it is safe to say that human trafficking touches every corner of the globe.
The U.S. State Department believes that somewhere between 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. In 2007, British law enforcement expert Josh Dillon told the United Arab Emirates' Gulf News that 75% of international human trafficking cases involve women who are ultimately forced into the sex trade. (Click here for the article.) Again, the U.S. Department of State estimates that up to 50% of the trafficked are minors under the age of 18. And UNICEF puts the number of children in the commercial sex trade at nearly two million.
I've seen the fruits of this rotten seed personally, as I lived in the midst of a large city in southwestern China for two years. There, women light their "massage parlors" or "hair salons" with fluorescent pink lights to let customers know what is really on sale. A Chinese friend, a university student from a small town in rural Sichuan, spoke of the girls from his high school class. Most of them had left the area, pushed by their parents to move to prosperous southeastern China, where a Sichuan mistress is a prestige symbol for wealthy businessmen. The families of his former classmates, my friend said, had new homes: paid for by their daughters' labors.
This tale is told the world over. But there is hope. As Jency and Nathan wrote during their time in India, we are working with some of the people fighting this trade on the front lines. We've written about them before, but we mean it--check out Sari Bari and Freeset to learn more about how something as simple as a bag is helping to free women from bondage.

Here's a little bit about Freeeset (taken from their website) to whet your appetite:

Our Neighborhood
Freeset is located in Sonagacchi, the largest, most infamous sex district in Kolkata, India. Within a few square miles more than 10,000 women “stand in line” selling their bodies to thousands of men who visit daily. Many are trafficked from Bangladesh, Nepal and rural India. For others poverty has left them without options. The cries of their hungry children drive them to sell their bodies.

At thirteen, Sonali* was stolen from her village, dragged to the back streets of Sonagacchi and sold into prostitution. Her first customer drugged and raped her unconscious body.

Bashanti*, a daughter of poverty-stricken parents, was sold into the sex trade by her mother, sacrificed so the rest of the family could eat.

In India, prostitution is big business and thrives on exploitation and slavery, robbing the poor of dignity and innocence.

* names changed