Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: Student Life

Senior Lauren Novak

Right now, there are more than 27 million people enslaved across the world, according to the Not For Sale Campaign Web site.

Senior Lauren Novak shared the story of one of these victims of slavery, a young girl named Jane. She was just 14 years old and was employed in the sex industry in Lima, Peru, Novak said. Jane was trapped in a world of drugs, alcohol and unprotected sex. She wanted out, so she took a stand and stopped going to work.

"The pimp decided it was dangerous to have a girl who thought she had a choice … so he had her killed," Novak said, describing the death of the young girl. Although Novak never meet Jane, her story played a large role in the research Novak did last summer in Lima.

Last year, Novak was awarded a grant from the UW-Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Programs to work with the NFS's international project in Lima.

The Trafficking in Persons Report, which is released each year by the U.S. Department of State, inspired the focus of the NFS project. The report ranks countries into three categories based on the severity of human trafficking in that country.

According to the 2008 TIP Report, Peru was in the second tier. Novak and the members of the NFS believe Peru should be placed in the third tier, reserved for those countries where human trafficking is the worst. This placement, they hope, would pressure the Peruvian government to take action to correct the issue.

The first step in Novak's journey was to attend an orientation at the NFS headquarters in Montara, Calif., to be trained to know what to look for when looking for trafficking cases. After being trained to recognize possible trafficking cases in the news, Novak was sent to Peru to work with Lucy Borja, the modern-day abolitionist working with NFS.

"Lucy is like a celebrity in Lima," Novak said. Borja is the founder of Generación (Generation), a shelter for street children in San Bartolo, Peru, as well as the recently opened La Casa de Jane(Jane's House), named after the young human trafficking victim slain by her pimp.

According the NFS Web site, Borja had met Jane only weeks before she was killed, but was unable to help the young girl, as she had nowhere to let her stay.

La Casa de Jane is inspired by this girl's story. The safe house is an emergency shelter for those young girls who want to get out of the sex industry but can find no escape.

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