 we are taking your health back with me, Wendy Lowe. We are coming to you from our studios of Tintiakawaii in downtown Honolulu and my home office in Makiki. What an honor for me to introduce such a fine young lady whom I had the pleasure of meeting and working with when she was just 26 years old. She's still young and beautiful and even more on fire about what she's doing. She is Jessica Munoz, founder and CEO of Holonapua. Aloha and welcome Jessica. Aloha, Wendy. Thank you so much for having me today. Oh, it is a pleasure. We should have had you on a long time ago, but you know what, we're going to catch up and we're going to keep all your courageous doings and what you're doing for the people of Hawaii. And I know it's even going beyond the shores of Hawaii. And so there's a lot to talk to you about. But please share with us the vision that you have for Holonapua. So you know, Holonapua really started as a grassroots entity. I'm a nurse by training and about 15 years ago I started seeing our local youth come into the emergency room and we weren't recognizing them as victims of trafficking or exploitation. And oftentimes, you know, they were labeled as true instillinquents, runaways, substance users, foster kids, you know, kids that didn't necessarily, a lot of labels were put on them. And so I was inspired to do something and thought I was just going to raise awareness and talk to people in the healthcare industry about why we need to identify and help these children. And then you quickly realize that there's so much work to be done and there's tailored services that are needed for this population and just an overall sense of awareness and advocacy, because oftentimes these kids' voices have been silenced. And so launch Holonapua, which means new life for our children and, you know, our vision and focus is to create a community where children can embrace their bright futures, that we can keep them safe, that we can protect them. Our work does extend beyond the shores of Hawaii. Both myself and Tammy Bitonga, one of our amazing advocates, have had the opportunity to speak at national conferences and really be able to spread the work that we do around prevention, intervention, and reintegration across the US. And so I'm so excited because we've reached over 150,000 individuals since our inception and we're continuing to be that spark of light across the globe. Well, that's amazing that you've reached that many people, but I mean, in your organization, I want you to reach not that many people because I want the numbers to go away, you know, that we don't have to talk about it because we are so educated informed that we don't need to be such on guard with, especially for our kinkies. This is just a travesty that should end and I know you're working very hard towards that goal. So can you share with us also your executive summary? Absolutely. So our mission statement as an organization is that we're committed to the prevention of child sex trafficking and creating and providing care for children who've been exploited. And, you know, one of the things that we are known for is that we built the first comprehensive residential treatment center for sexually exploited girls here in Hawaii. And we also built one of the first intensive mentoring programs that helps kids who are high risk or kids who've been victimized. And we have also been providing a DOE approved prevention education curriculum in the schools for over a decade. And so with that, you know, we've had an opportunity to be a part of multiple task forces and helping lead a lot of the systemic change and work alongside many of our counterparts and both the private side and in the public side and the state agencies because not one organization can do all this. And it really has to be this cohesive systemic response. And oftentimes the response, especially in the U.S. has been somewhat archaic. And so we've had to develop innovative ways of reaching this population and encouraging people to get involved in helping protect our youth, whether it's from the law enforcement side, the government sectors to the private sector, you know, because it takes multiple people being on the same page to really help protect our youth. And our kids in Hawaii have very significant risk. You know, the average age across the U.S. is 14 years old. Where in Hawaii, we have the average age of first sexual exploitation is 11. On Hawaii Island, it's eight. And almost 64% of our trafficking victims have identified as being all or part native Hawaiian. And, you know, I mean, it's significant risk factor for our local community. And people sometimes think, oh, it's the stranger who kidnaps and, you know, takes these individuals. But the reality is in the research, it shows that three out of four victims knew their trafficker. Could be a family, a friend, a boyfriend. I knew this was going to be a tough interview and to hear all these numbers again and again, you know, you read about it and you are right there in the front line and dealing with it daily. So thank you and the Lord continue to protect you as you enter the streets and all these different situations. You know, Jess, I have a friend who thought that sex trafficking only happened at the border