Zonta Welcomes our Guests

Cecelia welcomed our guest speaker Steve Searcy, Executive Director of One Place Family Justice Center and Carrie Gray, Montgomery County Deputy D.A. 

Our Program

Julie Weller reintroduced our guest speaker, Steve Searcy, a veteran of the police force for 35 years.  Steve began by thanking us for our support.  He previously spoke to our group when the One Place Family Justice Center was only a dream and now is a reality.  (Editorial remark: it is fitting that we should hear about this dream becoming a reality during the month that we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King who “had a dream of justice for all.”)   Steve said that this project was the hardest thing he has ever done in his professional career.

He shared a PowerPoint presentation and related how much money and people power was needed to accomplish the founding of this facility.  Steve gave special recognition to Montgomery County D.A., Ellen Brooks, Mayor Todd Strange, and Karen Sellers, Executive Director of the Sunshine Center. Without their hard work and help it would not have been possible.  Since they opened for business in October they have served approximately 900 victims. He verbally introduced us to Christie, who has been suffering violence since she was 13 years old. 

Carrie Gray continued to relate how her legal services help these vulnerable victims.  She helps to prosecute the offenders.  They also deal with human trafficking issues.  During Q&A we learned that they are helping a young boy that Cecelia knew of through her work with DHR. To read more about this wonderful project please visit their website at http://www.oneplacefjc.org/.

Treasurer, Angela Allen, reported that we raised $671.00 at our Holiday Pot Luck Benefit in the beautiful home of Dolores Osborne-Hensley.  We thank Delores for her hospitality, Charlene for the fun and pictures, and all the food and money providers.  (Another editorial remark: Great job, Club!).  Two thirds of the proceeds were disbursed to the Nellie Burge Homeless Women & Children’s project - Mary Ellen’s Hearth, and the remainder will benefit the operating fund of the Club.

Public Relations /Communications / Report by Misty Fairbanks

Misty wants to share the following news releases with us ~ you may have read these in the news, so either enjoy rereading or reading now:

NEWS RELEASE

Luther Strange Alabama Attorney General

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 12, 2012 For More Information, contact: Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491 Suzanne Webb (334) 242-7351 Page 1 of 3 501 Washington Avenue Montgomery, AL 36104 (334) 242-7300 www.ago.alabama.gov

AG STRANGE, U.S. ATTORNEY BECK JOIN FOR GREATER AWARENESS AND HELP TO VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

(MONTGOMERY)--Attorney General Luther Strange and U.S. Attorney George L. Beck, Jr., joined with members of the Human Trafficking Coalition for the Middle District of Alabama at a news conference today to highlight January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

 “We stand together to shine the light of public awareness, bringing the tools of law enforcement and community services to expose an ugly crime and to help its victims,” said Attorney General Strange. “The great tragedy is while human trafficking is a pervasive and fast-growing crime, it is often undetected. Victims may go unrecognized and not even realize that what is being done to them is illegal or that they can ever escape. Victims are isolated from those who might help them, and trapped in a terrifying web of violence, intimidation and control. With the coordinated effort of those here today and many others, we are working to break that web and to free its victims.”

U.S. Attorney Beck stated, “Many victims hide in fright in our own backyard in nightmare conditions and forced prostitution. I want to thank law enforcement in the Middle District, and especially the Human Trafficking Coalition, for their devotion to finding and freeing victims of human trafficking. Make no mistake, human trafficking is enslaving our fellow Americans, many of whom are children of broken homes or runaways, targeted to serve in the commercial sex trade. This office will prosecute traffickers and protect victims. I encourage everyone to visit DOJ’s website at http://www.ovc.gov  or the HHS website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking to learn more about human trafficking. Let’s work together to fight and prevent this evil criminal conduct.”

Attorney General Strange warned potential offenders that first-degree human trafficking is a Class A felony punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment, and that second-degree human trafficking is a class B felony, punishable by two to 20 years imprisonment. It also is a crime to obstruct or attempt to interfere or prevent enforcement of Alabama’s human trafficking law, Act 2010-705. Alabama’s law was recently used in successful prosecutions by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Attorney General Strange thanked Representative Jack Williams of Birmingham for his sponsorship of the bill that became Alabama’s human trafficking law. Representative Williams stated that, “The Human Trafficking Act of 2010 helped to make Alabama a safer place for its most vulnerable and a harsher place for those who peddle human misery.” Related legislation is being introduced in the upcoming session by Senator Dick Brewbaker. Senate bill 50 would promote awareness and facilitate assistance to trafficking victims by requiring that the national hotline number be displayed in certain establishments and published on certain internet sites.

