Program: “Child trafficking in the global village”

Carol Smolenski, Executive Director, ECPAT-USA
More than one million children are trafficked, sold, or forced into prostitution or pornography each year. In Canada, Mexico, and the United States, hundreds of thousands of children annually are sexually abused for profit.

Sunday October 7 our speaker will be Carol Smolenski, the Executive Director and one of the founders of ECPAT-USA. ECPAT is a network of organizations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation.

Carol Smolenski has been working in the field of children’s rights for sixteen years. At ECPAT-USA Carol oversaw the development of the first research project on child trafficking to New York City and two other research projects about commercial sexual exploitation of children. She was the Project Director for the New York City Community Response to Trafficking Project in New York, a multi-faceted ground breaking project to inform communities at risk for human trafficking about the federal anti-trafficking law and help obtain better protections for victims. The Project specialized in working with grassroots community groups and in facilitating relationships between community organizations and criminal justice agents.

She has spoken at numerous conferences and has presented testimony in venues ranging from the New York City Council to the United States Congress to the United Nations.
Carol has a Bachelors degree from Rutgers University, a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College.

Please join us Sunday, October 7, in welcoming Ms. Smolenski as she presents “Child Trafficking in the Global Village.”