for everywhere else in the world. Please enlighten us with this problem here in Hawaii. Yeah. So I mean, it's very common, right? Even now when I say the word sex trafficking, people think overseas, they think, you know, kidnapping, snatch and grab. And that does happen. You know, I'm not going to say it doesn't. I've worked in Mexico, I've worked in Thailand, Cambodia, Africa, you know, so I've seen the problem internationally. But domestically, it happens very frequently. I mean, there's around 100,000 children a year, American children that are sexually exploited. And more than 60% of sex trafficking survivors reported being in foster care. I mean, we all have heard of foster care. So it's just there's a lot of issues around attachment and abandonment that lead these kids to have threats to their well being and allowing them into situations of exploitation. You know, we say girls a lot, but it happens to boys as well. And now with the day and age of the internet, it's so easy to recruit. So it doesn't matter if you're you're in the United States or you're overseas, the access kids have to social media, the access that they have to this online world. And it's no longer the scary guy in the van, right? With the lost dog. I tell parents this all the time. But it really is, it's this, right? It's this cell phone that so many of our kids have and they take into their bedrooms. And so I tell parents, it's now the perpetrator has come into your home. And so you need to know what your kids are doing online. And in our day and age where kids are suffering with depression and suicide and anxiety and bullying and all of these factors make them prime. No matter if they come from very wealthy families or families from low socioeconomic status, it is very challenging for these kids to not end up in these situations when they are vulnerable. And they are looking to be loved and they're looking to be accepted. And the media does not help, right? It's that civilization of our kids is robbing them of their innocence. And it's creating the sense that they have to be something else. They have to be sexy. They have to be doing these things in order to have value. And then once they're involved in this, the shame keeps them enslaved. I tell people that it's not a cage around the body. There's all in the movies, it's kids and people tied up. That does happen. I'm not saying that doesn't happen, but that's not really what it looks like. And in the US we see they're so brainwashed and so manipulated that that cage around the psyche is so much greater than any cage that could ever be around the body. And so without people in our community, without law enforcement, without all of us coming together, it is virtually impossible for kids to get out of these situations without help from an adult. Right, right. The weapon is fear. Yes, and shame. They're in shame and they instill that in them and they just they clam up and they're so afraid of the threats to the families themselves. It's just horrific. So I have a slide that says, who are these kids that are usually targeted? Yes, and this is such an important slide and I think out of anything we talk about today is who are these youth, right? Because again, a lot of people don't realize and recognize this is happening. And as I just said, it affects all demographics, you know, kids who are homeless, kids who run away, kids who are displaced from their their central neutral family, our LGBTQ youth, youth with a history of child abuse, neglect, maltreatment, youth who are in the juvenile justice, foster care, child welfare systems, those with substance use or addiction, mental health challenges and, you know, physical and cognitive disabilities are at risk, you know, for being lured and being coerced into getting involved in this and not understanding what this really is. And sadly, a lot of times, this starts at home. So we do have families that exploit their kids for money, for rent, for drugs, you know, I mean, I wish that wasn't true, but it's true. And we as a community have to face that, that it's not just this outside entity coming in, that it's often starts within the Ohana. Right. And that is a hard thing, I think for us to understand. That's the hardest part. That's the hardest part. You know, we all recently viewed that fall or the box office hit entitled Sound of Freedom. And it focuses on the two young kids who didn't fit the criteria you were talking about, but yet they were taken. Right. So it truly could be anyone at any time correct. And of course, like you said, part of the Ohana, but the Ohana with the lack of knowledge falls into this trap as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, I think what's important for people to understand with this movie that has come out with Sound of Freedom is that, you know, the issue of human trafficking is ginormous. And on a global scale, it looks, I mean, it's overwhelming. And the way it presents overseas, the way it presents in the US, while it might be different, there is still an importance that these youth, these adults who this have happened to their voice needs to be heard. And the issue has to be elevated. And, you know, I'm not a big Hollywood, like let's portray this in a way that