{"id":23915,"date":"2015-04-10T16:19:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T20:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=23915"},"modified":"2020-08-28T10:00:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T14:00:08","slug":"inspired-by-romanian-survivors-of-sexual-trafficking-rebekah-york-takes-the-lead-and-stands-for-stand4freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/inspired-by-romanian-survivors-of-sexual-trafficking-rebekah-york-takes-the-lead-and-stands-for-stand4freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by Romanian survivors of sexual trafficking, Rebekah York takes the lead and stands for #Stand4Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, Rebekah York stood in Thomas Plaza \u2013 sometimes alone, sometimes with a crowd \u2013 surrounded by ghostly chalked outlines of feet that marked those who had stood, even briefly, to show their support for ending modern slavery.<\/p>\n

York, a junior at Eastern Mennonite University, was making her Stand For Freedom<\/a> for 12 hours in solidarity with local college students and others in more than 40 states and 10 countries to raise awareness of human trafficking. The Stand, which happens from April 6-10, is an outreach of the non-profit International Justice Mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

York, who grew up in Bucharest, Romania, is a reluctant leader who would prefer to remain out of the spotlight, but she wants to make advocacy for victims of human trafficking her life\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Changed by the stories<\/h3>\n

The stories she heard during a summer internship at a shelter for sexually trafficked women in Romania have burrowed into her heart and psyche.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to know them really well and fell in love with them \u2013 that really changes you,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When she returned to campus in the fall of 2014, raising awareness among her fellow students became a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m out here for the seven girls I live, ate and breathed with for two months,\u201d York says. \u201cThe Stand for me is all about them and the other women, men and children who are trapped and coerced into slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

In working to stage the Stand event, York says she is called by her faith and the knowledge, drawn from personal experience, that the survivors sometimes need someone to tell their story, because they themselves can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

One touching story she heard from 13-year-old \u201cAna,\u201d who was living in a state-run orphanage when she heard the rumors. \u201cThe director has one thing in mind for the girls here,\u201d the older girls told her. \u201cProstitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frightened, Ana ran away with the help of some of the other girls. She was able to find her grandparents and ended up at Open Door Foundation<\/a>, the shelter where York worked.<\/p>\n

York\u2019s internship concluded with a job offer that she wanted to accept. However, her parents encouraged her to finish her degree. She compromised by saying she would graduate a semester early, in the fall of 2015, and then return to the shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to eventually work with the justice system in Romania,” she says. \u201cI want the police to implement justice for the poor and not against them. The current system is keeping people in the cycle of poverty in which they feel forced to sell their bodies for money because they feel like they don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staying connected through activism<\/h3>\n

In the meantime, back in Harrisonburg, she searched for another internship, which is how she learned about International Justice Mission and Stand for Freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that it would be really cool to be a part of, but I had a lot of doubts in my ability to pull it off,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

York\u2019s experiences in that shelter and her passion for serving justice were compelling to listeners, though. On a recent spring break Y-Trip<\/a> that she led with junior Hanna Heishman, she gained six more allies, including Heishman: Rachel Schrock, Jessamyn Tobin, Abby Hershberger, Amy Feeser, and Jolee Paden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt drawn into Stand because of the passion Rebekah has for her work,\u201d Heishman says. \u201cShe shared with me her vision for humanity during our Y-trip: a life without the reality of trafficking. This is something she cares so deeply for, and it is where she will devote her life.”<\/p>\n

Together the group grew the conversation from a Facebook message, to a living room meeting, lunch room conversations and finally to connecting with the James Madison University Stand group.<\/p>\n

That JMU group heard York’s story and decided to partner their Stand with EMU to have a united event in a centralized location. A contingent of Dukes came to Thomas Plaza for the Tuesday Stand.<\/p>\n

JMU students with the Shenandoah Valley Justice Initiative<\/a>, a faith-based group raising awareness about the human trafficking issue, also came to campus Thursday to share their work.<\/p>\n

A vigil tonight [March 10] at Court Square will again unite students with the Harrisonburg community, which has recently seen a rise in human and labor trafficking charges. In January, Virginia\u2019s House of Representatives passed four bills to combat human trafficking and sex trafficking, which the FBI calls the fastest growing crime in the United States and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world.<\/p>\n

‘In your backyard’<\/h3>\n

York planned the week-long event to include a huge dose of education about modern slavery, which has the potential to affect the nearly 4 billion people living in poverty in countries with dysfunctional or corrupt public justice systems, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

After all, she herself had grown up in a country with a long and traumatic history of sex slavery, and she knew nothing about it until a few months after graduating from high school.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when she saw \u201cNefarious: Merchant of Souls,\u201d<\/a> a documentary that was also aired on campus Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s know what we\u2019re standing for, before we make a statement,\u201d York wrote in her campus-wide email advertising that showing.<\/p>\n

With more than 200 signatures gathered on two petitions during Tuesday\u2019s event, York is optimistic about the Stand\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I wanted to do was raise awareness about human trafficking and let people know that this is happening in your own backyard,\u201d York says. \u201cBeing able to share that with someone is what I am called for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, Rebekah York stood in Thomas Plaza \u2013 sometimes alone, sometimes with a crowd \u2013 surrounded by ghostly chalked outlines of feet that marked those who had stood, even ... read more about Inspired by Romanian survivors of sexual trafficking, Rebekah York takes the lead and stands for #Stand4Freedom<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5583,14715,5185,17571,14145,6287,4513,14139],"tags":[6834,5944,15984,16602,5997,14322,16580,15310,7609,11995],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-23915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","category-campus-life","category-campus-ministries","category-internship","category-peacebuilding-and-development","category-social-work","category-student-life","category-student-profiles","tag-eastern-mennonite-university","tag-giving","tag-hanna-heishman","tag-international-justice-mission","tag-james-madison-university","tag-jolee-paden","tag-rachel-schrock","tag-rebekah-york","tag-shenandoah-valley","tag-y-trip"],"yoast_head":"\nInspired by Romanian survivors of sexual trafficking, Rebekah York takes the lead and stands for #Stand4Freedom - 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