When you beat out the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime for your contributions to underprivileged neighborhoods and human trafficking, you’re doing something right.
That’s just what happened when pianist Chloe Flower was honored at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) 15th Annual Gala, co-chaired by Jada Pinkett Smith. And GlobalGrind has the inside scoop.
Chloe was awarded the Creative Impact Award for her work on The Flower Project – a music and art initiative that is reintegrating arts education into schools and specifically in neighborhoods with at-risk youth. Chloe believes these children, subjected by poverty and in juvenile facilities, are most at risk of entering the supply and demand of human trafficking and sex slavery.
According to Chloe, children as young at 3-years-old are victims of the global epidemic.
A girl as young as 10-years-old was recently rescued from a brothel by Somaly Mam (of the Somaly Mam Foundation in Cambodia), Chloe told GlobalGrind, and she wants to make sure that the epidemic is curbed globally, as well as in our own backyard.
“We need to educate our young kids and help them grow into positive members of society. Music education can do that by nurturing and developing qualities like empathy, compassion, fraternity, social interaction, discipline – all of which are as vital to maths and sciences when it comes to a child’s education. We need to prevent these children from entering both the demand and supply side of modern day slavery.”
Journalist Lisa Ling, who is extremely vocal about human trafficking, and singer Nicole Scherzinger, are also partnering with Flower on this initiative.
Beautiful women for a beautiful cause: saving our children. Kudos ladies! And congratulations to Chloe.
To learn more, visit www.castla.org or follow Chloe Flower on Twitter @chloeflower.
