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| Fair Fund Development Director Kate Marie Grinold and journalist Amber Lyon flank co-Founder Andrea Powell |
“There are so many young women right here in DC, and around the world, who are at risk or are currently being exploited,” lamented co-Founder Andrea Powell at Wednesday evening’s fifth annual FAIR Fund Gala. “Recently the FBI reported child sex trafficking as an epidemic in the United States… I think many of us here would have been shocked to hear that.”
Each year, FAIR Fund works to prevent the human trafficking of youth by providing education, empowerment programs and intervention services to more than 2,000 young people in the U.S. and internationally.
Its special JewelGirls program teaches entrepreneurial skills to sexually exploited youth, such as a young Serbian women who traveled to the United States for the first time to attend the Gala and tell her story. 
Sold into sexual slavery at age 11 by her own mother, she eventually ran away to escape her captors. “When a girl is trafficked, her trafficker tries to take away her diginity, her trust and perhaps even worse, he tries to take away her belief in herself,” she explained through a Balkan translator. “At 17, I joined JewelGirls and began on the journey to find myself. Right from the beginning, I could forget about the past for a while and make something amazing while learning new skills.”
Said Powell, “I believe – and it is Fair Fund’s mission – that each of these girls deserves a fair chance in life.”
See who was spotted & snapped – more event pictures here!
