Latest News & Events

Aimee Galicia Torres on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360

12/29/2011 21:38:00

I was recently featured on today's segment of Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN. It was a special expose against backpage.com. Check out the small clip below. To see the entire expose on CNN, click here!

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Aimee Galicia Torres on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360!

Aimee Galicia Torres, owner of The Majestic Dreams Foundation is on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 show which aired on December 29, 2011. This was a special segment and expose on backpage.com on the recent...

Insider Exclusive

12/09/2011 02:29:00

It's official, our PSA commercial is listed on InsiderExclusive.com! Our PSA commercial will also be running in numerous Television Stations all over the country for the next 6 months. We are very excited and honored to be a part of this movement.

Check out Commercial, by clicking here.

Al Jazeera Article - The Long Anticipated Article!

11/28/2011 02:53:00

CLICK TO VIEW FULL STORY

A mental and physical hell

The majority of the world's trafficked people are in Southeast Asia, and about half of those are forced into sex work. Renee Lewis

There are as many as 300,000 commercial sex workers in Thailand, many of whom were trafficked from border villages or neighbouring countries after being promised legitimate work [EPA]

The life of a sexually trafficked woman in Southeast Asia is almost unimaginable. The majority are tricked into leaving their homes, even in foreign countries, by the promise of a conventional, well-paying job that would allow them to support their families.

What happens next is something they could probably never expect.

Their identification and travel documents are taken by the traffickers, and the women are told they owe the traffickers for all travel expenses - except they are not going to be serving food or cleaning houses - they are forced into commercial sex work.

Some 1.4 million (or 56 per cent) of people trafficked worldwide are in Southeast Asia, according to the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT).

The majority of victims are between 18 and 24 years old. About half of those trafficked are forced into commercial sex work - of which 98 per cent are women and girls. Sexual trafficking is the most common form of trafficking in this region - UN.GIFT found that "internal displacement due to conflict, unemployment and poverty" all contribute to making them more vulnerable to trafficking.

In many countries in Southeast Asia, it is the girls who are expected to bring in money for the family - and it doesn't matter how.

Mental and physical hell

Sexually trafficked women are often forced to have sex with as many as five to 15 men each night - and in most places they are not allowed to refuse potential "clients" for any reason.

Many of the women become addicted to drugs, so that they can endure what is being done to them - meaning what little money they are given by the club owners is split between drugs and paying for their own food and clothing. Often, they don't earn much from the industry at all.

"Liza", a sexual trafficking survivor from the Philippines, explained that, one night, the owner of the club she worked at forced her to dance on the stage - despite the fact that she had just returned from a trip to the hospital for severe bleeding (which had turned out to be a miscarriage).

"That night there was a Chinese businessman at the club. He was a friend of the owner and told him that he wanted me to be his girlfriend - exclusive to him. I was brought to his apartment and handcuffed to a chair," Liza told Al Jazeera.

"I was brought to his apartment and handcuffed to a chair... he made me his sex slave."

- Liza, sex trafficking survivor

"He made me his sex slave", she continued. "Finally I was able to gain his trust and he began to leave me un-handcuffed. That is when I was able to escape."

"Victims of sexual trafficking are subject to physical and psychological torture. The traffickers will threaten them, that they'll kill their family if they don't work," said Aimee Torres, president and founder of Majestic Dreams Foundation.

These women usually have poor health due to the physical, sexual and emotional abuse; as well as the drugs and poor living conditions. The risks for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy depend on the woman's age and level of exploitation.

The number of adults registered as commercial sex workers is around 70,000, based on reports from the 2009 Human Rights Report: Thailand, produced by the US Department of State. However, many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) believe this is a massive underestimation - they believe that there are probably more than 300,000 engaged in commercial sex work.

Exploited children

The same report estimates that there are as many as 60,000 children involved in prostitution in the country. However, accurate numbers are impossible to get because of the underground and hidden nature of the business.

Child exploitation has recently gone even deeper underground - making it difficult to combat the abuse of these children, according to Patchareeboon Sakulpitakphon, programme officer for End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT).

"[The children] now tend to be delivered directly to abusers in hotel rooms through a pre-arranged agreement that may be made by staff of entertainment establishments," explained Sakulpitakphon.