State law provides for prosecution of human trafficking in the forms of forced labor or sexual servitude through coercion or deception. Minors are not legally able to consent to being used for sexual servitude, and the offender’s supposed ignorance of the victim’s age is not a defense.

Federal law provides for prosecution of human trafficking in essentially the same two forms, labor trafficking or sex trafficking. Both forms of trafficking require proof of force, fraud, or coercion. Federal law, however, does not require the presence of force, fraud, or coercion where a minor child is being trafficked. The penalties under federal law also differ somewhat. Labor trafficking is punishable by no more than 20 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and restitution. The term of imprisonment can increase under limited circumstances. Sex trafficking of a minor is punishable by no less than 10 years to life imprisonment, a fine, and mandatory restitution. If the victim of sex trafficking is an adult or a minor who was subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, the offense is punishable by no less than 15 years imprisonment to life, a fine, and mandatory imprisonment.

Human trafficking is recognized as “a modern-day form of slavery” and “is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world today,” according to a fact sheet distributed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The information from HHS estimates that approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide, and that victims are generally trafficked into the U.S. from Asia, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. The situations of many victims are complicated by an inability to speak English that isolates them further from those who might recognize and help them.

Trafficking involves not only victims who are forced to work in prostitution and engage in other kinds of sex trade, but also can include victims in situations such as domestic servitude, sweatshop factories or migrant agricultural work. HHS notes ways in which traffickers use force, fraud and coercion to control and exploit their victims. Forceful violence may include beatings and rape, and intensive deprivation of nourishment and sleep may also be used to break down the resistance of victims. Fraud may involve false or misleading offers of employment, with victims then forced into prostitution. It may lead to debt bondage, with the victim forced to pay exorbitant fees for travel, food and housing, being kept isolated and in horrendous living circumstances with a growing debt that is impossible for them to ever pay. Coercion is the use of intimidation, restraint, and threats of serious harm to victims or their families or loved ones. Traffickers often take and withhold travel papers and documentation, to maintain control and make escape more difficult.

The Human Trafficking Coalition cites its mission as “To Find and Free” victims. The coalition began its work in late 2009, initiated and organized by Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Stump of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama. The coalition draws together representatives of law enforcement, government agencies and social service providers to promote awareness and recognition of victims and to find and provide resources to help them. This includes activities such as networking with education and health care professionals about how to identify and build relationships of trust so that victims may be rescued.

Human Trafficking has been a particular concern of the National Association of Attorneys General, selected by NAAG President and Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna last year as for an initiative entitled “Pillars of Hope: Attorneys General Unite Against Human Trafficking. In August of 2011, Attorney General Strange joined 44 other Attorneys General in a letter calling on Backpage.com to remove sex trade advertising and to demonstrate policies and actions taken to prevent the use of its advertising to promote or facilitate human trafficking. A similar effort by 42 Attorneys General in 2008 ultimately led to Craigslist removing its section for “erotic services.”

Attorney General Strange and U.S. Attorney Beck urged citizens to be alert and to report any concerns or suspicions to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center by calling its toll-free hotline, 1-888-373-7888.

NEWS RELEASE

Robert Bentley Governor

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 

Contact: Russell Sellers                                                         russell.sellers@adeca.alabama.gov            

Larry Childers

(334) 242-5525

Bentley Awards Grants to Help Abuse Victims Statewide

MONTGOMERY—Gov. Robert Bentley has awarded two grants totaling $32,002 to two nonprofit organizations that help meet the needs of victims of domestic violence and rape.

          A $17,002 grant to the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and a $15,000 grant to the Alabama Coalition Against Rape will help the agencies conduct training to help police, medical personnel and court staff identify the signs of domestic violence and rape.

          “Helping victims of rape and domestic violence starts with being able to spot the signs of abuse,” Bentley said. “I commend both coalitions for their efforts to reduce the number of domestic violence and rape cases in our state and to aid those who have been victimized.”

          Police departments, courts and agencies register for the training through the coalitions. Instructive presentations are delivered by staff members who have more than 40 years of combined experience in domestic violence and sexual assault investigation. Local, regional and statewide level training is offered and many victims’ shelters participate to increase awareness about their services.

          The Coalition Against Domestic Violence serves victims through 19 shelter programs around the state that provide safe, emergency shelter for victims and their children. The coalition also provides a 24-hour toll-free crisis line at (800)650-6522.

          Rape victims can receive help from various Coalition Against Rape member crisis centers throughout Alabama which are listed at http://www.acar.org .

          Bentley awarded the grants from funds made available to the state by the U.S. Justice Department. The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the award. Local matching funds totaling $10,667 will supplement the grants.

