Trafficking in Persons Award

I am sure that you, like I, have been anxiously awaiting the release of the Trafficking in Persons award by the State Department!  Wait no longer!!  The awards and the report were released today.  The 2009 report is available on the State Department website, but when last I checked, they seemed to be having technical problems.  Or perhaps I'm having technical problems.

Anyway, Trafficking in Persons is actually a really big deal, whether you were waiting with bated breath or not.  I'm sorry to say I was not.  "Trafficking" is actually a modern-day diplomatic euphemism for "slavery," often -- although not always -- with forced sex work as the goal.

I'm excited this year because Mariliana Morales Berrios (pictured above, receiving her award from Secretary Clinton in Washington, DC today), is the founder and director of the Rahab Foundation here in San Jose, where I occasionally volunteer.  She was chosen out of hundreds of candidates to be one of only nine people worldwide to receive the Trafficking in Persons Award this year; her work at Rahab helping women leave the sex trade has fed directly into stopping trafficking, a large source of the labor pool for the global sex trade.  In fact, just this week two Costa Rican women were rescued from sexual slavery in northern Mexico.  Despite Mariliana's hard work, there's still a long way to go.  I hope this award gives even greater visibility and stature to her work here.