The easiest way to get you up to speed on our trip is handle this the classic "Five W's" style. What's good for exposรจs on the local news is good for a quick and dirty overhaul of a service trip to Costa Rica.
Okay, here we go...
Who are we?
We are a group of 4 Drexel Law students: Lauren Burnetta, Victoria Pietruszka, Kim Hollenback, and Rachel Rutter. Rachel and I are board members of a student group, the Domestic Violence Law Society. This trip is a philanthropy project on behalf of that group, as each group has to do some sort of community service.
Issues that particularly affect women and children are close to all of our hearts. We're all devoted to public interest and some of us plan to do some sort of public interest law when we graduate. The goal is serving populations who can't afford to serve themselves.
We're all focusing in on different kinds of law; we all have different strengths. Rachel plans on doing public interest law, while I want to do criminal law. Victoria is a JD/PHD student who is interested in how the law intersects with psychology. Lauren thinks she want to do health law, but isn't completely sure. Rachel and I are second year students while Lauren and Victoria are in their first year.
Interestingly, human trafficking actually intersects all of the areas we're interested in: public interest, criminal justice, psychology, and health law. Public interest groups lobby for stronger laws and help provide resources for victims. Criminal law prosecutes the offenders and vindicates the victims. Psychology can help explain how people become victims and why perpetrators offend. Lastly, human trafficking costs us millions of dollars in healthcare every year. It's important that healthcare providers know the signs of human trafficking so they can intervene when necessary. So we're all perfect matches for each other and this project because we all have an interest in what the others don't.
Essentially we are just 4 girls that like to help people, which may sound cliche but it's true.
What are we doing?
The focus of our trip is human sex trafficking which is basically a modern-day form of slavery. This is a huge international problem, but it is especially bad in Costa Rica. Most people think of Costa Rica as a tropical paradise, full of sun soaked beaches, white sand, rain forests, and beautiful wildlife. All of that is true but there is a darker side too, as in any destination.
A federal statute has defined sex trafficking as: "the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age. 22 U.S.C. §7102.
It's estimated that at least 20 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor, and bonded labor. About 2 million children are exploited every year in the global sex trade. Source
Sex tourists are individuals who travel to another country to buy commercial sex or exploit weak legal systems that ignore sexual abuse, especially of girls from poor and marginalized communities.
In Costa Rica we will be working with some groups that are dedicated to helping the victims of sex trafficking, particularly victims who are children. Some of the groups are: Seeds of Hope and Face of Justice. Our planned activities include helping with renovations to a youth center, teaching English at some camps for children, sponsoring a field trip, and meeting with a prosecutor specializing in human trafficking. We will also be observing the work they do at Seeds of Hope and Face of Justice to get a sense of how we can help combat trafficking.
Where are we going?
In Costa Rica we will be staying in a town called Quepos, which is in the Puntarenas province on the center of the West Coast. Quepos is a popular tourist destination as it is the gateway to Manuel Antonio State Park. It's also a popular spot for big game fishing since it's near a big marina on the water.
When are we going?
We will be in Costa Rica from March 15th-25th, during our Spring Break.
Why are we doing this?
We're going on this trip because we want to learn all that we can about human sex trafficking since it's such a huge global problem. We want to be responsible citizens of the world. Like I said before, it's estimated that 2 million children are trafficked worldwide each year. That is 2 million too many.
¡Pura Vida! ¡Gracias por leer!
Be sure to check for new posts coming soon!
-Kim
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