Washington, D.C. –
Today, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) Vice President for Policy and Advocacy Jennifer Podkul, will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations hearing Children are not for Sale – Global Efforts to Address Child Trafficking.
Podkul will share KIND’s international and U.S. efforts to prevent child human trafficking and protect survivors, the steps the U.S. federal government can and must take to safeguard unaccompanied and separated children, and the importance of creating a bipartisan and collaborative child-focused anti-trafficking framework that upholds the internationally recognized human rights of children.
“Creating stability and familial structures in the communities that children live in is key to the protection of children and to preventing trafficking. This means increasing protective factors and resiliency not only through children’s integration into the community but through creating welcoming communities that acknowledge these children’s specific needs,” said Jennifer Podkul, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). “Provision of comprehensive legal and social services for children is central to achieving this aim. Additionally, no single stakeholder, agency, or individual can necessarily ensure the protection of children’s well-being and safety on their own. Collaborative responses are imperative to break the cycles of violence and ensure that children are also not placed in vulnerable situations again or re-trafficked.”
Jennifer Podkul’s full statement can be found here.
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Media Contact: Megan McKenna, mmckenna@supportkind.org, 202-631-9990