Uncategorized – Shield of the Children

Why Focus on Arrests?

Shield of the Children’s policy is to only conduct intervention work where the goal is the arrest and conviction of traffickers. We do not remove trafficked people without the arrest of their trafficker.

There are two main methods of operation in intervention work. The first is known as “soft rescue”, in which the goal is to remove the survivor from the trafficking situation. This is often done through outreach workers who befriend trafficked people and convince them to leave by offering employment opportunities or admission to a safe house. This method allows organizations to have many “rescues” and looks like a successful program. The problem is that law enforcement is not utilized and the traffickers are not brought to justice. They continue to operate in places where it is easy to find new victims. The survivors who are removed from the trafficking situation are quickly and easily replaced. This then increases the unique victims of human trafficking.

The second, and the method Shield uses, is known as “hard rescue.” In this method operatives work alongside local law enforcement to gather the necessary evidence to have traffickers arrested and convicted. Although this method is slow and only a small number of survivors may be transferred to a safe house as a result of this operation, the trafficking network is permanently broken. This means that they cannot continue to traffic countless people in the future.

Shield is committed to avoiding “band-aid” solutions and instead works for long-lasting results. We have carefully cultivated partnerships with local law enforcement agencies to make this possible.

January 14, 2023

Uncategorized

Shield’s Founder on the Start of SOTC

Shield of the Children originated in an alleyway in Vietnam in 2015. While on an intensive language course my colleagues and I (CEO/Founder) took a shortcut down an alleyway. As we walked down the dark alleyway a figure stepped out of the shadows. 7 years old, she was wearing a see-through black lace outfit and called over to us. Unaware of what was going on, I got down and spoke to her, asking her what she was doing out in the street so late at night (utterly clueless that this was a case of child sexual exploitation). She explained that her parents were not there but that an adult was watching her and I’d better give her some money or she’d be in trouble. She went on to explain that if I wanted to take her to a hotel that would be even better, but more expensive.

Partly due to shock, and partly due to being aware of the lack of law enforcement and judicial connections, I gave her some money and continued walking with my colleagues. Arriving back at the hotel I slumped onto my bed trying to piece together what had just happened. As it dawned on me that she meant to take her to a hotel for sexual purposes, my heart broke. I wept as I’d never wept before. The next day I woke and began contacting as many anti-human trafficking and law enforcement contacts in order to figure out who was working in this space. This began a nearly 3-year long journey of training, observation, and learning from anyone and everyone in anti-human trafficking.

In early 2018 Shield brought people together from different organisations and collaborated with local organisations on the ground to get our first arrests and rescues in South-East Asia. Since then, we have built up a network of investigators. Our organisation now has over 50 people involved and continues to grow rapidly. In mid-2018 we held our first combined training with a partner organisation where we trained 13 investigators. We deployed again in late 2018 and at one stage spent 6 weeks continually in one location assisting a partner organization.

In late 2018 Shield was registered in Australia as a not-for-profit and by 2019 Shield was also registered in a South-East Asian country. We also made our entry into the world of online sexual exploitation towards the end of 2018 – including facilitating training for two host nations’ cyber investigative police. 2019 brought us invitations from local organisations to assist them with cases they were unable to handle with their numbers or resources. We also visited and trained with another 7 organisations and several law enforcement agencies in a partner nation. Since then, Shield has continued to grow and develop in skillset, partnerships, and opportunity.

May 16, 2022