Catherine Oxenberg, People Magazine
India Oxenberg, Photo Credit; Phylicia J. L. Munn
Mission:
To bring awareness to the danger that is coercive control used in both high control group settings as well as sex trafficking and domestic abuse. We work to provide funds for therapy and professional recourses to victims to help reclaim their voices, abolish shame and learn to love and trust again. Women have a right to accurate science-based knowledge about their bodies, they have the right to maintain complete sovereignty over their bodies, and they have a right to preserve the sanctity of their bodies.
Sex Trafficking:
We will provide funding for rescue and long-term rehabilitation for victims of sex trafficking in the USA, and collaborate with other agencies across the country to strengthen the network of outreach and support. We will document all aspects of our rescues, the victims’ and witness testimonies, and our investigative efforts, for the purpose of developing awareness, building a body of evidence that can be used to prosecute traffickers, and helping to provide an accurate picture of the magnitude of the problem nationwide.
Integral to bringing sex trafficking to an end is the need to tackle other underlying factors. There is considerable evidence that the current opiate epidemic, which caused the United States government to declare a State of Emergency on July 31, 2017, plays a significant role in contributing to an increase of sex trafficking. Traffickers are using the desperation that accompanies addiction to their advantage, fueling a criminal enterprise that creates enormous profits from the exploitation of the vulnerable – primarily women.
“Traffickers learn that it’s very lucrative to sell a girl,” Lisa Goldblatt Grace, director and co-founder of My Life My Choice, a Boston nonprofit focused on combating the commercial sexual exploitation of adolescents. “Drugs you can only sell once; a girl you can sell over and over again.”
SC State Attorney General Alan Wilson called the global human trafficking scourge a “$150 billion a year criminal enterprise,” second only to drug trafficking.
The Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as a “modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain.”
“There are more human slaves in the world than at any other time in history. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking.” – Robyn Causey, a licensed social worker, considered a national expert in human trafficking, domestic violence, corrections and vulnerable youth.
The United States is a destination and transit country for human trafficking into the sex industry.
According to the Department of State, there are approximately 244,000 American children and youth that are at risk for sex trafficking each year.
“This affects every community, every state, and every level of income. These are truly modern day slaves hidden in plain sight.”- Kim Biddle – MSW, founder and executive director of Saving Innocence.
Typically, the recovery rate is less than 1% of the actual trafficked population. The Department of Justice has confirmed that care facilities specifically designed to support trafficked children can give shelter to less than 100 of them. F.B.I. policy is to place these rescued victims into juvenile halls, which sends the message to these children that they are criminals.
In the words of advocate Greg Hannley, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soba Recovery Centers, “The victims of sex trafficking I come in contact with are usually victims of substance abuse, therefore to really make a difference, we need to rescue these victims from the grips of both the humans and the substances that hold them hostage.”
Female Genital Mutilation:
According to UNICEF, 200 million women alive today have suffered FGM, female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is still remarkably common — mainly in Africa, but also in some countries in Asia and the Middle East and in immigrant communities in Europe and the U.S.
The procedure, which involves removing or cutting all or some of young girls’ outer genitalia, is a painful and traumatic experience for the up to 3 million girls and teens who get it every year. It’s also dangerous, according to public health groups that adamantly denounce the practice. But it’s still regularly performed because of the cultural or religious belief that women should not be allowed to experience sexual pleasure. As recently as April 2017, two 7-year Minnesota girls were subjected to the barbaric procedure by a Detroit doctor.
Reconstructive surgery, aka clitoral restoration, has been available in France since 2004 and is covered by national health insurance. At least one U.S. doctor also does the surgery, but few patients are able to get their insurance companies to pay for it. Furthermore, most of victims are unaware the surgery even exists.
The reconstructive surgery was pioneered by French urologist, Dr. Pierre Foldes, but very few doctors have been trained to perform the procedure.
There is an urgent need to abolish this barbaric practice, and in the interim, to train and subsidize doctors to perform the reconstructive surgery so that victims can regain some semblance of a normal life.
Foundation Advisory Board
Daniel Amen MD
Psychiatrist and founder of the Amen Clinics.
Speaker at TEDx, on “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,” and on “The Most Important Lesson from 83,000 Brain Scans.”
Meredith L. Chivers, PhD, CPych Associate Professor, Department of Psychology Queen’s University | Member, Centre for Neuroscience | Faculty of Arts & Science| Director, Sexuality and Gender Laboratory (Sagelab) | Queen’s National Scholar | CIHR New Investigator
Debby Herbenick, PhD, MPH
Director, The Center for Sexual Health Promotion
Professor, Dept of Applied Health Science
School of Public Health – Bloomington
Research Fellow, The Kinsey Institute
Indiana University, President ASSECT
Barry Komisaruk PhD Rutgers University Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor Associate Dean of the Graduate School
Adjunct Professor, Dept. Radiology, New Jersey College of Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
James G. Pfaus, PhD, IF Professor and Concordia Research Fellow Past President, International Academy of Sex Research Fellow, International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology Department of Psychology, Concordia University Montréal, QC Canada
Debra Wickman, MD, MS, FACOG, NCMP Section Head, Female Sexual Medicine, Menopause, Vulvar/Vaginal Disorders; Women’s Institute, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Banner University Medical Center – Phoenix; Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix.
Beverly Whipple, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor Emerita, Rutgers University
Past- Vice president and Secretary General/Treasurer, World Association for Sexual Health (WAS)
Past-president, Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS)
Past-president, American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT)
Past- Director, International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH)
Nan Wise, PhD
Licensed Psychotherapist
Certified Sex Therapist, AASECT
Certified Relationship Specialist, The American Psychotherapy Association
Assistant Research Professor, Psychology, Rutgers-Newark
Fellow, The American Psychotherapy Association
Fellow, The National Board for Clinical Hypnotherapists
Board Certified Diplomate, The American Board of Examiners in Social Work
Affiliations
The International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH), the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM), the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA) the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT).
