The Enitan Story Archives

How to prevent human trafficking among immigrants

June 25, 2016 By Bukola Oriola

In this post, I will focus on how to prevent human trafficking among immigrants in the United States. In a simple definition from my book, Imprisoned: The Travails of a Trafficked Victim, “Human trafficking is when a person is here in the United States as a result of fraud, force or coercion for the purpose of being subjected to involuntary servitude, forced labor, debt bondage, slavery, or commercial sex exploitation.”

I am writing this post in response to a reader’s question from one of my previous posts. Human trafficking as a result of fraud can take various forms. Some of the forms are promise of marriage, education, employment, or a better life. There are immigrants in colleges across the United States that are vulnerable or are already victims of human trafficking as a result of fraud. For example, some people have applied for student visa and are supposed to be in college but are not because they were not allowed to get enrolled by their traffickers, whom are known to them as friends, neighbors from home country, or family members. There are others who have been brought under the pretense of going to middle or high school but are kept as maid in the homes of their traffickers.

There are other category of victims who are married to their traffickers. Many in this category are working while their traffickers, whom they know as their spouses are garnishing their income or denying them access to the income that they have earned from work. Some are trafficked by people they know as their employers, where they are also working, but are not being paid, or are told that their income is being used to pay off the debt they owed for coming to the United States. Some are made to have sex with multiple partners while the money received went to the trafficker.

It takes continuous education and community awareness to prevent anyone from becoming a victim of human trafficking. One of the tactics of traffickers, whether it is the case of one victim or more, is isolation. Victims are isolated from known people like friends and families. Worse still, if a family member is the trafficker, the victim is made to believe that other family members or friends who may be helpful is a bad influence. It is very difficult to know that someone is a trafficker when the person is familiar. However, for a victim in the United States, there are various resources available to support a victim. The national human trafficking resource center has a hotline. The number is 1-888-373-7888. This is a number that I will recommend to an immigrant victim who doesn’t know who to contact or how to get help. My second recommendation is the nonprofit organization that I founded called The Enitan Story. If a victim has access to the computer, the email for The Enitan Story is info@enitan.org or call the number 763-433-9454.

I hope I have been able to answer this question in simplicity.

Thanks for reading. I hope to talk to you again through my blogs. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please, send me a note – fill out the contact form. I want to hear from you. You can also get my recent posts by signing up to receive updates.

Wait a minute! Are you aware of my upcoming book. You can still join the Insiders by clicking here. As an Insider, you get to be the first to read the book before it’s available to the public. You will also be joining me to empower survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault, and female genital mutilation.
Bye for now, until next time.

Nigeria’s Gardening Style in America?

July 17, 2014 By Bukola Oriola

As an eight year-old, I remembered gardening with my mother at the back of our house in Lagos, Nigeria. Also, we had a little farm about two miles away from home. We planted green spinach, corn, okra, water leaf, bitter leaf, cassava, and other common vegetables that we cook for food. Cultivating the ground and planting was no big deal. Once we put the seeds in the ground, we just wait to see them sprout after few days. Some take up to a week or so. We did not have to water the garden or the farm. The soil was loamy and the rain provided the water needed to grow the vegetables.

Now in Minnesota, United States of America, I found myself like a sea fish but living in the pond. Gardening in Minnesota is obviously different from Lagos. The weather condition is a factor that I worry less about than the sandy/stony soil I had to plant tropical vegetables in. It took about three weeks or more for the seeds to sprout. Also, while planting, the seeds were sprinkled on the plot rather than, line them up to form a nice line as they grow.

The garden was created to help provide fresh ethnic vegetables to victims and survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse. As a survivor, who had been in a situation where ethnic vegetable would have helped provide additional comfort during my healing process at the shelter, I thought it would be a great idea to provide that comfort to others with the help of The Enitan Story. It sounded interesting and I had no idea what kind of challenges, we would be facing as an organization with the project.

One of our board members, Angela provided her backyard for additional gardening space. One of our church

Angela sprinkling the seeds at her backyard

members at United Methodist Church of Anoka, Jim and Ann volunteered to rototill the space. Meanwhile, an instructor at the Horticulture department of the Anoka technical College, Amy Moberg had helped us to start two of our seeds – melon and fluted pumpkin from the indoor garden of the college. Unfortunately, the fluted pumpkin did not make it, but the melon survived. She also donated some tomatoes, thyme, cilantro and mixed spices. They all survived except the cilantro.

