Kym Singer, a member of the Junior League of San Diego and Pacific Beach resident, joined her colleagues in Balboa Park Jan. 13 for the group\u2019s fifth annual Human Trafficking Awareness Rally.\u00a0
\nThe Junior League of San Diego focuses on education regarding the myths and facts of human trafficking, recognition of the signs of victims being held captive, and awareness of how to get involved in the battle against it.\u00a0
\nBy definition, human trafficking covers sex trafficking and forced labor. It\u2019s a crime involving the exploitation of someone through the use of force, fraud or coercion. The definition includes domestic servitude or even forced labor in the fishing and agricultural industries, both of which have a significant presence in San Diego.
\nThe International Labor Organization estimates there are at least 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. San Diego is listed by the FBI as one of California\u2019s hot spots. The San Diego District Attorney\u2019s Office has concluded there are at least 8,000 victims in San Diego alone. The illicit industry also brings in more than $810 million annually, making it the second-largest underground economy in San Diego.\u00a0
\nSinger created signs at her home in Pacific Beach before heading to Balboa Park to the Jan. 13 march with more than 100 other women and men to raise awareness about human trafficking in San Diego.\u00a0
\nSinger heads a group of women volunteering to raise money and supplies for kids aging out of the foster system. She also leads efforts against commercial sexual exploitation of children. Statistics reveal homeless or foster children are particularly at-risk of exploitation by trafficking.
\nSinger discussed the motivation behind her Junior League of San Diego involvement.
\n“I wanted to give back to the community, and I knew that the focus was on foster youth,” she said, adding she\u2019d been sensitized to the issue by her father who worked with troubled teen boys. “So I joined the task force committee working with foster youth and human-trafficking victims.”
\n“We look at where we can make the biggest impact,” said Singer. “For us, it\u2019s been transitional-age youth, and human trafficking. The average age for victims is 16.”
\nWhy should people be more aware of human trafficking?
\n“The biggest reason is that it\u2019s happening all around us,” said Singer. “The person sitting next to you could be a human-trafficking victim.”
\nOf the trafficking rally, Singer said the goal was “to bring education and awareness to the community.”
\nThe rally included booths and a wide variety of speakers including law enforcement and social service agencies, as well as victims themselves.
\nSinger said more people today aren\u2019t aware of human trafficking because, “They have a mind set that that wouldn\u2019t happen to me. I live in a safe community. That\u2019s not going to happen here.”
\nWhat can people do to increase their awareness of trafficking and its consequences?
\n“Parents just knowing who their children are hanging out with,” said Singer, “Your daughter starts dating a new guy \u2014 knowing who he is, meeting him, talking to him. Also, having those conversations with your children, teenagers, so it\u2019s known that [trafficking\u2019s] out there. You\u2019re aware of it.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kym Singer, a member of the Junior League of San Diego and Pacific Beach resident, joined her colleagues in Balboa Park Jan. 13 for the group\u2019s fifth annual Human Trafficking Awareness Rally.\u00a0 The Junior League of San Diego focuses on education regarding the myths and facts of human trafficking, recognition of the signs of victims […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":264162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Pacific Beach woman helps raise awareness of local human trafficking","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}