Shandra Woworuntu

Last updated

Shandra Woworuntu is an Indonesian-American woman who is the former chair of the International Survivor of Trafficking Advisory Council to the OSCE - ODIHR and she was a member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and a survivor of human trafficking and domestic violence.

Woworuntu was born in Indonesia, and in 2001 she traveled to the USA expecting a job in the hospitality industry but was instead forced into the sex industry and prostituted. [1] She eventually escaped her captors and helped convict her traffickers. In 2009, Woworuntu was granted permanent residency in the US and became a U.S. citizen through naturalization.

On 20 March 2014, Governor Chris Christie appointed Woworuntu to be a Commission of Human Trafficking for the state of New Jersey. On 16 December 2015, President Obama appointed Woworuntu as one of 11 members of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and the council held their first meeting on 18 October 2016. [2]

Woworuntu was curator of the Design and Violence published in 2015 by Museum of Modern Art, she laid the abuse of sexual exploitation and gun violence.

Woworuntu is the founder and CEO of the Mentari Human Trafficking Survivor Empowerment Program Inc. – an organization aimed at empowering human trafficking survivors [3] in their reintegration back into community, and society independently through the DREAM, Direct Services, Resources, Empowerment, Advocacy, and Mentorship.

As a survivor leader, Woworuntu is devoted to helping other survivors through an empowerment program. In 2017, Woworuntu was recognized as the L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth National Honoree [4] through a public vote and rewarded her with a $35,000 (~$42,795 in 2023) contribution for Mentari to continue making a difference in the lives of sex-trafficking survivors. As a survivor advocate and lobbyist, she helps to pass local and federal anti-trafficking legislation and was recognized as the 2020 Power of Diversity [5] the most influential 100 Asian American in New York Politics and Policy. She was recognized to become Power Diversity Asian 100: New York's Asian American leaders and she received recognition from the NYC Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence as a 2021 Advocate of New York City. In 2022, she was recognized to become The 2022 Power of Diversity Asian 100: New York's Asian American trailblazers.

Woworuntu is the author of Taste of Freedom, Recipes for Resilience; a cookbook dedicated to the culinary art program she founded through Mentari Human Trafficking Survivor Empowerment Program Inc. a nonprofit organization based in New Yor, USA.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking</span> Trade of sexual slaves

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Justice Mission</span> Non-profit organisation in the US

International Justice Mission is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. Founded in 1997 by lawyer Gary Haugen of the United States, it is based in Washington, D.C. All IJM employees are required to be practicing Christians; 94% are nationals of the countries they work in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zonta International</span> International service organization

Zonta International is an international service organization with the mission of Building a Better World for Women and Girls, in support of Sustainable Development Goal 5.

Karen K. Narasaki is an American civil rights leader and human rights activist. She most recently served as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights after President Barack Obama appointed her in July 2014. She is the former president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC. Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC is a Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit, nonpartisan, civil rights organization whose mission is to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans through advocacy, public policy, public education and litigation. Prior to her post at AAJC, she served as the Washington, D.C. representative to the Japanese American Citizens League. Narasaki has also served as the chairperson of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and as the chairwoman of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OutRight Action International</span> LGBTIQ human rights organization

OutRight International (OutRight) is an LGBTIQ human rights non-governmental organization that addresses human rights violations and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. OutRight International documents human rights discrimination and abuses based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics in partnership with activists, advocates, media, NGOs and allies on a local, regional, national and international level. OutRight International holds consultative status with ECOSOC.

Dorchen A. Leidholdt is an activist and leader in the feminist movement against violence against women. Since the mid-1970s, she has counseled and advocated for rape victims, organized against "the media's promotion of violence against women", served on the legal team for the plaintiff in a precedent-setting sexual harassment case, founded an international non-governmental organization fighting prostitution and trafficking in women and children, directed the nation's largest legal services program for victims of domestic violence, advocated for the enactment and implementation of laws that further the rights of abused women, and represented hundreds of women victimized by intimate partner violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, the threat of honor killing, female genital mutilation, forced and child marriage, and the internet bride trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indonesia–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Indonesia and the United States established diplomatic relations in 1949. Relations are generally strong and close. Both are republics and recognize the strategic importance of their counterpart.

Laura J. Lederer is a pioneer in the work to stop human trafficking. She is a legal scholar and former Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons in the Office for Democracy and Global Affairs of the United States Department of State. She has also been an activist against human trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and hate speech. Lederer is founder of The Protection Project, a legal research institute at Johns Hopkins University devoted to combating trafficking in persons.