As for our ethnic vegetables, we planted jute leaves, green and red spinach, okra, and clove basil. All except the clove basil sprouted and are doing well, just not as fast as I had anticipated. Angela has been working hard on the garden behind her house and I have been taking trips to the Harmony garden in Anoka to take care of the vegetables. Luckily, we have had a Target staff come to volunteer through Volunteer Match, an online volunteering network for both nonprofits and individuals willing to volunteer their time. Another person, Trisha came to volunteer with her daughter and son. She even brought some vegetables to plant on the spot where the clove basil did not sprout.

I have had people who wanted to volunteer but had not been able to make it, so please, come, if you can, help us at the garden. I was at the garden today using hoe to weed around the edges. The garden was already shrinking as a result to the grass around the edges. It’s been a lot of patience and persistence keeping a garden without the best soil, but when I remember why I am doing it, I feel inspired to keep working at it. I put some fertilizer in the garden today and hopefully, that will help the vegetable to do better, so that we can actually make some food from it for those we want to help with it.

It has also been a learning experience. We will definitely be having a better garden in 2015. As for the garden at Angela’s backyard, some of the vegetables sprouted while others did not. We have also learned that we would need to till the soil with some compost before the next planting season to help the garden produce better.

Bye for now, until next time.

Why You Need To Support Taste For Hope

July 15, 2014 By Bukola Oriola

The Enitan Story is a nonprofit organization with a mission to advocate for victims and empower survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse. As you may have known, if you have heard my story or read my book, I am a survivor who wants others to be free just like I am. When I put my face to my story for the first time in February 2009 at Winona State University, my main goal was to bring the message of hope to the hopeless. I remembered like yesterday, how I poured my heart out in front of the almost filled auditorium in the morning. I spoke after an immigration lawyer who drove me to the venue of the event had introduced me to the audience immediately after her speech.

At the end of that presentation, where we had driven two hours to get to, I waited patiently for the next presentation in the evening at a different auditorium at the college. Meanwhile, I was taken for lunch by the university staff before my next presentation. Many other countless presentations followed my presentations that day. I was just sharing my story to help others.

Things began to take a new turn when I began to receive calls from victims or someone who knows a victim or works with a victim of human trafficking or domestic abuse. I even received emails, phone calls, and Facebook messages from middle, high, and college students, who have papers to write on human trafficking. I have taken the time to answer their questions as much as I can, either one-on-one at my hair braiding shop, telephone, or email. Even, members of the media have also got my attention when they needed information on these topics.

As a journalist, I took a step further by producing a television show through Public Access, North Metro TV in Blaine.

My journalism background was rather in print than broadcast; therefore, it was like wrestling as I went through the pain of TV production. I will always be grateful for the help of various volunteers, who helped to produce the show. Despite the flaws of the show, many have cited it in their research works. Some of the guests, who have appeared on the show have made it to be a respected show by presenting it to their audience and supporters to show their efforts in combating human trafficking. I have been honored to host the Anoka County Sheriff, Sheriff James Stuart and County Attorney, Attorney Tony Palumbo more than once; In addition, other notable people in the community have graced the set of the show as guests. In fact, Imprisoned Show was documented by the department of state as one of president Obama’s success stories in combating human trafficking in 2014.

When weed took over the garden, my son, Sam helped.

In my journey to bring freedom and hope to victims and survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse, I see a lot of gaps in the services provided. For example, a victim could get free legal help as a foreign-born, but may find it difficult to get medical help, such as that of a civil surgeon specified by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Such is a service that cannot be rendered at any of the regular clinics or hospitals because of the USCIS specifications. Another is for a victim not being able to get help because the crime was committed outside of the US. And for survivors, truly surviving is beyond having basic needs such as shelter and food, but becoming self-sufficient. The Enitan Story hopes to help them accomplish the goal of true self-sufficiency through education, further education, or business.

For these reasons, and many more, was why I was compelled to take another step further by forming a nonprofit organization called The Enitan Story. Please, take a look at the short video about the organization below.

I hope that you will be compelled to support Taste For Hope in whatever way you can join me to help these people

You can support by buying this “dream” Editing Suite for Imprisoned Show.

who may turn around to help others in the future. The event will hold on Saturday, August 16, 2014 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the United Methodist Church of Anoka, 850 South Street, Anoka, MN 55303. It will be a night of music and food tasting. You can buy tickets online at www.enitan.org. If you will like to be a vendor at the event providing finger foods for tasting, please, contact The Enitan Story at info@enitan.org.

Thanks for reading. I hope to talk to you again through my blogs. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please, send me a note – fill out the contact form. I want to hear from you. You can also get my recent posts by signing up to receive updates.

Bye for now, until next time.

