Sweet Charity

BY JANICE MARIE WILSON

Lena Walther serves as Swedish honorary consul to Nevada and co-founded a group that combats human trafficking. This is quite a daunting task when you realize that Nevada is one of the five top cities for human trafficking. At $150 billion, it is the second largest criminal industry in the world. There are more than 979,000 cases reported in the U.S. and growing.

The root cause of human trafficking are the traffickers. People might argue that poverty or lack of education, immigration policy, conditions, fractured families and lack of good job opportunities are the issues. But without the traffickers there would be no business. Traffickers range from small-time, solo operators to loose networks of criminals, to highly sophisticated criminal organizations that operate internationally.

Traffickers choose to trade in humans, because they are low start-up cost, minimal risks, high profits and large demand. For organized crime groups, human beings have one added advantage over drugs, they can be sold repeatedly.

Lena was first made aware of this pandemic problem serving as the Swedish consul. There were two cases of Swedish girls who had been held hostage. One was a 27-year-old civil engineer. She had come to Las Vegas as a tourist. “By the time I became involved she had a 4-month-old baby with her pimp.” Lena recalls. “I was able to get her out of the country within a week. The trafficker had no clue what happened, “Once you see something like this up close, you can’t back off,” Lena states simply.

That is when she started going to the Southern Nevada Human Trafficking Task force with her friend that was setting up a therapy practice. Lena discovered that the programs that were in place were not adequate. “If you are going to fight something, you’ve got to fight it.” She vehemently states. Her clear blue eyes flash with the tenacious willpower and a steadfast strength of character. Her voice is clear and committed to pursuing her purpose, AWARENESS.

She has formed the non-profit organization called Awareness Is Prevention AIP. AIP educates the public on all forms of Human Trafficking including Sex and Employment Trafficking. Lena believes Awareness is Prevention. Her focus is on making children between the ages of 11-17 aware that anyone can be a target to be hurt, damaged, sold, or injured by this criminal activity. Lena stated that, “These criminals have no boundaries. They don’t just prey on the poor, abused or homeless children. You can be from the best of families, educated, gifted and popular. You can be a normal kid. I have talked to parents with stable, healthy family lives in middle to upper class backgrounds that told me, “I had no idea!” Their child fell prey to trafficking.

Lena believes that because of the horrific consequences of this problem the solution lies within the problem. Children are prey because they are innocent, sweet and trusting. These qualities can be developed to protect them when they nurture their natural abilities to be creative. “Kids learn from what they like to do. Dancing, painting, theatre arts, music and writing, are fun activities that children love! Reaching the kids is essential. However, you cannot “preach” to them or just talk about the horrific problem of modern-day slavery, you need to get them to be part of the solution through learning to express their natural creativity for fun. Learning that involves music, art or other expressionism will make a big impact.”

Words don’t teach. Lena believes that in their new project, “Awareness through the Arts,” they will be able to involve children in art related contests, with age appropriate themes on bullying and trafficking. They will learn about the insidious behaviors that human traffickers’ practice through the arts. They will have contests with prizes and local celebrities judging their work. They will have peer to peer conversations that are fun and be rewarded for their efforts.

Just talking about it isn’t enough. She envisions artistic expressions that will show the children what is involved in the different stages of enticement. Some of the children are stalked for three to six months before they are abducted. Their approach is strategic and sinister. There are even three different kinds of pimps that children need to be aware of.

1. The Romeo. He is normally a very good-looking person, who is charming and very well groomed. He builds up the esteem of the young girl or boy and charms them into falling in love with him. He showers them with gifts and attention. Everyone around believes that he is the “nicest guy.”
2. Then there is the CEO. He presents himself as a businessman and lures them with the promise of making a lot of money.
3. The Guerilla. He is the one that beats them and drugs them into slavery.

The Awareness through the Arts will conduct creative contests with prizes and winning awards. This will generate peer-to peer conversations that will expand and enlighten the kids about human trafficking. It will develop creative ways that the children can learn about their innate power to protect themselves from harm.

The key to Lena’s success is directly eradicating the root problem of Human Trafficking – the Trafficker. Once children are aware that these people exist, and that they have the creative power and instincts to protect themselves from their clutches, they will be aware of their tactics and through their creativity they will be empowered to run, not walk away from their advances. Lena believes by developing a child’s creativity to follow their instincts and to be aware they will trust their intuition and keep themselves safe. “If you smell a rat it is a rat. If something isn’t right, it isn’t right. We need to shake the kids up, so they know what to do. They need to understand what’s going on. They are primary targets.”

The creativity of children is endless. With this new project Lena is harnessing the innate creative energy and potential of children. Their sweetness, innocence, and childlike intelligence will be a force that will empower their lives. Their sweetness will be strength. They will have the creative experience to protect themselves from harm. Joy is their birthright, and the perpetrators will no longer be able to penetrate or rob them of this inherent God given right. Their business will go bankrupt because the art of a child’s creative genius will have shut them down.

Lena is practicing the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. And the greatest of these is her Charity. Support and contribute to this life enhancing charity, Awareness is Prevention and learn more about Awareness through the Arts at aipnv.org.