Human Trafficking - An Activist Makes a Difference

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Human trafficking, otherwise known as modern day slavery, is a $150 billion dollar industry that has found a home in the Tampa Bay area. Just a month ago the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office completed a human trafficking sting operation, Operation Trade Secrets. Conducted across the county, the sting made 85 arrests over the course of six months.

As a guardian ad litem in the state of Florida and human rights activist, Tami Martin considers taking care of children and protecting them from harm very seriously. That’s why she knows “it’s easy for sexual predators not to get caught because of social media.”

“It’s important to be aware of signs of traffickers in the community,” said Martin who gave statistics: 93 percent of victims know their trafficker personally, and seven percent are total strangers. “Once they get familiar with your kid, they prey on them,” said Martin, “and then they go missing.”

To protect children and parents from having to go through such an experience Martin volunteers with Veterans 4 Child Rescue (V4CR). V4CR is a non-profit organization founded in 2017 by Navy Seal veteran Craig Sawyer specifically to help bring an end to human trafficking, which has grown into an industry surpassing corporate giants such as Google and Nike.

V4CR’s strategy involves coordinating/conducting sting operations with their investigative team in partnership with law enforcement as well as educating the public, which is Martin’s role as a volunteer.

While teaching a class of 40 students about how predators will approach a young student on social media with words of affection, “I asked them to raise their hand if they ever experienced anything like that and a little fewer than half the kids put their hand up.” That just goes to show “it does happen,” said Martin.

After observing that, Martin did an Anti-Human Trafficking seminar for parents and educators in the United for Human Rights Florida (UHR) center to educate them on what human trafficking is, what a predator and trafficker are, and how to be aware of these things when using social media.

Martin told the parents and teachers, “Reassure the child that they can talk to you. Human trafficking and sex is hard to talk to a child about … It’s better that they figure out how to bring it up.”

UHR is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 dedicated to implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at all levels of society so as to promote tolerance and peace. “We’re always happy to have Ms. Martin here helping make a difference. This is one of Tampa Bay’s most crippling problems,” said UHR Florida executive director Cristian Vargas. “Whether it’s bullying in schools, human trafficking, discrimination or sexism, with our educational resources we’re here to help anyone that wants to raise awareness and create a more tolerant and peaceful community.”