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Video of shyima talking about her incredible story! 

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Video of shyima talking about her incredible story! 

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Shyima Hall- Hidden Girl: The True Story of a Modern Day Slave

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Uploaded by SHSU Global Center on 2014-10-29.

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By Jose Medina
GCJD Workshop Class Student
Betrayal in any form hurts, but when it's your own parents who betray your trust it can cut you to the core.

This was the story of Shyima Hall who was sold by her parents into forced bondage when she was only 8-years-old in Egypt. Hall spoke on Tuesday at the Gaertner Performing Arts Center on Tuesday as part of The Global Center for Journalism and Democracy's Speaker Series.

Hall, who was the seventh of 11 children, says her ordeal began when an older sister was caught stealing money from the wealthy family she worked for. It was then that Hall's parents struck a deal. She would take her sister's place and work for the family as a housemaid. It would be a decision that would forever change Hall.

Hall spent the next 18 months working as a child maid in the couple's home. When the family decided to come to the United States, she was illegally trafficked into the country. Her parents assured her it would be for a few months. It was the last time she would see them. "As a kid, I didn't know right from wrong," Hall said. "I did what my parents told me."

Once in California, Hall says she wasn't allowed to speak to anyone and was forced to live in the couple's garage and sleep on a dirty mattress. She used a bucket with water to wash her clothes. She never saw a doctor or attended school. Through it all Hall says her captors subjected her to physical and emotional abuse. "No one ever looked at me," Hall said, her voice cracking. "This is why I do what I do to help other people." After two years of being held captive, Hall was freed thanks to a neighbor who finally noticed her when other children should have been at school.

Hall courageously and emotionally shared her story with a crowd of more than 500. She has written a book called "Hidden Girl" and travels around the country to urge people to act if they see something suspicious. "It really hit close to home because you wouldn't think something like this would happen here in the United States," said junior mass communication student Jacqueline Garcia.

Dr. Wayne Barrett, Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Mass Communication, praised the efforts of the Global Center.

"Something like tonight's event really speaks to horrors that mankind is really capable of. It's really sad she went unnoticed for so long." He hopes that a conversation is started, so cases like Hall's never happen again. "I really feel that leadership on a national level really needs to do something to stop this...on the world stage too," he said.

The event was the culmination of a two-week effort by the Global Center to raise awareness on campus and in the community about modern-day slavery worldwide. GCJD organized a provocative student demonstration, an informational exhibit and a social media campaign. Students from the theatre, dance, criminal justice and mass communication joined in the effort. According to event organizers, this was the most successful event the Global Center has ever hosted.

Although Hall still feels anger toward her captors, she said she has been able to find forgiveness for her family. Despite her ordeal, she says a life of freedom could not be better. "I'm happy where I am now, having been through all of that" Hall said. "I have a wonderful daughter. She makes me happy."

GCJD IN THE NEWS WITH SHYIMA HALL

Houstonian Online>>Item Online>>

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By Jose Medina GCJD Workshop Class Student Betrayal in any form hurts, but when it's your own parents who betray your trust it can cut you to the core. This was the story of Shyima Hall who was sold by her parents into forced bondage when she was only 8-years-old in Egypt.

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Anyone can join in the fight against human trafficking. Here are 20 ideas to consider.

1. Learn the indicators of human trafficking on the TIP Office's website or by taking a training. Human trafficking awareness training is available for individuals, businesses, first responders, law enforcement, educators, and federal employees, among others.

2. Be a conscientious and informed consumer. Find out more about who may have picked your tomatoes or made your clothes at ResponsibleSourcingTool.org , or check out the Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor . Encourage companies to take steps to prevent human trafficking in their supply chains and publish the information, including supplier or factory lists, for consumer awareness.

3. Host an awareness-raising event to watch and discuss films about human trafficking. For example, learn how modern slavery exists today; watch an investigative documentary about sex trafficking; or discover how forced labor can affect global food supply chains. Alternatively, contact your local library and ask for assistance identifying an appropriate book and ask them to host the event.

4. Use your social media platforms to raise awareness about human trafficking, using the following hashtags: #endtrafficking, #freedomfirst.

5. Become a mentor to a young person or someone in need. Traffickers often target people who are going through a difficult time or who lack strong support systems. As a mentor, you can be involved in new and positive experiences in that person's life during a formative time.

6. Journalists: The media plays an enormous role in shaping perceptions and guiding the public conversation about human trafficking. Seek out some media best practices on how to effectively and responsibly report stories on human trafficking.

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20 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking - United States Department of State

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Anyone can join in the fight against human trafficking. Here are 20 ideas to consider. Learn the indicators of human trafficking on the TIP Office's website or by taking a training. Human trafficking awareness training is available for individuals, businesses, first responders, law enforcement, educators, and federal employees, among others.

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Approximately a quarter of the world’s population, two billion people, are currently living in conflict areas, in highly unsettled conditions that create vulnerabilities and risks of trafficking for women and girls. Recent research has revealed that human trafficking was present in 90 per cent of the 171 wars and conflicts that took place between 1989 and 2016.

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"Trafficking in persons," "human trafficking," and "modern slavery" are used as umbrella terms to refer to both sex trafficking and compelled labor. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-386), as amended (TVPA), and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Protocol) describe this compelled service using a number of different terms, including involuntary servitude, slavery or practices similar to slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor.

