by Gina V. Stevens
This is not a drill or time to put down the newspaper. Human trafficking is happening here, in Pennsylvania and in other neighboring cities and towns, so this is not just a story of slave trade rampant far away.
The truth be told, human trafficking is corruption robbing families and communities of children everywhere at an alarming rate. It is hideous and it will require people everywhere to read up, learn more, and join humanity to eradicate these nightmarish felonies.
Daniel Emr, Executive Director and Founder of Worthwhile Wear, may be considered a captain in the war against human trafficking. The married father of two, attended Bucks County Community College (BCCC) in 2003 where he took interest in a group known as (SIFE) or Student in Free Enterprise. He refined his own research tools at BCCC, then transferred to Temple University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree.
“Before college I was working at Walmart and a customer began complaining about the selection of bread, where there were many, as I retorted, ‘Well, some people have no food, and if they have access to it, it may only be one brand, and if they needed something to put in between the slices of bread, they couldn’t afford it or have to walk far to buy it, then find out that it’s out-of-stock.’ People have no idea. We have poverty in our own country, so awareness leads to action then solutions. We have an obligation,” he added.
Daniel was born in Telford. His parents sold everything and moved the family to the Ukraine when he was entering 10th grade.
His father was a missionary. “We weren’t Ukrainian, but my parents felt the need to help the citizens there. When we arrived, it was a bombed-out country. When my Dad passed away 20 years ago the Iron Curtain had already fallen, but while we lived there, the Ukrainian people’s way of life seemed frozen in time, set back 100 years. The hospitals would reuse the hypodermic needles. Patients lay on dirty hallway floors. It was truly disturbing,” said Dan with a deep breath. He went on, “Seeing that, living there, made me appreciate what we are striving for every day from our headquarters here in Bucks and Montgomery counties and beyond all borders.
Worthwhile Wear is a 501(c)3, non-profit dedicated to reaching lives affected by human trafficking, restoring survivors to a sense of healing, safety and worth. Dan started the non-profit in 2010, and has since grown his footprint to many programs and services.
He iterates that road to a new normal requires a comprehensive response, many available services, with opportunities for financial independence. He reminds all that, “There is no one single solution.” First, following two years of development, worthwhilewear.org began selling blank tee-shirts in 2012.
“The concept was to sell the blank tees and pass profits along to support many Worthwhile Wear causes. We encourage customers to take the blank garments to their favorite screen print shop, and pass along the printed message, ‘Freedom,’ or any short phrase to add to the non-profit’s awareness campaign. Walking, talking billboards of hope,” stated Dan.
“I started travelling to India years ago with the desire to start this company. I still have many affiliations within India. It is important to view this complex, deceitful, money-making slave trade of girls from a global optic, and first had to attack the dangers from our home base in Pennsylvania.
“These stalkers make a living targeting vulnerable victims (almost 90% girls, 10% boys,) homeless, hungry, or just naïve, outwitted in a con by a savvy sinister perpetrator(s). In steps the stranger who promises to feed you, find a place for you to live, alter your life for the better. They should be handed an Oscar for their performance. That is exactly what they are, actors who finds out what the victim needs, then through any means necessary abducts them, where others sell them into sex, drug or theft rings. The underbelly of human trafficking is cleaned up in movies.”
Daniel ‘s last statement hit home: “Girls, and boys are kidnapped on the hour every day. You have to understand that this is an international epidemic when children are wiped off the face-of-the-earth. Human trafficking rings don’t have to restock, but they’ll keep grabbing kids to stay in business. They see the young as an economic product, a way to pedal a human soul.”
For more information on Worthwhile Wear’s other programs such as Worth It, offering a series of classroom experiences for women who have experienced sexual trauma from exploitation or prostitution; The Well, a program that offers a holistic approach to healing from sexual trauma with counselors, mentors, life skill training, personal budgeting and more, and, Worthwhile Thrift.
Also, visit worthwhilewear.org, to learn more about the ACT CHALLENGE fundraiser that started May 1st and runs to July 30th.
The fundraiser ends on July 30th because it is World Day Against Trafficking of Persons.
“I am not what happened to me. I am not the wrongs I have done nor the mistakes I have made. I am not forgotten, abandoned nor alone. I am worth it.” – Anonymous
PHOTO CAP: Daniel Emr