isn't real, because I think it does a disservice. But I think what's important is that there's millions of people that don't understand that this is happening. And the more people that at least understand, the more they can research, the more they can understand what it looks like in their community, and the more they can become activated and become involved and, you know, volunteer and do whatever they can, you know, contribute financially, whatever it takes. That's what we need. I mean, you need people to rise up. If people do not rise up, this problem will never stop. We are up against the internet, we are up against the sexualization of culture. We are up against many people who want the innocence of our children. And we have to rise up. It is not okay for children to be sold for sex. Not at all. And you know, like, the statement that impacts me the most, and I've heard it many times before, is something like with a drug dealer, you can sell a cocaine or a bag of cocaine once and you make your money and your profit off of that. But with a child, you can pimp them out 10 times a night for 10 years and make a lot of money. And so that's the mindset of these evil people out there. That's why they're getting the kids and the brainwashing from the very beginning. Well, and it starts at a high level too. It's not just your street level pimp, right? People think, oh, it's just the, you know, the girl or the boy on the side of the road. And it's not. There's organized criminal activity. This is tied to drugs. It's tied into guns. And, you know, and that's what, as our community, that's what we need to understand is that, you know, these illegal game rooms and these all of these things, like there is CD activity, and oftentimes children are at the root of the exploitation that comes from this criminal activity. Oh, so Jess, how can we lessen the numbers and educate all of us? Well, I mean, it definitely starts with prevention and I believe it starts with prevention in the home. And parents and grandparents and aunties and uncles need to be aware. They need to understand what they're educating their kids about. They need to understand what kids are doing on their phone. There really needs to be a lot of education around value and healthy attachments and healthy relationships. And, you know, I think that if that can start in the home and we can bring restoration in families, I think that would definitely curtail this issue. You know, we run an education, a prevention education program in the schools. And so we do our best to reach ages seventh to 12th grade. Because, you know, that's oftentimes when kids are online, that's when kids are, you know, beginning to explore things and research things. And so the more that we can talk about the issue, what it looks like, the scope of the problem, you know, awareness and education is power. And I think the big thing that we have to realize is there's always going to be perpetrators out there. And so the more armed that our kids are with the knowledge and the awareness of what this can look like and how they can be approached, the stronger our response in preventing them will be. You know, there's also when kids are showing high risk behavior, I think it's really important to get them into a mentoring type program. You know, we have our starfish mentoring program. And it really helps with kids who are at risk, as well as kids who've been exploited to just have that one healthy adult that they can attach to and that they can talk to that might be outside of the home, you know, and that person can become a confidant and someone that they can go to. You know, I also am a firm believer that the more that we can empower our young adults and our adult survivors so that their voices can be heard, there is power in that because, you know, they don't want anyone to go through what they had to go through. And so I really believe that the more we do that and we're very passionate as an organization to be survivor informed. And we have strong survivor leadership on in our group and in our team. That really brings into our programming. Yes, I've experienced a few times when I was able to hear the testimonies and stories and, you know, that's why I keep trying to bring people to these events so that they can hear and be impacted. So, so Jess, is there a place where we can get them help and treatment? Yes. So we started an organization or we started a residential center that's called Pearl Haven. You know, we don't disclose the location, but it's a comprehensive treatment center where we bring healing to body, mind, spirit and emotion. We one of the things that we found early on is that kids really need enough time and intensive intervention and space to heal. And so we created a campus that has horses and art and animal assisted programming and music and dance and education and so that they can get caught up in their schooling. You know, one of the big things that we found with this population is if you don't have this longer term, you know, 9, 12, 18 months, it's going to be hard, right? The short term shelters for these kids, they need more intensive intervention. You know, we see more placement disruptions and worse educational outcomes and more access to