Blog
Interview: PROJECT FUTURES
/ July 9, 2014
(Image courtesy of globe rove.com)
Human Trafficking is a global issue attracting attention from Aid organisations and local non-profits the world over. When you see images of young girls, boys – innocent children – being lured into a life of sexual slavery and corrupt criminal undertakings, it’s heartbreaking. More than that, it convicting; those of us with the comfort of home and the safety of family must step up and do something to rescue these children.
The noise of the awareness campaigns and rapid-fire statistical education can be overwhelming, and we can weary of the way they wander in and out of our lives – but the daily reality of sexual slavery is not lost on its victims. It’s personal.
One not for profit organization taking a unique approach to bringing solution, is Sydney-based PROJECT FUTURES.
With a self-declared vision to “create an empowered world where every person can take action against human trafficking and exploitation”, PROJECT FUTURES engage “like-minded companies, individuals and communities” to raise awareness and funding for on-the-ground programs dedicated to combating human trafficking and sexual exploitation. They pair their fundraising initiative ‘know-how’ with the network of the individual or organisation, and together serve a common cause.
Passing the 5 year milestone, Founder Stephanie Lorenzo spoke with us about the key to their approach, and the work of PROJECT FUTURES in Cambodia:
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What did you notice first when you arrived in Cambodia?
The moment you step off the plane the humidity hits you. It’s quite a small airport in Phnom Penh, the traffic the hustle-bustle of it all, there’s [countless] cars and tuk tuk’s and motorcycles going in un-orderly fashion down the roads. Anyone who’s been to Cambodia or South East Asia will attest to that – but the one thing that really struck me was the people.
Being able to spend some time in Cambodia, I just fell in love with them; a country can be beautiful, it can have the most beautiful scenery, and buildings, and sites, but in the end I think the heart of a country is always through its people.
You’re connecting with a lot of locals in very vulnerable settings, who are you working with in Cambodia?
We work with an organization on the ground who’ve got 3 Centres which rescue, rehabilitate, reintegrate and educate women who’ve been forced into the sex industry over there, and [I’ve] personally been able to meet first-hand some victims who’ve been through that horrific trade, But what I do love is that [in] the Centres I have visited over the past 5 years, the women are so resilient, and they’re so hopeful. And they’ve got so much community and comfort, they’ve got a support network around them that they’ve never had before.
What would a typical case be that you face with PROJECT FUTURES?
Cambodia is a very poor country. Its come out of a really horrific past with the genocide and the Khmer Rouge, and so forth. So you’ve got a lot of vulnerable communities living on the outskirts of town, or in rural areas, and you’ve got recruiters that go and look for young women to be able to put in sexual slavery [from these communities] for the benefit of brothels that service local Cambodian men, and also brothels that service Western men. It’s horrific.
A typical case would be a vulnerable child that’s part of a family with about 5 kids, a girl that doesn’t go to school, that might work within that rural village to try and get some money for her family (usually the boys go to school), she might be rice-farming or whatever [her work] is, and could be approached. That girl’s then taken, promised a better life, promised money sent back to the family to work as waitress or a domestic cleaner etc, and then once out of the safety of her family unit, she gets put into the sex trade. And there’s nothing she can do about it. As a young girl who doesn’t have any family, who doesn’t have any support network around her – who doesn’t know her rights – who is she to say whether this is right or wrong? It can be the start of a very unfortunate journey into a very adult world.
How do you work toward a solution?
We work with financial beneficiary partners on the ground, [who benefit] from our expertise in raising funds and awareness. Where other charities may not look, we target young people, we target young professionals, and we target [them] to keep these projects going.
With Government funding being slashed to Foreign Aid and so forth, we need to find really interesting ways to raise funds, and so I look at that young demographic.
It started by looking at my network of friends, and I was on this trajectory to work in Marketing and Communication and have a great career in that, and [it was the] same with a lot of my friends. None of the ones that I was really good friends with wanted to work for a Non-Profit – a lot of them had really big aspirations to go into Marketing, Branding, Finance, Law, be a Doctor, work at Macquarie Bank – but were also really good people. We all know that [this young] section of the community have disposable income that can be used, and we use it on partying, we use it on going out, and all those things that young people love to do, so PROJECT FUTURES real ethos is to attach those things that young people identify with, to a cause.
In just over 5 years we’ve been able to donate over 1.1 million dollars to our beneficiary partners, with an average donation between $50 and $60. It’s not that much, but collectively we’ve been able to reach that many different people that it’s become a really amazing way, and a different way, and an innovative way, to raise funds, and also allow young people to better utilise their skills and talents and put them into good use for a good cause.
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PROJECT FUTURES will be hosting Stella Fella events across Australia this August, providing “a positive, awareness-raising initiative encourag[ing] men and young men, in particular, to engage others in ending forms of violence that most Aussies don’t realise takes place in our lucky country.” Find our more about booking your place now, and be sure to visit PROJECT FUTURES online,