Children end up in this work for different reasons; one of the most common is being trafficked illegally. Or they might be forced into sex work "if there is a burden placed on them to assist in helping the family financially... While the traffickers make a good profit from the selling of children, the child earns hardly anything," said Sakulpitakphon.

Fighting back

The injustice of sexual trafficking is being fought in many ways: Rescue missions, education, rehabilitation, empowerment, the creation of new laws, better coordinated law enforcement and most importantly, prevention.

"That's what we call a 'hard mission' - where we go in and anything could happen."

- John Curtis, president of The Grey Man

The Grey Man, an organisation based in Australia, carries out rescue missions in southeast Asian brothels - looking specifically for children and underage sex workers. The group's president, John Curtis - along with the other members of The Grey Man - has a background as a Special Forces commando in the Australian military.

For raids on brothels suspected to have underage children, they first send in young men from the group to the brothels posing as Western paedophiles looking to have sex with children.

"When they find them, we get all the information on covert cameras and then we let the police know if we're going to do an operation ... That's what we call a 'hard mission' - where we go in and anything could happen," Curtis explained.

A 'soft rescue' is where "we talk to girls and see if we can get them out using a social worker ... or tell them we'll provide them with an education as an alternative," Curtis added.

Rehabilitation

When Liza escaped from being held as a sex slave, she didn't leave commercial sex work. She went from working in one club to another. "I didn't think I could go back to Iligan (her home village) after everything that had happened," Liza explained.

During this time, Liza found out about the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific, and received support and counselling. This eventually allowed her to help form a new coalition named Bagong Kamalayan ["New Awareness"] with other women who had survived sex trafficking.

"I am happy that I am able to help other women, when before I wasn't even able to help myself," Liza said.

Like many organisations working with sex trafficking survivors, CATW-AP focuses on the "empowerment of survivors ... the focus is on healing and supporting their self-organising," said Executive Director Jean Enriquez. "We focus on a bigger perspective of the problem of trafficking. We support training of the survivors so they can become better leaders and advocate against the roots of the problem - unemployment, sexualisation of women and the power of men over women in society."

Programs like these are essential to keeping survivors from falling back into the same type of work, or deciding never to try to leave in the first place.

"Many of the women and children go back to the brothels because the programmes provide only basic education and job skills - like maybe being a housekeeper. And you think about it ... you're pretty much saying you can either be a prostitute or some other kind of servant," explained Torres.

Tomica Baquet, the vice-president of Majestic Dreams Foundation, continued: "The other difficult thing that comes into play is the number of jobs available to them ... They have to be sure there's another option for them."

Prevention

Although rescues and rehabilitation are important for those already trafficked, prevention is still the most effective strategy for combatting sexual trafficking as a whole.

"It's more difficult to rescue women than to prevent it in the first place."

- Jean Enriquez, Executive Director of CATW-AP

"We need education in the rural communities - this will lead to prevention on the supply side on a community level ... it's more difficult to rescue women than to prevent it in the first place," Enriquez stressed.

"We also need to educate young men so they don't want to contribute to the market ... and educate young women to reduce vulnerability to being recruited for prostitution."

Curtis also recognises the need for prevention "on the supply side". The Grey Man sends 100 children to school every day, has built a joint shelter in the north of Thailand and is funding families and whole villages that have fallen into debt and are at high risk for trafficking.

"In northern Thailand, in the border villages, there are whole demographics missing ... women and children from 12-25 are just gone. They've all been trafficked," Curtis told Al Jazeera.

Choosing to stay

Of course, there are some women who do choose to partake in commercial sex work. Because of that choice, they suffer from a social stigma and a lack of recognition of their job as valid. This leads to unsafe working conditions, lack of healthcare, lack of fair compensation and social marginalisation.

Liz Hilton, coordinator for Empower - a group formed in 1984 by activists and sex workers from Pat Pong, Thailand, said there needed to be a focus on the "human rights of sex workers, and women in general".

"Sex workers are criminalised and just generally punished on many different legal levels - they can be punished under immigration, trafficking and entertainment laws. Yet they are given no protection under labour law, and get no form of security," Hilton explained.

While the (mostly male) consumers of sexual services are generally not punished, women in southeast Asia are criminalised.