emergency care and higher costs on society. You know, there's a study that was done that shows that if we don't invest in this level of trauma intervention for kids, it's almost $10 million per child of societal cost over their lifespan. And that's just dollars, right? That's not also the innocence and all of the other things that gets sabotaged. Something like this happens. And so we renovated and turned into this amazing what I call the dream bubble. And it's a place where kids can reimagine their dreams. They can think about their future. They can decide what they like, what they don't like, and they can discover what they're good at. And all the labels that society has put on them and that the system has put on them can be ripped off. And we can bring healing to that inner person, because that's what leads to sustainable change in someone's life. You know, we don't believe in putting a bandaid on the situation. We believe in bringing these children, these young, these youth to a place of healing and a place of freedom so that they have the tools to continue to move forward. And so this model we've developed, we have states across the country asking us what we're doing at Pearl Haven. And I'm just so honored to be standing by my team and the team that we have out there and our program director, because they are doing the incredibly hard work, which is rehabilitating lives. And it is, it is a tough job. And I just wish we never would even need a place like this. But I'm so thankful that we have a place now for our local youth, our local girls to be able to heal. Right. It's so essential and, you know, not healing and they can reset their lives, you know, try to reset so they can be a kid or be a teenager. And with all the love and feelings that other teenagers experience. So I see the picture of the outside. Can we see what the picture of the inside looks like? I know we have a slide that we want to share. Yeah, we're so thankful. I mean, it's a home environment. It doesn't feel terrible. Yep. It's, it's very warm and welcoming. And we have a full commercial kitchen. So we do culinary arts. We have cultural arts. Uncle Kelly Boy and Auntie Leo from Cappena teach our girls ukulele and also hula. And so it's just, it's so amazing. Just the way that community advocates for different spaces have come along to help us as we help these kids walk this healing journey. So tell me about that commercial kitchen. I saw that kitchen and I was like excited. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, so we, you know, we also offer food handlers safety classes, OSHA training. And then we have a teaching kitchen for our youth that are under 16. So it's, it's just divided by a wall. So we do a lot of farm to table stuff because we're on 13 acres. And we've got some gardens and we're developing those out even more. And so, you know, basic life skills, but those can be empowering. You know, we've had kids that have really never had fresh fruits and vegetables and, you know, have lived off of spam and ramen and, you know, nothing wrong with that at all, but just helping them connect back to the. Too much good at it either. When they go through your program, I'm sure they're going to get more. I mean, that, that living room, that foam, it's probably more beautiful or more comfy than what they came from. So you've created their safe space. The most important thing for me that I've heard our youth say is that it's the first time they've felt safe and safety is felt right. You can create a safe environment that you feel like me as a founder can feel safe in. But when a youth feel safe, then I know we've achieved because when someone feels safe, they begin to open up and that healing process can start. Wow. So share with us some types of programs that are experienced at Prohaven. Yeah, so we have art, music, spoken word, choir. We do a lot of trauma-informed yoga and dance. We're getting ready to start a trauma-informed photography group. We have our animal-assisted programming. We're working on a neurofeedback program. We do vocational trainings. We've done jewelry making, sewing. I mean, you name it. And we're trying it. So, yeah, I wonder what's created. We have the space to do that. So. Right. I'm going to talk to your programs director and because I have so many things that I can donate. So they can make jewelry and shelves and things like that and provide them with some supplies and ideas. I would love to explore. Yeah, absolutely. She would be great to have on the show. Liz Porter is our program director. Local, they're all amazing. And I just love the way she talks about our program out there. Wow. I know. We just got to bring you on more so people can really see that there are services for these situations and also just being like knowledge is power. We just got to keep educating people. So they won't... Can't be afraid. You know, I know it's a tough topic. I mean, I've been doing this for 15 years. And at the end of the day, like we can't put our head in the sand and pretend it's not there because it's here and we just have to shine the light. We have to expose it and help people understand how they can be a part of the solution. And we don't have to be afraid to talk about it. The