The third Opus Prize Spark Session highlighted Sari Bari, a nonprofit organization run by Sarah Lance in Kolkata, India, dedicated to helping sex trafficking survivors. Anne Ozar, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, Matt Wenz, a senior in the College of Business and Delaney Ellfeldt, a student in the College of Nursing, collectively shared their experience of observing Sari Bari and Kolkata on Sept. 22.
Sari Bari was started in 2006 by Sarah Lance, according to Ozar, as a response to three women who were seeking freedom but who needed alternative employment to leave the trade. Sari Bari upcycles old saris, traditional South Asian garments worn by women, using a Bengali stitch to recreate them into bags, blankets and other accessories, which are then sold to people abroad to support the survivors.
“Sari Bari is not just employment,” said Ozar. “As Sarah put it, Sari Bari is a family and a community where we provide a safe place for women to come when exiting the sex trade.”
The women receive six months of training, according to Ozar, including mental health care, group therapy, budgeting, literacy and math. They also receive sewing lessons, which provide the women with a stable income to support their families.
“For those girls who are there working, it’s just amazing to see the difference in our life path and how sex trafficking in India is very parallel to sex trafficking here in Omaha,” said Ellfeldt.
The U.N. Global Report on Trafficking in Persons says that sexual exploitation makes up roughly 79 percent of all human trafficking. According to the U.N., human trafficking is defined by three things — what is done, how it’s done and why it’s done.
The cyclical nature of vulnerability, which includes factors like the ongoing negative effects of colonialism, joblessness, a lack of education and literacy, extreme poverty and sexism provide a ripe environment for the exploitative nature of the sex trade.
“Women are the last people to ever find appropriate employment, thus beginning the cycle of sex trafficking,” said Ellfeldt.
According to the panelists, the women often share a common narrative. A strange person, often male, arrives in a village and offers women employment in the city, an opportunity all too many poor, rural villagers will jump at. When they arrive in the city they are sexually exploited and forced to work in brothels, but without a means to return home the women will spend their lives in the sex trade. Because of the organization’s work, many women will become pregnant and their children are then raised in the horrific world of sex trafficking, creating a generational cycle.
“I think it has to start with education,” said Wenz, when asked about what students can do to combat sexual exploitation. “There’s a lot of little things we can do, I think there’s varying levels. It’s such a complex issue and a lot of people are like gung–ho about it and are like ‘oh I want to help’ but it’s so deep and you really truly have to be committed. It’s not just something you can do on a whim and that’s a lot of the problem.”
Supporting freedom businesses, like Sari Bari, is another small way to contribute. In a capitalist economy, as long as there is a market, there will be a trade. Even small efforts like being intentional about buying clothing begins to chip at the market’s existence.
“With each stitch a life is transformed; with each thread, hope is woven into a woman’s future,” said Lance.