This type of law enforcement has not stopped commercial sex work from continuing - so perhaps the issue should be looked at from a new angle? One example of this is a law enacted in Sweden in 1999 which makes it illegal to buy sexual services, but not to sell them. Since that law was enacted, street prostitution in Sweden was halved.

Support from the law?

Curtis says that when he involves the local police in rescue missions, it becomes obvious that some policemen profit from brothels' continued business.

"We suspect a certain level of corruption ... on one mission the police went into the brothel and came back to report that there were no girls there, that it was actually a grocery store. But we had footage of the girls inside so obviously those guys were being paid off," Curtis said.

Although there are laws against human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and children, enforcement is a key challenge and uneven, to say the least, in southeast Asia. Officials often have limited capacity, resources and staffing to address the problem.

To make matters worse, some governments fear prioritising the issue and making a real effort to end commerical sex work because they believe it would negatively impact tourism. At the same time, governments in the West fail to help the situation by not monitoring their travelling sex offenders and paedophiles.

In general, there is a significant lack of coordination between local, national and international governmental and policing agencies. On average, only one trafficker was convicted for every 800 people trafficked in 2006 according to UN.GIFT.

"The punishment that is carried out is not nearly strict enough to reflect the grave nature of the crimes committed," stressed Sakulpitakphon.

Human Trafficking Seminar @ Mount San Antonio College

11/16/2011 19:48:00

On November 14th, we conducted a seminar at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, CA on Human Trafficking. We were very pleased with the large turn up of about 50 students. We are also pleased to announced that close to half of the students either participated in the Key2Free Video or Key2Free pictures of both.

The pictures are now posted on our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/key2free

A special thank you goes to all the students who participated in our campaign. The pictures are now posted on our Key2Free Pictures Page. The videos will be placed on our Key2Free Videos Page and our Key2Free Youtube Page.

Many thanks to Dr. Crystal Lane Swift for inviting us to participate in this seminar. Also thank you to Elba Soto-Quinones for modeling for our demonstration.

We will be participating in a couple more seminars in 2012.

Press Release: The Daily Titan

10/07/2011 17:16:00

Village Voice editor speaks at CSUF, students protest

Jessica Rubio

Daily Titan Assistant Features Editor

Published: October 07, 2011

Protesters, who included CSUF students, stood outside the Golleher Alumni House Thursday night to stand against guest Tony Ortega, editor in chief of Village Voice / Photo by Susana Cobo

