Kathleen Barry & Melissa anderson-hinn

Angel Warriors on the Front Lines Fighting the sex slave trade in women and children
Female sexual slavery is present in ALL situations where women or girls cannot change the immediate conditions, of their existence; where, regardless of how they got into those conditions they cannot get out; and where they are subject to sexual violence and exploitation
Kathleen Barry, (Female Sexual Slavery, 1979)

By Matt Kramer

mpatience and apathy are traits of the news media in the United States especially in regard to chronic humanitarian issues. Current disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes will get attention during their peak and immediate aftermath. When a toddler falls into a well and is trapped, the nation and the media holds its breath for two days until she is freed. But reports of thousands of children around the world succumbing daily to preventable causes appear to be too routine for the mass media. The subject of modern slavery is also relegated to an occasional story but not often enough to keep the public apprised of the epidemic nature of this horrible crime. Outside of the attention of activists and government statisticians, few know that current estimates of the number of people living in slavery conditions today (estimated between 12 million and 27 million) outnumbers the entire population of people enslaved during the 350 years of the transatlantic slave trade. In this two-part series, we prole two women, Melissa Anderson-Hinn and Kathleen Barry, who have made signicant inroads working to increase awareness and end slavery of women and children, especially those who have been falsely recruited or kidnapped against their will to work in the sex industries.

inaccurate presumptions of judicial, police, and political gures who had to make decisions on such cases that were uncovered in their jurisdictions. When asked what motivated Anderson to move beyond the ivory towers of academia to work directly with victims, she replied, How could I not be motivated to get involved? As a trauma survivor herself, Anderson knows exactly how it feels to be completely disempowered and exploited and the need to dig deep to nd the strength and motivation to be healed. Growing up in the South, she also knows rsthand the devastating eects of hatred and discrimination in relation to a number of issues, including sexuality, politics, religion, and race. She also noted an overwhelming amount of apathy and ignorance about the nature of the world, observing the

Melissa anderson-hinn
Melissa Anderson-Hinn became aware of the global tracking in women and children while studying policy design in a political science course. Seeking an obscure example to study, she came across the newly enacted Tracking Victims Act of 2000. In her research, she became aware of the existence of the sex-tracking trade and, as Barry had realized three decades earlier, the overwhelming degree of apathy and ignorance of the general public and the inherent biases and

Melissa Anderson-Hinn

96

A Distinctive style . com