When it seems impossible, but it is not...

When it seems impossible, but it is not...

Amber - FasTrack Project

For this blog, I can give a very personal opinion about my experience in Amber - FasTrack project. My motivations, my blocking-minded, my research and really useful talk with people from different profiles about the problem of children trafficking and their opinion of how to solve it. Finally, the muse landed and as an epiphany, I could engage me again with my goal: do something in favor to children who suffers because any abuse caused by the human trafficking. Finally, I think I achieved a good proposal and I think with more research and having more feedback with experts in the field, the solution can be well shaped. 

First of all, the idea started last December with an email from Sean Beggs inviting Heinzerss to participate in the USAID contest about "How to use technology to avoid children slavery?" I asked Sean for advice and he recommended me to talk with an association in Pittsburgh, Resolution Hope, and I did. I talked with Meredith, and asked her, in her experience, what are the most useful information to take a kid back to her parents. She told me the information's distribution, including a photo, in social media as faster as possible. However, the most vulnerable children to be trafficked are those ones who are homeless and none is looking for them.

About children trafficking for sexual purposes, including pornography, Meredith commented me, the better way she thought to stop this problem was to stop the demand. However, is difficult for me to understand how to stop a pedophile's demand. Due to  pedophilia is considered as psychiatric disorder, and it is considered without cure, there is only treatment. 

It was so difficult for me try to think in  a technological solution, when the problem seemed to be more from other disciplines like medical, legal and political. During my research, I found the governments are not really interested and in particular, Mexico does not have an official and public database for children trafficking. The current private associations, composed by victims and their parents, work empirically and almost without economical resources. But again, their testimonies reveal, the fast distribution of a photo and digital prints are one of the keys to find as soon as possible a missed or kidnapped child.

After several weeks of frustrated attempts to find how to give an approach for a solution; when I was looking for which countries with a highest index of children trafficking in the world: Somalia, Haiti, and Sierra Leone, I was trying to find some patterns or more statistics, but nothing. Then, I realized we need data and a reliable one. Some governments hide the real numbers, for political purposes. Even the evident equivalence between the slavery and trafficking definitions, there is no government in Occidental world, which accepts to upgrade the human trafficking crime to slavery. Even when their Constitutions' fundamentals are based on: "Every human being is free". If the governments accept trafficking as slavery, they must give more resources to avoid it. So, they are not interested, that's why the solution would come from the real interested ones: parents and society.

 Amber - FasTrack has the purpose to keep the child information in two ways: physically, through a cardboard (as currently is done in Mexico), but also electronically by a smartphone, the module Record Info. Why smartphones, because it is the easiest way to have Internet access for people with law resources 

Then, send an alert  should be as fastest as possible. In Mexico City to put a claim can delay between 4 to 6 hours and then the delayed time to start to look for a child is not reveled by the authorities. Here is another opportunity to give a solution: Trigger Alert in real time with a smartphone to strategic points: airports, bus stations, tollbooth highways, electronic billboards and subways.

Because a personal experience, I also realized people in the streets can see something that would be a crime and they do not have time to call police, or is only a suspicion. But a possible crime can be happening. Due this, I integrated a module  Witness Report, where anyone can take a photo or a video, complement it with a description by audio or written and the app record the location and date. These information will send to a database to be analyzed and send it to the authorities.

Gather all these information in a database, give us another opportunity: analyze it and find faster what the human eye and experience can delay more: find patterns and finally, put the us one step forward than the human traffickers. This is the purpose of the module Data Analytics.

I think Amber - FasTrack was a good approach as a feasible project to solve the problem at a problem that seemed so difficult. At the end, I am happy with it. This solution is very bounded, but I am sure, it will be useful. More than ever, this era is giving us an opportunity with all these fantastic technological resources that we can start to think impossible.

Thanks Tim and all you guys.

My best,

Ximena 

Big Data to find Big Answers to Big Problems

Big Data to find Big Answers to Big Problems

The Human Trafficking is one of the biggest worldwide unsolved problems. It is also one of the most profitable business. The problem seems big, but, How much?; How is split the profitability of this big cake? Who is interested to stop it? How to tackle the problem efficiently? How does the technology can help to avoid the human trafficking? The data is the first key to know what is the real size of the problem, but also how to attack it. Google announced few weeks ago, they will provide money, but also their platform to help to solve this problem.

Governments around the world refuse to upgrade the human trafficking to slavery. Even when the characteristics to determine slavery and human trafficking are indistinguishable. 

• "Human Trafficking is the trade in humans, most commonly for purposes of sexual slavery, forced labor or for extraction of organs or tissues, including surrogacy and ova removal." 

• "Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. "

Whether government accept Slavery practice in their countries, they are obligated to provide more resources to get better policies, application of justice and support to the victims. The Human Trafficking market represents an estimated value of illicit international trade of 32 billions usd (Source: Global Financial Integrity, see page 56). However, the most interested to solve this problem are parents and society. They should pressure government and companies with enough power to produce efficient policies and contribute to the society's welfare.

The first obstacle is the diffuse and contradictory data between official and NGO versions. This is talking about there is no an efficient way to measure the problem. The first step to give an efficient attack human traffickers is to measure their activities, their profits, and count all the victims. To do this it is required a big effort, labor hours, logistics and money. 

Google announce in the past weeks presented its plan to Fight Human Trafficking with Big Data. Google will not only give 3 million usd to the Global Impact Award to help organizations like Polaris Project, Liberty Asia, and La Strada International to create a Global Human Trafficking Hotline.

Moreover, Google will provide the big missing to make  an effective fight against Human Trafickers, no only dat, but BIG DATA. The technology to provide the analytics will reduce the time an labor hours to find the patterns of trafficking, but also to find kidnapped and trafficked people. 

More than ever, the technology is available to solve problems have seemed overpassed any human force. The remote collaboration between social networks in real time, the BIG Data analysis provided by a worldwide platform, as Google is, the social pressure from the global community, are giving a hope that the fight against Human Trafficking is not lost.