Ruchira Gupta is a journalist and activist. She is the founder of Apne Aap, a non-governmental organisation that works for women's rights and the eradication of sex trafficking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United States</span>

In the United States, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel hubs with large immigrant populations, notably in California, Texas, and Georgia. Those trafficked include young children, teenagers, men, and women; victims can be domestic citizens or foreign nationals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunitha Krishnan</span> Indian social activist

Sunitha Krishnan is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, a non-governmental organization that rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2016.

Celia Williamson is an American University of Toledo Distinguished Professor of Social Work and Executive Director of the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute, as well as researcher and community advocate who seeks to combat domestic human trafficking and prostitution. She was named the 26th most influential social worker alive today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis CdeBaca</span> United States diplomat

Luis C.deBaca is an American lawyer and diplomat who served in the Obama Administration as Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and as Director of the Department of Justice's Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking.

Bukola Oriola is a Nigerian-American journalist. She lives in Anoka County, Minnesota, and has a son named Samuel Jacobs. She spent six years as a journalist covering education in Nigeria while still living in that country. In 2005, she came to the United States from Nigeria on a two-month work permit in order to cover a New York City meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. She married a US citizen who prevented her from establishing interpersonal relationships with anyone other than himself. He subjugated her to a life of unfree labour, confiscating all of her earnings. She was imprisoned in her home in this manner for two years. Bukola is a speaker, author, mentor, advocate, and entrepreneur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Southeast Asia</span> Human trafficking

Human trafficking in Southeast Asia has long been a problem for the area and is still prevalent today. It has been observed that as economies continue to grow, the demand for labor is at an all-time high in the industrial sector and the sex tourism sector. A mix of impoverished individuals and the desire for more wealth creates an environment for human traffickers to benefit in the Southeast Asia region. Many nations within the region have taken preventive measures to end human trafficking within their borders and punish traffickers operating there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadia Murad</span> Yazidi human rights activist from Iraq and winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

Nadia Murad Basee Taha is an Iraqi-born Yazidi human rights activist based in Germany. In 2014, as part of the Yazidi genocide by the Islamic State, she was abducted from her hometown of Kocho in Iraq and much of her community was massacred. After losing most of her family, Murad was held as an Islamic State sex slave for three months, alongside thousands of other Yazidi women and girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Womankind (charity)</span>

Womankind, formerly known as the New York Asian Women's Centre (NYAWC), was founded in 1982 by a group of volunteers led by Pat Eng. In 2017, the NYAWC changed its name to Womankind. It is a non-profit organization which aims to empower Asian survivors of gender based violence. Womankind was initially a community awareness program designed to educate families about domestic violence in Chinatown, and then developed into a 24-hour multilingual hotline that now includes 18 different Asian languages and dialects. Womankind also provides Asian immigrant women confidential services including an emergency refuge, shelter services, crisis counseling, 24-hour online free multilingual hotline, welfare promotion, support groups, parenting workshops, children's services, volunteer training, community education, and some English courses. Each year, the organization receives over 3,000 hotline calls.

Annalisa Enrile is a Filipina-American clinical associate professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Her work focuses on combatting sex trafficking, interpersonal violence, and exploitative migrant labor. She is the President of the Los Angeles based non-profit Mariposa Center for Change. The Filipina Women’s Network named Enrile as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World (Global100) for her advocacy for the Filipino-American community. Her work has also been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Pediatrics, Amerasia Journal the Global Studies Journal, and the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

Minh Dang is a Vietnamese-American independent consultant, speaker, and advocate on matters of human trafficking and social justice. She is the executive director and Cofounder of Survivor Alliance and was the executive director for Don't Sell Bodies, an anti-human trafficking organization founded by Jada Pinkett Smith. Dang is most known for speaking about her personal experience dealing with child abuse and her advocacy against human trafficking. Dang helped launch the U.S. Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking with Senators Rob Portman and Richard Blumenthal. Dang received the UC Berkeley Chancellor's Award for Public Service in 2011, the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement in 2013, and she was one of fifteen Asian American/Pacific Islander women recognized at the White House as a Champion of Change in 2013. She was also appointed by President Obama to serve on the U.S. Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking.

References

  1. ↑ Shandra Woworuntu: My life as a sex-trafficking victim, BBC News, 30 March 2016
  2. ↑ Report on the first meeting of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking
  3. ↑ "Shandra Woworuntu, Appointee for Member, United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking", President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, 16 December 2015
  4. ↑ Knoll, Katie (21 May 2018). "Nominate a Woman Who's Taking the Lead". Vogue . Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "2020 Power of Diversity: Asian 100 (51-100)". City & State . 27 July 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2022.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.