The Disappeared Missing Women of Color

The National Crime Information Center (www.fbi.gov) reported 322,263 missing females in 2016.  These numbers only reflect those that were reported to the FBI.   Within non-white communities the social, economic, and political differences between law enforcement and community members often prevent reports from being filed.    The United Nations’ Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women – UN Women (http://www.endvawnow.org/) reports women and girls are 80% of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across national borders annually, with the majority - 79% - trafficked for sexual exploitation.  Within countries many more women and girls are trafficked, often for purposes of sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.   One study in Europe found that 70% of trafficked women had experienced physical and/or sexual violence before being trafficked, and pointed to gender-based violence as a push factor in the trafficking of women.

This program aims to raise awareness to the thousands and thousands of missing women from our communities.   It is presumed these mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, aunts, best friends, and cousins are dead or sold into slavery or the sex trade.   We don't know.   They are gone, just gone.  It's an unnatural phenomenon destabilizing our communities.

The expressed outcome of this program will be to build a local communication alert network between the communities that can be quickly activated when a woman/girl goes missing.    Our long-term goal is to take this event to cities across the state/nation in order to extend and strengthen the alert network.

Events will include:

Speakers Panel

Break-out sessions

Self-defense

Dealing with Loss/Grief

How to Spot Someone in Trouble and How to Help

How to Mobilize your Community When Someone is Missing

How to Build a Network in Your Community