Prevent Human Trafficking Institute - Home - SUMMER STUDY PROGRAM UNDERWAY...

SUMMER STUDY PROGRAM UNDERWAY...

Get a glimpse of this year's program through the eyes Jennryn, of one of our interns in Washington, DC who participated in the summer study tour and is now living and working in Thailand with Ja and the street children in Pattaya!

"My immediate reaction to being on the ground? I can't believe the difference between what I've learned in graduate school and what I'm currently seeing here. I've learned more from the researchers, government officials, law enforcement, and NGO officials in the last week than I did in my last year of academic research. In my academic reading, I learned we tend to victimize trafficking survivors, while here, in Thailand, I've learned why that is so off base and potentially damaging. In my readings, I learned about the importance of cross-cultural communication in global development efforts, while here I've learned why it is crucial, and how delicately communications must be handled.

This program exposed us students to entirely different frameworks of understanding the international sex and labor trades. Speakers' topics ranged from a variety of backgrounds and vantage points-and occasionally, discussion points contradicted each other. The discussions made me more aware of the diversity of factors for which I must account in my future anti-trafficking efforts. I am now more aware of a broader and globalized spectrum of exploitation, the combination of economic and structural factors perpetuating exploitation, and human trafficking's position within the spectrum. I can better recognize the need for a holistic community development approach (addressing human trafficking's root causes)."

Prevent Human Trafficking’s summer study program, running since 1999, offers unique access to some of Southeast Asia’s pre-eminent scholars, activists, organizers and government officials working at the forefront of the global anti-trafficking movement.

Participants gain vital first hand knowledge of anti-trafficking strategy and unwritten “best practices” and a deeper understanding of systemic causes of trafficking along with an appreciation of challenges in the anti-trafficking movement. Special lectures by local academics, government officials, business leaders, NGO activists, and other guest speakers will provide fresh perspectives on the real reasons there are serious threats to human security, and why men, women and children are trafficked internally in Thailand or to other countries.

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PHTs Annual Spring Lecture Series is a great opportunity to learn from leading innovators, scholars and the practitioners making a difference in the fight against human trafficking. All events are free and open to the public.

April 2008 details and events:

Preview the documentary film: "Mekong Butterflies"

Calendar

April 4, 2pm: American University
(Weschler Theater, SOC, Mary Graydon bldg Rm 314)
April 5, 11pm: Busboys and Poets (Washington, DC - Langston Room)
April 7, 7pm: Northwestern University
April 11, 5pm: Columbia University (International Affairs Bldg Rm 411)
April 14, 6pm: Harvard University (Mather House Senior Common Room)
April 15, 6:10pm: Yale Law School (Sterling Law Building Rm 129)
April 17, 3pm: SUNY/Buffalo