Bentley informed Nancy Travis, ACADV president, and Traci Bynum, ACAR president, that the grants had been approved.

AIM Storybook
There was no Storybook in January.  Chaplain Brown sent the Club a Christmas card.

Sarah Lee–

For those of you who aren’t on Facebook, the picture is my grandson-in-law, Marcus Bell, with the US Secretary of Defense.  Marcus is stationed with the Navy in Virginia Beach on the USS Enterprise.  I am very proud of Marcus.  Another bit of good news from his and my family ~ he and my granddaughter Tabetha are expecting their first baby sometime in September! You know what that makes me!

From-- The Wetumpka Impact Crater Commission Marilee Tankersley, Chairman (334)567-4637 -- Wetumpka Crater Tours Set for February 4th

Wetumpka is the site of the greatest natural disaster to ever hit Alabama, a large meteor strike.  It created a five-mile wide crater that is still visible near where the city now sits.  This happened over 85 million years ago near the end of the “Age of Dinosaurs”.  

First discovered in the mid-1970s, a crater or astrobleme, meaning “star wound” was confirmed in 1998 by Dr. David King Jr., Professor of Geology, Auburn University.  Because the location was covered by a shallow sea at the time of impact, scientists have declared it to be one of the “best preserved marine impact craters in the world”.

Each year the Wetumpka Impact Crater Commission and City of Wetumpka sponsor several Crater events, a public lecture by Dr David King and Friday school tours and Saturday public tours of the Crater. 

Dr. King will conduct a free public lecture on the science of the Crater on Thursday, February 2nd at 7:00 pm in the Wetumpka Civic Center, Main Street, Wetumpka. This is an excellent opportunity to hear how scientists have proven the size and scope of the impact and get an update on Dr King’s most recent research.

The Friday, February 3rd tours will be open to a limited number of school students on a first reserved basis.  Teachers can call the number below for information.

On Saturday, February 4th , the Crater Tours will be held hourly on starting at 8:30am, with van transportation provided.  The tour is divided into two parts, (1) lecture and information & (2) the van tour.  Total cost of both parts of the tour including a guidebook is $20 for adults, $10 for children up to 12, accompanied by an adult.  (Not recommended for very small children.)  You can attend only the lecture and the charge is $5, with children up to age 12, admited free.  Additional guidebooks can be purchased for $5, if available.

Lectures begin at 8:30am, 9:30am, 10:30am, 12:00am & 1pm.  The van tours will load immediately following the lecture.  Van tour space is very limited and must be reserved before January 27th.  Participants need to meet at the Wetumpka Civic Center on Main Street, 15 minutes prior to their tour time.  Reservations are required.

For additional information and reservations, contact Tiffany Robinson at 567-5147 or e-mail trobinson@cityofwetumpka.com

Sarah Lee wishes ~ That you would contact her with member news!  Phone 334-270-3279; email sarahleez@charter.net.

January is a Month for Celebrating Great People

In addition to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday Zonta celebrates Amelia Earhart Day on January 11. Zonta clubs around the world celebrate Amelia Earhart's groundbreaking achievements and courageous spirit throughout the month of January; however, 11 January was chosen as Amelia Earhart Day to commemorate the day the legendary pilot and Zontian became the first woman to fly solo over the Pacific Ocean.

Amelia Earhart Luncheon

Saturday, January 7, 2012, Betty Ziri, Lynn Merrill and I attended a luncheon at the Birmingham YWCA benefiting the Amelia Earhart Birth Museum, Atchison, KS, a 50l(c)(3) organization. This is the Birmingham Zonta Club’s 16^th annual luncheon co-hosted with the Alabama Ninety-Nines.

The speaker Cheryl Sterns, is an aviator and the most successful competitive skydiver in the world. She has made over 18,000 skydives, the most of any woman in the world.  A few of her many accomplishments were listed in last month’s Newsletter.  Cheryl shared with us that she first became interested in becoming a skydiver at age 8 because she wanted to go 120 mph. She had her pilot’s license at age 16.  She showed a video of her actually jumping from an aircraft.  It was breath-taking! 

We also learned a new term from the President of the Alabama 99’s – ‘flour bombing’.  This is a delightful event – you should plan to attend next year!

In 1910 Irena was born in Warsaw, but grew up in the town of Otwock, Poland. Irena's father was a doctor. He died in the typhus epidemic of 1917 when he contacted the disease while caring for poor Jewish people in Otwock. Irena was an only child and a Catholic.

As early as 1939, when the Germans invaded Warsaw, Irena began helping Jews by offering them food and shelter. When the Warsaw Ghetto was erected in 1940, Irena could no longer help isolated Jews. The Ghetto was an area the size of New York's Central Park and 450,000 Jewish people were forced into this area.

