Turning A Million Eyes To Save Lives Innocents at Risk

On this episode, Innocents at Risk Founder and Director Deborah Sigmund talks to Michael Camal, who currently serves as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, the department’s national public awareness campaign to combat human trafficking. In this role, Michael leads the Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI) to address human trafficking within the aviation industry. Under his leadership, BLI has tripled in size, expanded its reach to airports, aviation businesses, and the general aviation community. BLI has trained over 200,000 aviation staff on trafficking indicators and how to report the crime. Michael also supports the newly established DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking(CCHT), where he coordinates across 16 DHS components to further support the department’s domestic anti-trafficking mission. In collaboration with the U.S. Department of State, Michael engages foreign officials on public awareness, instituting a victim-centered approach, and recommendations on how foreign governments can improve their laws and strategies for combatting human trafficking. Michael has been with DHS for five years. He is originally from New Jersey and holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a concentration in Criminal Justice from the University of Rhode Island.

On Friday, May 27th, Innocents at Risk conducted an interactive workshop at Washington Global Public Charter School. Founded in 2015, Washington Global is a Title 1 middle school that provides students from at-risk areas of Washington, D.C., a rigorous and safe learning environment.During the workshop, Innocents at Risk Founder Deborah Sigmund and Intern Joanna Lundquist, a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University, gave an interactive presentation in which they spoke to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students about staying safe in their communities and on the Internet, in an effort to combat child exploitation and human trafficking. The presentation included relevant interactive media, information from the Department of Homeland Security, and classroom discussion. The students showed an eagerness to learn how to keep themselves and their peers safe online, which was reflected in their questions and their interaction throughout the presentation. The students seemed to especially value watching the “Sound of Freedom” trailer, and are excited to view the entire film when it comes out!Innocents at Risk has partnered with Washington Global and its founder, Elizabeth Torres, for over eight years to keep students safe. And on this episode Deborah talks to Elizabeth in a conversation recorded last month over Zoom. As co-founder and CEO of Washington Global, Elizabeth Torres led the efforts to design and make the vision of Washington Global a reality. As CEO, she carries out the school’s mission to provide a rigorous, high-quality academic and cultural education to middle schoolers from underserved areas of D.C. Under Elizabeth’s leadership, Washington Global was named the most improved charter school in the 2018-2019 school year and was rated a top D.C. school for instruction and school environment in 2019. Elizabeth has extensive teaching, administration, and education policy experience. Prior to founding Washington Global, Elizabeth worked at the U.S. Department of Education, focusing on K-12 and higher education special education policy. She began her career in education as a D.C. Teaching Fellow in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) where she taught special education reading and mathematics. She then served on the administrative team of a specialty Title I DCPS secondary school. Elizabeth was recognized by DCPS as the top special education administrator for the 2008-2009 school year. Elizabeth has also taught courses in education policy at The George Washington University to teachers and administrators throughout the D.C. area. She holds an Ed.D. in Neuroscience and Special Education from The George Washington University where she was a 2009-2010 Dean’s Merit Scholar, an M.A. in Transition Special Education from The George Washington University, and a B.A. in History from Vassar College. Elizabeth also studied History at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.

On this fourth episode of "Turning A Million Eyes To Save Lives," we hear Innocents at Risk Founder and Director Deborah Sigmund in conversation with Matt Osborne, Director of International Operations for Operation Underground Railroad, also known as O.U.R., a privately run organization founded by Tim Ballard in 2013 to rescue children from sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. O.U.R. has made a significant impact in the fight to end sex trafficking and sexual exploitation by rescuing and supporting thousands of survivors in 30 countries and all 50 American states.

Prior to becoming the Director of International Operations for Operation Underground Railroad, Matt Osborne served with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of State, where he worked issues related to terrorism against the homeland, illegal narcotics, organized crime, and human trafficking. He regularly provided secrets and analysis to U.S. presidents, senior Cabinet officials, and the National Security Council.

With Operation Underground Railroad, Matt has led a total of 21 undercover rescue operations overseas that resulted in the liberation of 206 human trafficking victims and the arrest of 63 suspected traffickers. He's been married for almost 25 years and has two daughters who give him the drive to fight child exploitation and human trafficking.

