This project is more than sex trafficking

This past Wednesday I met with La Casa de Panchita which is an organization that works with women and girls that are domestic workers to provide them education and provide legal assistance. Sofia Mauricio, the coordinator of the organization explained to me all about the organization and their work. The people that Panchita works with aren’t always trafficking victims. Some of them are domestic workers that are treated very fairly in their work and they simply need classes on how to do certain tasks in the home. However, there are many other girls that they work with that need much more than a cooking class. A typical girl that Panchita works with is from a rural area in Peru and they were deceived into coming to Lima under the false premise of the prospect of a good job and education. Usually they are recruited by a person that they trust such as a family member, a family friend, a teacher, or a pastor. Once they arrive here, they are forced to work in the home. Some of them are paid for their work but it is extremely low and they are told that they need to pay off the cost of their trip to Lima and their living experiences, which are exaggerated prices. These women and girls are victims of debt bondage.

These cases are usually discovered because La Casa de Panchita goes to night schools, many of the girls that are domestic workers are permitted to go to school for a few hours in the evening. There Panchita talks to these girls and informs them what trafficking is and their basic human rights. Many times, there are girls in the class that speak up and admit that they don’t feel like they have a choice to leave the situation that they are in. This is when La Casa de Panchita steps in a tries to help the girl escape the situation. However, it is very difficult because at this time there are no safe aftercare facilities for these girls to stay if they are removed from their situation. If they aren’t working in a home, they will probably end up in the streets and area likely to get involved in drug trafficking, prostitution or begging. There are orphanages that the girls can go to, but again many of the children at the orphanages are involved in these trades, and the girls from the domestic homes have been exposed to these things before because they are from rural cities.

This was a great meeting, because once she was done explaining the situation some of her clients go through, I knew that she has seen trafficking victims. I than explained to her the purpose of my investigation and what we are trying to do. I asked if we could have access to the cases that she has seen for our report, she agreed and I have a meeting with the lawyer at the organization this Sunday. This is exactly what Not For Sale needs because we need to make it known that we are not only just concerned with sex trafficking, but we want to investigate all types. Sex trafficking is just the easiest of all of them to study because it is so visible.

After explaining the situations that La Casa de Panchita sees, Sofia lamented that she knows there is a lot of work be done and she doesn’t think that the organization is doing enough. Finically the home is struggling, barely having enough money to sustain the programs that they have now. The legal system isn’t designed to properly protect these girls. The police don’t see it as a priority to prosecute and find the people that recruit the girls in the first place, so even if they do catch ones that have procession of the girls, the supply will keep coming. Sofia said the problem is just so big that she doesn’t know how to intervene. I would have to agree with her, but she is trying.