more we talk about it, the more we decrease the stigma, the more we spread that light that can fan like a flame from the heart of the Pacific and ignite the chain reaction to truly end exploitation. And we can do that together. And that's what I've asked of the community over the last decade and a half is, come be a part of this system. Agencies, come be a part of this change because it's the best thing for our kids and for their futures. Getting them, everyone involved and comfortable so that they open up to learning and hearing it, not just going through the motions, right? So that's, and I'm hoping that with this program and people viewing it, they'll see what programs there are for our kids. They may know somebody who's gone through, somebody asked me the other day, Wendy, where is their support system? My friend just got raped. And I'm like, yes, I can guide you. But not everybody knows where to send these kids or these people. So the more we know, knowledge is power and we can really help and support in any which way we can. Absolutely. So Jess, how can we decrease the stigma around sex trafficking? You know, it really is the more we talk about it. I mean, the conversations are getting easier because I think mainstream media is talking about it more. So, you know, again, we can't stigmatize and be like, oh, that's that weird thing that happens over there and no, it would never affect our family, but we need to talk about it and we need to keep talking about it. And not so much we have to normalize it, but I think there is an element of normalizing that this does happen and not just not pretending that it doesn't. And realizing that there's things that we can do, right? There's ways to get involved. You can volunteer, you can mentor, you can educate your colleagues, you know, we do professional trainings for banks and for, you know, brokerage firms to restaurants to cab drivers to you name it. We do, we just really want for people to understand what this issue is, not be afraid of it and feel empowered to intervene in situations because it's so important, right? You might be that only lifeline to help someone get out of this situation. Right. You know, Jess, when they, when you offer these programs or these classes, what are what's your feeling on the attendance, the numbers of attending? You know, when it comes from the top down, meaning when leadership is engaged, I think we get good attendance. And I think because there's so much more conversation about this now across multiple sectors, we're getting a lot more engagement than we did before. Okay, I got it. So we need to get more CEOs higher up to understand that. And to embrace that it's an important thing that their employees and their employees, families need to know about and understand and again, be empowered, right? Because if a leader says this is important, if the governor and the mayor say this is important, then something happens, right? And we make it a priority to address in our community. And that's both public and private sector. And it's so important. You can't have just one side of that equation. It has to be both sides have to come together and have to work together if we are truly going to end this, right? Because the only reason we have this problem is because people do bisects from kids. And we as a state have to have a zero tolerance policy towards allowing this kind of behavior. And people who get caught doing it need to be held accountable. Amen. Amen. Totally agrees. Then an agreement. So tell me, Jess, how can we get more information about your programs? And if I wanted to volunteer or have a neighbor that needs your help, how do I get in touch with you? So you can go to our website, www.hoolanapua.org. You can email us at info at hoolanapua.org. You can call us at 808-445-3131. And then if you see a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable or you're like, I don't know what I'm seeing, you can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which gets routed to our local law enforcement entity to be looked at. So it's okay, you know, if you don't know for sure, but you think something's wrong, absolutely call the hotline. And you know, it's anonymous. So I think that's important. But we have an event coming up. September 30th is our big Pearl Gala. Yes. Four seasons in Colina. And we still have tables available. And then at the end of this month, we have Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day. And I believe we're doing sign waving on July 30th. And everyone can find that information online or on our social media platforms. Right on. Thank you so much. The first step is they need to listen to this show. They need to contact you and see how they can get involved. But for now, Jessica, we've run out of time. And I just want to say mahalo for all the years that you've dedicated to the Ohana here in Hawaii. And I know beyond the shores. But thank you, Jessica, for being the founder and CEO of Ohana. We love you and we cherish all your work. So we give you lots of prayers for more greater work and needs to come. Mahalo and Aloha. Thank you, Wendy. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our website, thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.