More than 15 protesters stood outside the Golleher Alumni House Thursday night chanting “No sex trafficking” in light of a speaker who was invited by two Cal State Fullerton alumni chapters.CSUF’s College of Communications Alumni Chapter and the Hispanic/Latino Alumni Chapter hosted the OC-NYC Alumni Event at the Golleher Alumni House to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, featuring Tony Ortega, editor in chief of Village Voice, a weekly newspaper based in New York.Ortega was welcomed to CSUF from both alumni chapters and alumni guests not affiliated with the chapters; however, he was not welcome by protest organizer Phil Cenedella, activists from various anti-human trafficking organizations and students from Chapman University and CSUF.The protesters say Ortega is affiliated with BackPage.com, which they say is being used for human trafficking, prostitution and child prostitution. BackPage.com is a free classified advertisement website owned by Village Voice Media, which also owns Village Voice and other media publications. BackPage ads can also be found on the front page of VillageVoice.com.In September 2010, Village Voice Media was sued by a 15-year-old sex trafficking victim for allegedly abetting forced prostitution by failing to investigate prostitution ads on Backpage.com, according to a New York Daily News article in September 2010.Cenedella, who is the executive director of Stop Slavery 2011, said, as a leader, Ortega should speak up.“As a leader in the industry of the media it’s your role to report on what’s happening to child victims of human trafficking and to use your leadership roles to help us stop that,” said Cenedella, adding that he hopes the protest will push Ortega to do something.He and his entourage of about 15 advocates started protesting across the street from the Goheller Alumni House an hour before the event started.They shouted slogans like, “Stop human trafficking” and “No sex trafficking.”“We are sick of it, we’re mad as hell and in a nice way, peacefully saying, it’s got to stop. We are just expressing our First Amendment rights on a California college campus,” Cenedella said. “This is the most important human rights issue in America today–the buying and selling of human beings against their will.”Rocio Prado, a CSUF English major and vice president of the anti-human trafficking club on campus called Project P.A.T.H.E., said she is trying to raise awareness on both sex slavery and labor slavery.Aimee Galicia Torres, 26, an advocate of Stop Slavery 2011 and member of a nonprofit organization called the Majestic Dreams Foundation, said Ortega is refusing to see how much damage the adult section of BackPage.com is doing.“It (the adult section of BackPage.com) is a breeding ground for human trafficking because you have your adult sections where you’re promoting sex. You’re promoting human trafficking because everything is disguised,” said Galicia Torres.On the other hand, Ortega defended the adult section of BackPage.com as free speech. Protesters said they didn’t agree.“There’s nothing free about slavery, I mean, most of these people who are being sold in these websites–they’re underage, and they have no choice,” Galicia Torres said. “Providing an outlet where you can sell children to perverts is disgusting. That isn’t freedom of speech.”The advocates of anti-slavery held signs that read, “Hey Ortega! Real men don’t buy girls” and “I am the key to free,” while protesting Ortega and the conglomerate which owns BackPage.com.Lizeth Sebastian, 21, pioneer of the anti-human trafficking club at Chapman University called Set Captives Free, said many people are unaware that sex trafficking is happening in local areas.Juana Zapata, from Faces of Slavery, said for the past three years her organization has been rescuing and protecting girls who have been victims of human trafficking and who were advertised on BackPage.com, averaging one girl every six weeks.“We are a permanent residential place for them (the victims),” said Zapata, who was invited to the protest by Cenedella. “For us it’s very important that the public knows that this is actually happening right here; it’s not international. Students have to be fully aware what’s happening with their generation and they are the voice.”The protest did not seem to influence the event taking place inside the Golleher Alumni House as the jazz and big band music blasted throughout the courtyard.However, during his brief presentation Ortega did acknowledge the protesters as he heard Cenedella’s voice chanting “Stop human trafficking.”“I love protests and I’m actually feeling kind of honored that they are protesting me even if they don’t really understand what is going on,” said Ortega. “But I am glad that you were able to get past the barricades and come to this wonderful party.”Before the guests entered into the venue, they had a chance to take a ride in the “cash cab,” inspired by the TV game show called Cash Cab in New York. Parked right in front of the venue for each game, the energetic taxi driver asked each group of guests CSUF trivia questions. The easy questions were worth $1, increasing in difficulty and value with each question up to $10. Once the players collected the money earned, they were able to cash their winnings for CSUF gear.To keep with the event’s New York theme, the courtyard was transformed into a “bar area” with black, clothed tables, dimly lit candles, Village Voice coasters and bar nuts for the guests to mingle and network with one another.A projector also displayed Village Voice articles and cover pages against the wall for attendees to observe.The indoor area was set up as an ultra chic lounge lined with low sofas, low, colored lights, a New York cityscape backdrop, a statue of liberty Tuffy and an open bar. The bar featured drinks such as a Manhattan Skyscraper, a cosmopolitan and an appletini for guests to enjoy. New York-style pizza, chicken tenders and salad were offered as the main course with pie and cheesecake for dessert.During the event Ortega spoke about how he spent his week in California visiting CSUF and explained how the university helped set him on the right path for his future.“I’ve been going to classes. I’ve been reunited with some of my old faculty, old professors. It’s just been a dream come true. This place really set me on the right path in my life. My professors were fantastic,” Ortega said. “CSUF did so much for me.”Ortega was thanked and honored with a parting gift as a gesture of the chapters’ appreciation for his presence at the event.Ashley Gonzalez, the president of the College of Communications Alumni Chapter, said her chapter is constantly trying to get alumni involved with CSUF.“We are always changing and looking for new things to do and ways to get people back on campus,” said Gonzalez.Dorissa Martinez, the president of the Hispanic/Latino Alumni Chapter and member of the Board of Directors for the Alumni Association, agrees with Gonzalez.“We are just trying to get people back and connected to the university, especially the alumni who haven’t been connected for years,” said Martinez. “We’re just trying to give them a reason to come out.”By the end of the event, Cenedella and other anti-human trafficking groups were absent from the surrounding areas of the Alumni House.

Nuran Alteir also contributed to this report.

Key2Free Campaign Photoshoot Against Abuse

07/29/2011 14:49:00

The Majestic Dreams Foundation would like to thank Elba Soto-Quinones and CrystalLane Swift for participating in the first Key2Free Campaign Photoshoot against abuse. The photoshoot was a success and we are looking forward to doing many more in the future.