Human trafficking can include, but does not require, movement. People may be considered trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude, were exploited in their home town, were transported to the exploitative situation, previously consented to work for a trafficker, or participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked. At the heart of this phenomenon is the traffickers' aim to exploit and enslave their victims and the myriad coercive and deceptive practices they use to do so.

Sex Trafficking

When an adult engages in a commercial sex act, such as prostitution, as the result of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion or any combination of such means, that person is a victim of trafficking. Under such circumstances, perpetrators involved in recruiting, harboring, enticing, transporting, providing, obtaining, patronizing, soliciting, or maintaining a person for that purpose are guilty of sex trafficking of an adult. Sex trafficking also may occur through a specific form of coercion whereby individuals are compelled to continue in prostitution through the use of unlawful "debt," purportedly incurred through their transportation, recruitment, or even their "sale"-which exploiters insist they must pay off before they can be free. Even if an adult initially consents to participate in prostitution it is irrelevant: if an adult, after consenting, is subsequently held in service through psychological manipulation or physical force, he or she is a trafficking victim and should receive benefits outlined in the Palermo Protocol and applicable domestic laws.

Child Sex Trafficking

When a child (under 18 years of age) is recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, patronized, solicited, or maintained to perform a commercial sex act, proving force, fraud, or coercion is not necessary for the offense to be prosecuted as human trafficking. There are no exceptions to this rule: no cultural or socioeconomic rationalizations alter the fact that children who are exploited in prostitution are trafficking victims. The use of children in commercial sex is prohibited under U.S. law and by statute in most countries around the world. Sex trafficking has devastating consequences for children, including long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/AIDS), drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and even death.

Forced Labor

Forced labor, sometimes also referred to as labor trafficking, encompasses the range of activities-recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining-involved when a person uses force or physical threats, psychological coercion, abuse of the legal process, deception, or other coercive means to compel someone to work. Once a person's labor is exploited by such means, the person's prior consent to work for an employer is legally irrelevant: the employer is a trafficker and the employee a trafficking victim. Migrants are particularly vulnerable to this form of human trafficking, but individuals also may be forced into labor in their own countries. Female victims of forced or bonded labor, especially women and girls in domestic servitude, are often sexually abused or exploited as well.

Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage

One form of coercion used by traffickers in both sex trafficking and forced labor is the imposition of a bond or debt. Some workers inherit debt; for example, in South Asia it is estimated that there are millions of trafficking victims working to pay off their ancestors' debts. Others fall victim to traffickers or recruiters who unlawfully exploit an initial debt assumed, wittingly or unwittingly, as a term of employment. Traffickers, labor agencies, recruiters, and employers in both the country of origin and the destination country can contribute to debt bondage by charging workers recruitment fees and exorbitant interest rates, making it difficult, if not impossible, to pay off the debt. Such circumstances may occur in the context of employment-based temporary work programs in which a worker's legal status in the destination country is tied to the employer so workers fear seeking redress.

Domestic Servitude

Involuntary domestic servitude is a form of human trafficking found in distinct circumstances-work in a private residence-that create unique vulnerabilities for victims. It is a crime in which a domestic worker is not free to leave his or her employment and is abused and underpaid, if paid at all. Many domestic workers do not receive the basic benefits and protections commonly extended to other groups of workers-things as simple as a day off. Moreover, their ability to move freely is often limited, and employment in private homes increases their isolation and vulnerability. Labor officials generally do not have the authority to inspect employment conditions in private homes. Domestic workers, especially women, confront various forms of abuse, harassment, and exploitation, including sexual and gender-based violence. These issues, taken together, may be symptoms of a situation of domestic servitude. When the employer of a domestic worker has diplomatic status and enjoys immunity from civil and/or criminal jurisdiction, the vulnerability to domestic servitude is enhanced.

Forced Child Labor

Although children may legally engage in certain forms of work, children can also be found in slavery or slavery-like situations. Some indicators of forced labor of a child include situations in which the child appears to be in the custody of a non-family member who requires the child to perform work that financially benefits someone outside the child's family and does not offer the child the option of leaving, such as forced begging. Anti-trafficking responses should supplement, not replace, traditional actions against child labor, such as remediation and education. When children are enslaved, their exploiters should not escape criminal punishment-something that occurs when governments use administrative responses to address cases of forced child labor.

Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers

Child soldiering is a manifestation of human trafficking when it involves the unlawful recruitment or use of children-through force, fraud, or coercion-by armed forces as combatants or other forms of labor. Perpetrators may be government armed forces, paramilitary organizations, or rebel groups. Many children are forcibly abducted to be used as combatants. Others are made to work as porters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers, or spies. Young girls may be forced to "marry" or be raped by commanders and male combatants. Both male and female child soldiers are often sexually abused or exploited by armed groups and such children are subject to the same types of devastating physical and psychological consequences associated with child sex trafficking.

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What is Modern Slavery? - United States Department of State

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"Trafficking in persons," "human trafficking," and "modern slavery" are used as umbrella terms to refer to both sex trafficking and compelled labor. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-386), as amended (TVPA), and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention [...]