Trinity Magazine: Fall 2005

In Their Words: Nancy Valdes '06

Destination: Thailand
Major: International affairs with a concentration in global migration
While studying abroad, she: met with Thai officials, scholars, activists, and organizers involved in the global anti-trafficking movement
Area of Personal Interest: Ending human trafficking

This summer I traveled with American University and Project Hope, a U.S. based non-governmental organization that works with victims of trafficking, to Thailand for a three-week course on human security. The program focused on threats to human security in Thailand, with a particular emphasis on the human trafficking phenomenon. The group met with Thai officials, scholars, activists, and organizers involved in the global anti-trafficking movement.

During our three weeks in Thailand we spent about half the time in Bangkok, living in apartments, and the other half traveling to Pattaya in the south and Changmai, Changrai, and Mae Sae in the north. Bangkok was quite crowded and noisy, much like New York City or Chicago, but with five times the traffic and no rhyme or reason to the street grid. That said, there were numerous ancient temples that were unlike anything I had ever seen before in my life — elaborately ornate, colorful structures that took my breath away. Changmai, Changrai, and Mae Sae on the other hand, were all spectacularly lush and green and much less chaotic than Bangkok. These cities in the north however, are much poorer and less developed than Bangkok and are trafficking transit points.

The speakers we were given access to and the places we visited as part of the program truly opened my eyes to the problem of human trafficking. Hearing radically different points of view on what causes trafficking and/or enables it, some of which had never occurred to me before, helped me form a more objective opinion as to why humans are trafficked and what can be done to stop it. It was often emotionally distressing and psychologically draining to speak with victims and/or their children in shelters we visited, and to hear social workers’ stories of cases they had been involved with. Still, I wouldn’t trade those conversations for anything in the world. They helped enforce my already-held belief that after graduation in May, I need to put my international affairs degree to good use by working in the international community to help alleviate some of the world’s problems.

Return to Global Travels

Return to Trinity Magazine Fall 2005 table of Contents