Why You Can Talk to Kids About Human Trafficking

January 25, 2014 By Bukola Oriola

At The Enitan Story table with my son, Sam at Empower Freedom Conference

I was sitting beside my seven year old son, Sam outside of the auditorium of the Calvary Church, listening to Stephanie Page, a speaker at the Empower Ladies Conference entitled Proclaim Freedom, when he said, “She’s talking about you.” He thought the speaker was talking about me because he heard Page said the word, “human trafficking” in a statement she had made in her presentation. Empower Ladies Conference was a human trafficking awareness event, which we attended as vendor for The Enitan Story.

About 20 vendors were displayed on the red and light brown ceramic tile floor hallway facing the church’s auditorium. The Enitan Story shared a table with Family Life Ministries, a couple counselling program in Brooklyn Park. As I sat at my table glancing here and there, nicely made handmade jewelry were displayed on the table covered in black table cloth in front of the bag display table on my left hand side. There were other exhibits, including handmade bags, purses, crafts and things at the venue. United 1 Front is another nonprofit working with aftercare givers for victims of human trafficking in the Twin Cities. A considerable amount of crowd gathered for the two-day event. Perhaps, about 100 guests were present.

Fierce Freedom, a nonprofit focusing on education and awareness in Eau Claire, Wisconsin is one of the three organizations that the event was raising funds for. The other two were Stories Café and People Serving People. Founder of Fierce Freedom, Jenny Almquist had come to get coffee from the Ray’s Roast Coffee table displayed opposite The Enitan Story’s table when she invited us to join her upfront, close to the auditorium in order to listen to the speaker. I promised to join her and went into one of the classrooms facing the hallway to get a chair. Sam got one too. For a minute, Sam went to the mirror on the display stand by The Fierce Freedom’s table checking himself out. I didn’t even know it was a mirror until Almquist told me later that she saw Sam checking himself out in the mirror. She said, “He is so cute. He was looking at himself and checking out his teeth.” I could not hold my laughter back when I said, “I had no clue that was a mirror.” I was seeing it from the back, so I thought it was a sign of the organization used to display scarfs, because a scarf was sitting on it.

Well, I was curious about why my son thought that the speaker was talking about me for mentioning “human trafficking” in her statement. He said, “Because you do human trafficking.” Then, I said to him, I do human trafficking advocacy.” He struggled to pronounce advocacy for a minute, but I helped him to pronounce it and also asked him to say “human trafficking advocacy.” I told him that “I am doing human trafficking advocacy because I want to help others.

I am not surprised that he knows my work has to do with human trafficking. When I began to produce Imprisoned Show at the North Metro TV in Blaine, I used to take him to the studio in his car seat, where he sat or took a nap during our production. In that process, he has learned about the topic that his mother has been working on.

I began Kids Against Trafficking on the show to sensitize children about the issue of human trafficking at their level. Human trafficking awareness does not have to be revealed to children in a gory state; it can be taught in a way that will help them learn about the issue.

Bye for now, until next time.

Human Trafficking Awareness Month…What Next?

January 25, 2014 By Bukola Oriola

January has been an eventful month with human trafficking awareness. Various activities and programs flooded almost all communities across the United States. President Barack Obama opened the activities on December 31 when his Presidential Proclamation on human trafficking awareness became public on the White House website. Everywhere you turned, there was an event taking place. Some were a month long, a week or a day.

When I attended the Survivor Forum organized by the Office For Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVCTTAC) at the White House in Washington D.C. last week, there was an array of events that spur the city. Various government and nonprofit agencies organized and hosted events in commemoration of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Awareness. One of the downside to some of the events was the fact that they were invitation only events.

The Social media had a share of the publicity. Uncountable posts filled Facebook pages from individuals, who are passionate about fighting this crime to organizations creating awareness about their events or services. In fact, I received a Facebook message from a colleague in Nigeria about a female journalist, Tobore Ovuorie, who went undercover to expose sex trafficking in the country. Sadly enough, some of the sex trafficked victims were also harvested for body parts and organ trafficking. The story was published by Premium Times, although, the investigation was conducted in conjunction with ZAM Magazine of Netherlands.

As I write, I have done six presentations this month both as a speaker and as a participant. I am writing this post at the Empower Freedom event at Calvary Church in Roseville, where The Enitan Story is a vendor. Today is January 25, meaning that there are only six days more until the end of the month. What is next in terms of human trafficking awareness? I think, everybody can do more. The awareness has to be intensified beyond the month of January. The more we talk about it, the more we will be able to prevent ourselves or loved ones from becoming victims of human trafficking of any form.

What will you like to do, or are planning to do, to end human trafficking in your community? Please share your thoughts below.

Thank you for your time.

Bye for now, until next time.

How to prevent human trafficking among immigrants

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Nigeria’s Gardening Style in America?

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Why You Need To Support Taste For Hope

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Why You Can Talk to Kids About Human Trafficking

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Human Trafficking Awareness Month…What Next?

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