{"id":307,"date":"2009-10-28T14:11:47","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T21:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/?p=307"},"modified":"2009-11-12T10:50:56","modified_gmt":"2009-11-12T17:50:56","slug":"interview-rachel-lloyd-gems-founder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/28\/interview-rachel-lloyd-gems-founder\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview – Rachel Lloyd, GEMS Founder"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nRachel Lloyd, founder of GEMS, New York City<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Exploited and trafficked girls in the United States<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the Department of Justice, over 100,000 adolescents are involved in prostitution in the United States.\u00a0 Sgt. Fassett of the Dallas Police dept pointed out an obvious irony of this situation.\u00a0 \u201cIf a 45 year-old man has sex with a 14-year-old girl and no money changes hands, she will probably be sent to a counselor and he will likely get jail time for statutory rape.\u00a0\u00a0 However, if the same man leaves money on the table after having sex with her, she will probably be locked up as a prostitute and he will probably just get a fine as a john.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Friday I went to Harlem to interview and photograph a remarkable woman by the name of Rachel Lloyd.\u00a0 Rachel is the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services<\/a> (GEMS) in New York City and has dedicated her life to the struggle to end sex trafficking.\u00a0\u00a0 Rachel herself a survivor from an alcoholic family in England dropped out of school at 13 and was recruited into the sex industry.\u00a0 Like so many girls who end up on the streets she was raped and attempted suicide three times.\u00a0 Eventually, she emigrated to the United States where she vowed not only to change her life but also to help empower girls and young women in need and fight for their rights.\u00a0 She went back to school, first earning her GED, then a Bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology and finally a Master\u2019s degree in urban anthropology.<\/p>\n

For more than ten years, GEMS has been at the forefront of the movement to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children, building a national reputation as the country\u2019s leading resource on the issue. GEMS has trained thousands of service providers and professionals who come in contact with at-risk youth to recognize signs of exploitation and to intervene and assist young women in their healing and recovery. GEMS\u2019 success is due in large part to Rachel\u2019s compassion for and understanding of young victims, her ability to work with political and community leaders, and her desire to change perceptions of commercially sexually exploited victims.<\/p>\n

Rachel told me that historically law enforcement in our country has punished the victims of the sex industry\u2014the vulnerable and exploited adolescent girls that are coerced and trafficked into the trade.\u00a0 She said that labeling and jailing them as \u2018teen prostitutes\u2019 instead of what they are–exploited and trafficked children– while ignoring the 30 to 40 year old men that sell and buy these girls has been a crime in itself.<\/p>\n

I took Rachel\u2019s\u00a0 photograph on the street outside the GEMS small office and then conducted the following interview in her tiny cubicle while her energetic staff of young women went about their important and\u00a0 revolutionary work.<\/p>\n

Rachel\u2019s interview really opened my eyes to the problem of sex trafficking\u2014especially of children– here in the U.S.\u00a0 Take a listen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Lloyd, founder of GEMS, New York City Exploited and trafficked girls in the United States According to the Department of Justice, over 100,000 adolescents are involved in prostitution in the United States.\u00a0 Sgt. Fassett of the Dallas Police dept pointed out an obvious irony of this situation.\u00a0 \u201cIf a 45 year-old man has sex… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[44,43,45,46,598,42,23],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stirring-the-fire","tag-activist","tag-gems","tag-interview","tag-rachel-lloyd","tag-stirring-the-fire","tag-trafficking","tag-womens-rights"],"yoast_head":"\nInterview - Rachel Lloyd, GEMS Founder - Phil Borges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/28\/interview-rachel-lloyd-gems-founder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview - Rachel Lloyd, GEMS Founder - Phil Borges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rachel Lloyd, founder of GEMS, New York City Exploited and trafficked girls in the United States According to the Department of Justice, over 100,000 adolescents are involved in prostitution in the United States.\u00a0 Sgt. 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