Fighting human trafficking

It was on a trip to Nepal in 2000 that Linda Regnier first came face to face with human trafficking.

She was near Kathmandu and small children who should have been in school were assembling bricks on the roadside. At first Regnier thought she was witnessing child labor.

She later learned the children were trafficked victims who had been sold into slavery by possibly unwitting parents.

Human trafficking refers to the illegal practice of trapping or selling individuals into forced labor, sexual exploitation or slavery.

Oftentimes poverty-stricken parents will sell their children to agents, thinking the children will be taken to school and provided jobs. The children are then exploited by the agent for an even bigger profit, often taken across borders into a neighboring country to become prostitutes or slaves.

Seeing the sadness and shame in the children’s faces and knowing what little future they faced had a profound effect on Regnier. She couldn’t sit back and watch these children toil for debts they shared no responsibility in.

She began researching, traveling and networking — eventually helping found the Flathead Abolitionist Movement in summer 2009.

Regnier lovingly strokes Knapweed — the cat she rescued years ago — as she shares the desperate stories of the women and children victims she has encountered in her travels. From her cozy Lakeside living room, one has vast views of Flathead Lake. And with the view and gentle purring of the dozing black cat, the world Regnier describes seems farther than the moon.

She has traveled across the ocean three times in her quest to help the survivors of trafficking.

She has been to Nepal, Thailand, India and Nepal again, through slums, red-light districts and a tsunami all to lend a hand, offer support and teach English to the few who have been given a second chance in shelter homes run by organizations such as Shared Hope, Children of the Golden Triangle and Destiny.

Destiny is a sort of work-study program that offers not only shelter, but also a chance to earn a living sewing handbags and making jewelry for sale in the U.S.

These shelter homes are an integral piece of rehabilitating victims of the sex trafficking trade. Often, the victims are sold because their families are so poor they can’t provide for them. Promised that their children will have good food and good schooling and a job, many times the parents think they are giving their children a chance at a better life, rather than forcing them into exploitation.

Once the women are rescued, they often can’t return to their villages because of deep tribal beliefs that force people to shun prostitutes.

“Repatriation is a big issue,” Regnier said. Even if they do get rescued — and only a few do — it is very hard to bring them back to their home country, say Nepal, despite how easy it was to sneak them across the border originally.

Although Destiny can only take in a dozen women at a time, it gives them an opportunity to live a normal life — or “as normal as they can.”

Regnier was born in Massachusetts, but her parents moved to Los Alamos, N.M. — where the first atomic bomb was developed. In the 1950s when Regnier and her brother were growing up, the city was closed to anyone not working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It made for a pretty unusual childhood, she said.

She spent most of her time playing outside in the mountains.

“It made me who I am today,” she said.

Her father was a nuclear engineer and her mother worked in personnel at the lab.

She jokes about the effect the lab had on her and her brother. Both have grown up to become activists, each always with a cause to crusade for.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with us. Maybe we got radiated.”

She met her husband-to-be Jim, who later went on to become a Montana Supreme Court justice, while pursuing her undergraduate degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

The couple moved to Montana in 1978 to raise their three daughters. Jim Regnier since has retired from the state high court.

Regnier holds a few different degrees. She has studied political science, special education and mental health at length. It all was certainly useful during her working years as a teacher and counselor, but now she barely mentions them. Degrees mean little in her current line of work.

Regnier sometimes wishes she had studied a more tangible trade, like that of a doctor or a nurse “to have a special skill.” Because of the language barrier, she struggles to put her education to use.

Many of the women Regnier encounters abroad speak little more than the tribal language of their elders, and because Regnier speaks little more than English, the language barrier can present a large challenge.

Regnier tells the story of one young woman who had been taken from Nepal when very young and sold into prostitution. After more than a decade on the streets of India, she was rescued and brought to the Destiny shelter house.

“It was a huge thing for her to come to Destiny,” Regnier said.

Despite being in India for 15 years, the woman had never been taught to speak Bengali. The only language she knew was the Nepali her parents had taught her before selling her off. And even then, she couldn’t write a word.

Regnier began to coach her in English, learning the English letters. Mehndi proved a hard-working pupil, eager to learn and soon she advanced to learning words. She had never written her name before in any language and the moment she did it, the pride in her eyes was magical.

“I just remember how that was a whole new experience for her. She never knew how to write her name,” Regnier said.

Regnier hopes to return to her work with Destiny and the other organizations overseas. But with small grandchildren, she says her work is here in the United States for a while.

It is estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked every year, nearly 100,000 of them in the United States. And those who have read “Loss of Innocence” by Ron and Carren Clem know that it happens in the Flathead Valley.

Thus the founding of the Flathead Abolitionist Movement.

Founded by five area women, the organization has already spread its roots with a teen chapter at Flathead High School. The group has shown documentaries on trafficking and held a panel on modern-day slavery on Valentine’s Day. The next project is to help organize training for the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office on recognizing victims of the crime.

“We’re making inroads, I think. The word is getting around,” Regnier said.

“It’s been hard to get info on what’s happening in the valley because people don’t want to talk about it.”

The biggest thing happening with preventing sex trade in the United States right now is Senate Bill 2925.

“This is really essential legislation,” Regnier said. “There are laws in effect and they don’t really seem to mean anything in the world.”

With the current issue of child trafficking in Haiti, the subject is heating up.

If it passes, the Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act will award up to six block grants at $2 million each to provide shelter and services to victims. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recently chaired a hearing on the bill on Capitol Hill. Regnier urges the community to contact Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus to pledge support for the bill.

So while she doesn’t have any new trips planned right now, Regnier is still hard at work raising awareness for victims both here and abroad.

To learn more about the Flathead Abolitionist Movement, e-mail flatheadabolitionistmovement@gmail.com.

Business reporter Erika Hoefer can be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at ehoefer@dailyinterlake.com.