Raising Awareness About Human Trafficking

Broadcast on August 20, 2013
With Nancy Rivard & Petra Hensley

Petra Hensley

Human Trafficking Survivor and President of the Sojka Foundation

Petra Hensley is President of the Sojka Foundation which was started in 2011 with three goals in mind: to raise awareness of the issue of Human Trafficking through education, to provide a resource to survivors of Human Trafficking (with both shelter and psychological rehabilitation), and to help empower other woman and survivors to achieve their goals and achieve in life what they may never have thought possible. 

The Sojka Foundation has also spent a great deal of time in Haiti bringing vital supplies and assistance to those still living in tent camps since the devastating earthquake of 2010. Since the earthquake, the trafficking of children has increased 20% in Haiti. Through its several visits to tent camps, schools, and orphanages in the Port Au Prince area, The Sojka Foundation identified a need for psychological rehabilitation of child survivors of Human Trafficking. In cooperation with a Child Psychologist, The Sojka Foundation has authored an Empowerment and Rehabilitation Program designed to help child survivors of sexual abuse. Although it was originally developed for the All God's Children Orphanage in Port Au Prince, this program could be implemented anywhere in the world. The Sojka Foundation is currently seeking funding to get this much needed program in place. 
 
The Sojka Foundation's long-term goals also include the creation of shelters for survivors of Human Trafficking. Currently, most shelters provide little or no psychological counseling, job/life assistance programs, and many require the survivor to leave once he/she turns 18. The Sojka Foundation's shelters will address these issues, and ensure that survivors are prepared to resume a happy, fulfilling, and productive life. 
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