Five years ago this month, Innocents at Risk welcomed Matt Osborne as special guest of honor at Innocents at Risk's 2017 Gala, held in Washington, D.C., at the Organization of American States under the patronage of the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic. We hear about that event and the work Innocents at Risk and Operation Underground Railroad have done in collaboration.

We also hear about the dangerous on-the-ground work conducted by O.U.R.'s ops team of highly experienced current and former law enforcement personnel, and the forthcoming feature film "Sound of Freedom," which tells the story of Tim Ballard and O.U.R.’s greatest rescue of more than a hundred children. The rescue took place in Cartagena, Colombia, and was a success due to the partnership of O.U.R. and the government of Colombia and their special forces. We can all look forward to seeing the powerful action film "Sound of Freedom" later this year in theaters everywhere.

On this third episode of the series we hear from Deborah Sigmund, Founder and Director of Innocents at Risk; Callahan Walsh, Executive Director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC); and Cheryl Csiky, Executive Director of In Our Backyard. We talk about efforts made by all three organizations in combating human trafficking and child exploitation at and around the Super Bowl.

As major events in the U. S. attract more people, they also attract more sex traffickers and more buyers. Law enforcement faces overwhelming challenges to try to stay ahead of the traffickers. Unfortunately, the Super Bowl has become a magnet for traffickers. For the past several years, nonprofit organizations have gone to the host city of the Super Bowl to work with law enforcement in numerous ways. This year, with the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, Kevin Malone, former general manager of the L.A. Dodgers and the co-founder and CEO of The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking, is leading efforts to help fight trafficking during the week of the Super Bowl. Mr. Malone formed the Alliance Against Human Trafficking and Exploitation. Some of the organizations that are working with this alliance are A21, It’s A Penalty, Operation Underground Railroad, and Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich and his family. In addition, the NFL has given financial support for this alliance.

We also discuss the EARN IT Act, bipartisan legislation that was recently reintroduced in the Senate by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and co-sponsored in the House by Representative Sylvia Garcia, Democrat of Texas, and Representative Ann Wagner, Republican of Missouri. The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act -- the EARN IT Act -- will protect children everywhere by eliminating blanket immunity for violations of laws related to online child sexual abuse material. Innocents at Risk believes that tech companies need to be held responsible and no longer turn a blind eye to child sexual material on their websites.

The EARN It Act will also establish a commission of survivors, technology representatives, and government stakeholders to create recommendations and voluntary best practices for tech companies to respond to the global pandemic of online sexual exploitation of children.

The EARN IT Act will finally introduce accountability for big tech. Please ask your senators and member of Congress to support this important legislation today. We need the EARN IT Act in order to make the internet a safer place for our children.

On this second episode, we hear from Innocents at Risk Founder and Director Deborah Sigmund, and Nancy Rivard, president of Airline Ambassadors International (AAI). Nancy founded AAI to provide for orphans and vulnerable children in 1996 while working as a flight attendant for American Airlines. It is the only relief and development organization representing the airline industry. Airline Ambassadors International has hand-delivered over $60 million of aid to children in 62 countries in orphanages, clinics and remote communities, impacting over 500,000 children.

In 2009, Deborah Sigmund gave a presentation on human trafficking and Innocents at Risk's Flight Attendant Initiative at an Airline Ambassadors meeting in Miami. Deborah asked Nancy and her team to join the Innocents at Risk Flight Attendant Initiative, to which they agreed. Together, Airline Ambassadors and Innocents at Risk have trained thousands of flight attendants to identify and report suspected incidents of human trafficking. We hear about those trainings and much more in our conversation, which was recorded over Zoom on the last day of 2021.

On this debut episode, we hear from Innocents at Risk founder and director Deborah Sigmund and retired flight attendant Sandra Fiorini, who for many years has worked closely with Innocents at Risk in training aviation industry personnel and reporting suspected incidents of child trafficking. We'll hear about that work and several of those incidents in our conversation.