How Barbara Anderson connects with an especially vulnerable population, victims of human trafficking, during the COVID-19 crisis
By Caitlin McDermott-Murphy
Every mid-pandemic morning, Barbara Anderson cooks a huge diner-style breakfast: egg burritos and home fries, biscuits cooked with ham bits and topped with a sloppy egg or jam. Her daughter Kerri walks in around 9:30 a.m. after a night shift at the United Postal Service. Her husband, an essential staff member at Harvard, gets his fill before heading out for a half-day shift while her mother, barely 92-years-old, settles in for another day at home with more family around than usual.
Anderson, the academic affairs and human resources coordinator for the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard, is stuck at home but far from isolated. She knows she’s lucky; for others, COVID-19 intensifies a pre-pandemic drift toward isolation and loneliness. Victims of human trafficking are especially vulnerable. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the global health crisis is preventing law enforcement and public services from reaching victims or prosecuting abusers, and increasing poverty is driving people—especially children—to search for work or solicit money on the street where the risk of exploitation is higher.
In 2010, Anderson founded All Hands In, a nonprofit that raises awareness about Boston-area human trafficking and organizes outreach events for survivors. “I realized that human trafficking was not just something that happened overseas in foreign countries,” she said in a promotional video on the organization’s website, “but happened right here in my own back yard, in the United States and the greater Boston area.”
Last year, the Zonta Club of Malden honored Anderson with their “Women Making a Difference” award. This year, she hired her first staff member to ramp up speaking and fundraising events with the ultimate goal of purchasing a house for victims to stay while they recover and build a new life. But the pandemic ramped up first.
“I'm trying to find creative ways to stay connected,” Anderson said. To stay in touch with survivors, she planned an evening Zoom pajama party, is organizing a virtual concert, and texts daily with one victim. Others reach out by email when they need extra support. “I think a lot of these women are isolated right now,” she said. Next, she will send each one the book “Love Heals” by Becca Stevens, who founded Thistle Farms, a refuge for human trafficking victims in Nashville, Tennessee that originally inspired Anderson to build her own.
Every week, Anderson sends out an e-newsletter to her All Hands In members and another wellness-themed one to the department’s faculty, students and staff. Instead of adding to the deluge of COVID-19 updates, Anderson includes quirky delights like a gif of Storm Troopers dancing on May 4, a photo of a sign claiming “Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes,” and a recipe for pineapple upside down cake on National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day.
|
BARBARA'S LUNCH LADY BROWNIESIngredients:Brownies: 1 cup butter, ½ cup cocoa, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 4 eggs, 4 tsp. vanilla, 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Icing for Brownies: Use hand or stand mixer to mix ¼ cup softened butter, ¼ cup milk, ¼ cup cocoa, 3 cups powdered sugar, and a dash of salt.Blend together and frost top of brownies. |
She practices what she preaches, too. At home, Anderson is starting an herb garden with dill, rosemary, thyme and basil. Every day, she cooks family meals—those diner-style breakfasts and dinners with chicken cooked in her backyard smoker and potato salad (her family insists it’s now potato salad season). For dessert, she bakes old school treats like Lunch Lady Brownies, which get slathered with a thick smear of chocolate frosting. Most of her bakes are the kind of decadence that can’t be eaten without big gulps of cold milk.
Anderson hasn’t slowed down one bit, but every once in a while she bumps into COVID-19 blockades: Her mother, who turned 92 on May 6, needs Tylenol to manage her arthritis pain. But when the pandemic hit Massachusetts, the drug disappeared from the shelves. Anderson had to call her brother in Maine, who bought the medicine and drove it down to his mother. Going without butter or flour—other goods that flew off the shelves—is nothing compared to going without pain relief.
Though she lives with three others and connects to far more, Anderson still misses those impromptu social interactions that are no longer possible. On her way to work in the Mallinckrodt chemistry complex, she used to stop at Northwest Café to pick up breakfast. The chef, Nelson, would apologize if he was out of a dish he knew she liked; the Café manager, John, would ask her the simple question, “How ya doin today?”
“Things like that, those personal interactions,” Anderson said, “is what I miss the most.”
The Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) is focused on preventing human trafficking and working to ensure that children and adults who have experienced trafficking and their families get the support and care they need to live safe and healthy lives. This focus remains the same during responses to public health emergencies such as COVID-19. As in times of disaster response, we recognize that disruptions to local services, housing and economic stability, and social disconnection can further increase risk of victimization and exploitation.
OTIP continues to work diligently to assist individuals, families, and communities impacted by human trafficking in a timely manner. What challenges are you experiencing? We want to hear from survivors; state, tribal, and local leaders; faith-based and community organizations; health care providers; and other stakeholders so we can best meet shifting needs at the local level. Please email EndTrafficking@acf.hhs.gov or call 1-866-401-5510 to contribute information, and continue to check this page for available resources and services.