Enclosed are a couple of the photos taken at the shoot. If you are anyone you know would like to be a part of modeling for our Key2Free Campaign please be sure to contact Tomica@themajestic.org.

Please be sure to Like us on Facebook.

Key2Free Facebook

The Majestic Dreams Foundation Facebook

Al Jazeera Interview w/ TMDF on Human Trafficking

07/17/2011 15:12:00

We are super excited to interviewed by Al Jazeera English for their coverage and article on human trafficking. We will post the article as soon as we get it. Thanks so much.

Petition: Failure to Report Child Abuse

07/17/2011 15:09:00

Failure to report is classified as a misdemeanor in 39 States and American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. In Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota, misdemeanors are upgraded to felonies for failure to report more serious situations, while in Illinois and Guam, second or subsequent violations are classified as felonies. Brianna Lopez would be 6 years old now had her death at 6 months of age in 2002 not revealed perhaps the most brutal child-abuse case in state history. The story of Baby Brianna is a hard one, but it is the ugly reality of child abuse. Violent family members caused her death while others hid what they knew was going on. "They raped her; they beat her," said District Attorney Susana Martinez who prosecuted the case. "She had bite marks on her face, cheek, head, arms, legs, chest, torso, everywhere. "Literally bruised from head to toe, from the top of her head all throughout her body all the way to the big toe on her right foot." She was beaten and raped by her own family. More needs to be done to punish people like Brianna's grandmother and uncle who failed to report the abuse. "Those two individuals knew she was being abused," Martinez said. "She was full of bruises that were old: green, brown, yellow-colored." "Had they reported it early, had they and insisted on that child not being abused maybe we would have never had her death take place." For failing to report the abuse the three were sentenced to 30 days in jail. The maximum is one year. By making it a felony for failing to report child abuse, we ask that there is a minimum jail sentence of 5 years. No child should ever have to suffer like this. Let this serve as an example to break the silence and end the cycle of abuse once and for all.

SIGN PETITION!!!

11/11/11 Freedom Concert to fight Human Trafficking

07/12/2011 23:52:00

We will be participating at the first Freedom Concert to fight Human Trafficking on 11/11/11 in San Diego, CA. We are looking for artists interested in participating at the event.

Located below is more information about the events.

The event was founded on 30th July 2010 by Steve Graham Founder of ACT.

The vision for Global Freedom Concerts 2012 is for simultaneous concerts on five continents of the world.This will have major impact in educating people, motivating them to action and raising much needed funds to combat human trafficking in all its forms.

Vision

The vision for Global Freedom Concerts 2012 is for simultaneous concerts on five continents of the world; America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. This will have major impact in educating people, motivating them to action, and raising much needed funds to combat human trafficking in all its forms.

Mission

Our mission is to partner with human trafficking organizations throughout the world to help plan, promote and realise five major global freedom concerts in 2012 to fight human trafficking.

Values Statement

We draw on the goodwill, dedication, and efforts of volunteers worldwide. We welcome all who wish to be a part of our team. For us, there is but one agenda; freedom for all victims of human trafficking.

Global Freedom Concerts 2012 will work with human trafficking organizations to realize major concerts in their countries to raise awareness and funds to combat human trafficking.

Current Projects:

-Global Aid Concert to fight Human Trafficking 11-11-11 San Diego CA

-Global Freedom Concerts 2012

We welcome all who wish to be a part of our team. For us, there is but one agenda; freedom for all victims of human trafficking.

globalfreedomconcerts@gmail.com

http://globalaidconcert2012.com/

http://www.causes.com/freedomconcerts

http://www.twitter.com/Music4Freedom

http://www.twitter.com/Artists4Freedom

Trinity Alliance Films

07/12/2011 23:43:00

We at The Majestic Dreams Foundation are proud to announce the recent merger of Aimester Productions LLC to the newly formed Trinity Alliance Films. Trinity Alliance Films is a film production company founded by Tomica Baquet, Aimee Galicia Torres, and Florida Galicia Torres. Trinity Alliance Films will be producing "The Red Light." You can follow Trinity Alliance Films by visiting there website at www.trinityalliancefilms.com.