U.S. agency acts on CMA idea to fight human trafficking

Excerpted from "Blue Campaign Announces New Human Trafficking Trainings," January 11, 2012 blog entry posted by Alice Hill, Senior Counselor to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.


Today, I’m proud to announce several new human trafficking awareness and training materials for the general public, federal workforce, first responders and airline employees. These new materials aim to help increase awareness and provide education on the indicators of human trafficking and the importance of reporting it to officials. We can’t end the horrendous crime of human trafficking on our own--we need individuals and communities to spot the signs of human trafficking and report it to authorities.

The new trainings were unveiled earlier today at a meeting with DHS officials, other federal agencies along with representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGO), the private sector and the international community at a human trafficking event. Subject matter experts from across the government also engaged in a dialogue with stakeholders on methods and services to support victims, ways to engage local communities, and new initiatives taking place in the NGO, private sector and international communities. The session gave participants the opportunity to provide ideas to federal experts leading an array of anti-human trafficking programs and services. I’m very excited for the ideas that were expressed, and am hopeful that they will lead to new ways to prevent the terrible crime of human trafficking.

To learn more and take our general awareness training, please visit www.dhs.gov/humantrafficking.

CMA VP for Govt. Relations Jonathan Imbody: "Following up on an idea advanced by the Christian Medical Association in previous meetings with U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security officials, agency officials at this meeting I attended announced a new program to engage health care professionals to help recognize and report victims of human trafficking.

"Sec. Janet Napolitano's Sr. Counselor Alice Hill announced, '[DHS Chief Medical Officer] Dr. Alexander Garza will present a medical project developed based on comments from you. It's a powerful example of your idea that came out of our meetings." After raising the idea of engaging medical professionals, CMA had provided Dr. Garza with examples of training materials developed by CMA member Dr. Jeff Barrows, an OB/Gyn physician who now runs Gracehaven, a shelter in Ohio for female teen victims of human trafficking.

"Dr. Garza unveiled a video and explained the outreach to the health care community being developed, observing that that 'conversations with stakeholders including you helped us realize that more needed to be done to [reach the medical community].' Human trafficking awareness materials now available on the DHS website include a wallet-sized card for health care professionals.

"In August, I had presented an idea to Secretary Napolitano of engaging leaders of medical specialty groups at a White House summit on human trafficking. Sec. Napolitano promised to bring up the idea that day in a White House cabinet meeting with U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. (See Meeting with DHS Sec. Napolitano on human trafficking.)

"HHS officials, however, recently discriminated against faith-based groups engaged in fighting human trafficking by taking away from a faith-based group a federal grant to aid trafficked victims on the basis that the group declined to participate in abortions. A Catholic group had by all accounts successfully served victims for five years under a federal grant program. Despite past proven performance and much higher objective scores by a grant review panel, the Catholic organization lost the competition for a new federal grant because of a new stipulation--inserted by administration political appointees and likely including the approval of Secretary Sebelius--that gave preference to applicants willing to refer victims for abortions. (See Abortion Ideology Trumps Aid for Victims of Human Trafficking.) Increasingly here in Washington it appears that few issues remain that partisan politics don't pollute."

Christian Doctor's Digest on Human Trafficking - January 2012
CMDA Ethics Statement: Abuse of Human Life
Human Trafficking Continuing Education