Irena along with her underground network rescued 2,500 Jewish children in Poland during World War II. Irena used her papers as a Polish social worker and papers from one of the workers of the Contagious Disease Department (who was a member of the underground Zegota, a Polish underground group to assist Jewish people) to enter the Warsaw Ghetto. After she joined Zegota, she was in charge of their children's division.

Irena and ten who went with her into the ghetto used many, many methods to smuggle children out. There were five main means of escape: 1- using an ambulance a child could be taken out hidden under the stretcher. 2 - escape through the courthouse. 3 - a child could be taken out using the sewer pipes or other secret underground passages. 4- A trolley could carry out children hiding in a sack, in a trunk, a suitcase or something similar. 5 - if a child could pretend to be sick or was actually very ill, it could be le-gally removed using the ambulance. Irena did use a dog on occasion, but very few times out of the many rescues. Also, the number of babies saved was small in relation to the total number of children rescued.

There was a church next to the ghetto, but the entrance leading to it was "sealed" by the Germans. If a child could speak good Polish and rattle off some Christian prayers it could be smuggled in through the "sealed" entrance and later taken to the Aryan side. This was very dangerous since Germans often used a rouse to trick the Poles and then arrest people. Irena documented on thin strips of paper she buried in jars under an apple tree in a neighbor’s yard the names of the children, as well as where each child was taken in the first phase of its escape. Irena and her network made sure that each family hiding a child realized the child must be returned to Jewish relatives after the war.

Irena (code name Jolanta) was arrested on October 20, 1943. She was placed in the notorious Piawiak prison, where she was constantly questioned and tortured. During the questioning she had her legs and feet fractured. She received a death sentence. She was to be shot. Unbeknown to her, Zegota had bribed the German executioner who helped her escape. On the following day the Germans loudly proclaimed her execution. Posters were put up all over the city with the news that she was shot. Irena read the posters herself.

During the remaining years of the war, she lived hidden, just like the children she rescued, but continued her work of saving children. Irena was the only one who knew where the children were to be found. When the war was finally over, she dug up the bottles and began the job of finding the children and trying to find a living parent. Almost all the parents of the children Irena saved died at the Treblinka death camp - the children would surely have suffered the same fate if they had remained with their parents.

'Life in a Jar' started as a National History Day project in September of 1999. Four students in Kansas (Megan Stewart, Liz Cambers, Sabrina Coons and Jessica Shelton) began looking for information about Irena Sendler. Mr. Conard had given them a clipping he had found in a 1994 issue of U.S. News and World Report. The mention of Irena was in a story called "Other Schindlers." Only one web site on the Internet mentioned Irena, it was not until the students visited Poland in 2001 that Irena's story became known to the world. At last count there were over 80,000 web sites on the Internet mentioning Irena. The students of the 'Life in a Jar' project have gathered over 4,000 pages of primary material and research on the life of Irena Sendler and work of Zegota.

Irena's story became known to the world through the Life in a Jar project. The author of the Polish book which features Irena's life story says, "Everybody I talked to in working on this book, said that in-ternational and Polish interest in Irena Sendler’s activities was begun and provoked by the activities of the Kansas girls and popularization in the American media."

When Irena first heard about the project in Kansas, "I was stunned and fascinated; very, very surprised; interested." In one of Irena's first letters to the girls, she wrote, "My emotion is being shadowed by the fact that no one from the circle of my faithful coworkers, who constantly risked their lives, could live long enough to enjoy all the honors that now are falling upon me.... I can't find the words to thank you, my dear girls.... Before the day you have written the play "Life in a Jar" -- nobody in my own country and in the whole world cared about my person and my work during the war ..."

She had a son and a daughter. Her daughter, Janka, still lives in Warsaw, Poland, and her son Adam passed away in 1999 (interestingly enough, the day the Life in a Jar project started on September 23rd). Adam's daughter, Irena's granddaughter Agniesa, is the same age as the girls who started the Life in a Jar project. Irena Sendler was announced as the 2003 winner of the Jan Karski award for Valor and Courage.  Irena died at the age of 98.

There is another short article of this amazing woman that you may enjoy reading at http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/sendler.htm

Previous Newsmakers

Links to the archived files follow:

Lauren Bacall

Regina Benjamin

Elizabeth Blackwell

Susan Burton

Farrah Fawcett 

Julia Gillard

Deborah Goldstein

Mariska Hargitay

Elena Kagan

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Sonia Sotomayor

Meryl Streep

Women of the Supreme Court

Carol Jean Smith