"[F]or as long as you know of it, you are particeps criminis. What business have you, if you are an "angel of light," to be pondering over the deeds of darkness?"
–– Henry David Thoreau.
Benjamin E. Skinner had finished his talk and I stood before him, nervous, inspired and a bit intimidated by the view of the world this man had acquired on his travels documenting the plight of modern human slavery. I asked him for his autograph on a copy of his book A Crime so Monstrous that I had bought moments before after hearing him speak and asked a rather mundane question he must hear a thousand times over.
"What can I do to help? I'm just an architect." Mr. Skinner took the book from me and laughed.
"Nobody is just anything. Find something you are passionate about, good at doing, and use it to do something positive. You are not just an architect. You are a person who wants to help." With that he signed the front of my book "To Deanna, an angel of light unafraid to look into the darkness."
I took this as a compliment of sorts…until I read his book and the quote. What business did I have to simply stand on the outside, looking in, and tsk tsking the slave economy. Mr. Skinner had effectively challenged me to step up and do something about it.
Ever since my first encounter with the Somaly Mam Foundation (SMF) through a friend of mine, gifted photographer Jennifer MacFarlane, I had felt a restlessness to reach out and help the fight against modern day slavery in any way possible. I had attended a fundraiser featuring photos from the brothels taken by Jennifer on her trip to Cambodia for a journalism assignment. When she had invited me to the event I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea slavery existed and I had no idea the depth of pain that could be revealed through simple photographs. The pictures had been blown up to larger than life sizes, over 5 feet tall. They featured a few of the girls looking back at the camera revealing with just a look, the pain of life. One picture in particular forced me to turn away in order to keep my composure. It was a simple shot of a girl's arms, turned wrist side up to show the multiple layers of scars criss-crossing her young skin. Scars of beatings. Scars of torture. Scars of self mutilation. Scars of suicide attempts –– attempts to escape hell via death.
I read Somaly's book, The Road of Lost Innocence, shortly after. Her bare bones poetic prose spoke of a woman stronger than anyone I have ever met.
I have never experienced any sort of life such as these girls and I never will. I have nothing to compare to, to even begin to understand how much inner strength it takes to survive, and to continue surviving with hope for something better in a situation like theirs. It is an immense struggle, seemingly impossible to overcome, and yet they do. I stand in humble awe of their persistence and determination. All I know is a weight of depression and a desperation to be relieved of its heaviness by attempting to end it all. The aspect of life that has helped me recover from a former version of myself is running. Each mile I run takes me farther away from someone I once was and closer to who I am meant to be. I live my life happy and am thankful for how lucky I am for all that I have.
Somaly Mam and Deanna Culbreath
I decided to challenge my body and mental strength by training for and racing in a 100 mile endurance run. I used the race as a way to get people's attention and raise money and awareness for SMF. Since that race in July 2010, I have continued to be actively involved with the Somaly Mam Foundation. A charity marathon team was organized to run the Hamptons Marathon in September 2011, and a World Race For Hope 5K and One Hour Endurance Run, with co-race director Brett Bogan, was established in New York City in January 2012. Through these two events a different demographic of people was reached and made aware of the plight of survivors of human trafficking. People were inspired to become more involved and in turn, they pressed forward in the fight against slavery and continued the chain of the inspired inspiring others.
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn quote Christopher Buckley in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Wordwide that "Women might just have something to contribute to civilization other than their vaginas." This satirical quote is unfortunately the true way scores of people think about half the human population. It angers and saddens me to know that there are generations of women who simply do not know how powerful they really are. His chapter about emancipating twenty-first century slaves resonated deeply with me. The descriptions of how slave owners and human traffickers break the spirit of their victims brought me back to Mr. Skinner telling me that "Nobody is just anything..." If every single woman and child sold, kidnapped, and born into slavery could have a single seed of hope, such as these words, planted into their hearts, it has the potential to grow into a force of empowerment . . . and personal revolutions combine to become a world revolution.
Somaly Mam, a former child slave herself, sows those seeds. The Somaly Mam Foundation is not just about rescuing the victims of sexual slavery. It rehabilitates survivors of sexual slavery, empowers them, and establishes the courage within each to rebuild their lives.
Each survivor has gone through so much and yet can still go further in order to escape and survive and, in the end, hopefully be happy. Inspired by the women across the world who survive, overcome, and move on, I have been able to use my passion for running as a force to raise funds and spread awareness and encourage others to do the same.
For now that I know of slavery, I will not simply ponder the evilness of it.
Each mile I run will, in my heart, be a mile closer to a place of peace and healing for everyone SMF reaches out to. I will run for the ones who can't run away and I will run for the ones who have and who continue to do so.
Deanna Culbreath is a Brooks I.D. athlete and volunteer with the Somaly Mam Foundation.
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