In 2017, United Justice’s Executive Director (Christina Rangel) and Director of Operations (Belen Rodas) went on an exploratory trip to the Colombian-Venezuela border to better understand the unfolding humanitarian crisis. With over 25,000 Venezuelans crossing the Simon Bolivar bridge into Colombia every day1, they knew that this was the perfect scenario for traffickers of all kinds to take advantage of the most vulnerable: women and children. Throughout this trip, they met with the UNHCR, the Red Cross, and other grassroots organizations. Despite the alarming amount of women and children working in forced prostitution, no one was focusing on the sex trafficking crisis.

Throughout the trip, they made connections with others on the ground to begin creating a response action plan.

Soon after the trip, Christina began utilizing her connections from working in anti trafficking for nearly a decade to research and gather more information on the crisis and to start building a team. She spent time learning what areas in Venezuela the women and children were escaping from and what were the most common destination countries. With Colombia and Ecuador being at the forefront of receiving Venezuelan migrants, UJ began working on the ground providing immediate assistance to victims of trafficking. These victims -now survivors- informed the early establishment of the UJ response. Understanding that most victims were a part of specific communities, UJ worked to create community-wide resources on awareness, prevention and intervention in Colombia and Ecuador.

From my experience when responding to a sex trafficking crisis within a migration crisis, it is important to work in both the sending and receiving countries. This is to ensure that those inside the country receive awareness education and understanding of red flags of sex traffickers. In 2019, the education system began collapsing in Venezuela, making more children desperate to leave the country for survival. In response, UJ launched Educate for Change, a prevention program in Petare Caracas, Venezuela, an area severely impacted by migration, violence, drugs, and the recrutiment of sex trafficking victims. Educate for Change is a prevention strategy that provides hot meals daily, quality supplemental education, and extracurricular sports activities to build relationships, character, and reinforce positive identity. During the pandemic, UJ provided each of the children monthly emergency food bags and hygiene products for them and their families. Although effective in Venezuela, they realized they still needed to create more opportunities for victims outside of Venezuela. Therefore, they began outreach and mentorship programs in Colombia and Ecuador. Through community collaboration and local partnerships in 2021 there were many people within the local community in Ecuador that wanted to offer their businesses, products and resources to help with specific needs of those being reached by the local programs.

Therefore, in April 2021, they started The Justice Network, a local network of civil society, local medical providers, lawyers, and professors to engage in the immediate and long term needs of victims in Cuenca, Ecuador.