Posted by Anne Ream on 09/20/09 at 01:26:57 PM
Rachel Durchslag and Samir Goswami, CounterQuo members at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) have just launched “End Demand Illinois.”
Jennifer and Peter Buffett of the Buffett Family's NoVo Foundation (the major funder of this campaign) and other movement allies (including Jody Raphael and Katie Feifer, also from our CounterQuo team) have worked with Rachel and Samir to lay the groundwork for this campaign. The campaign launch event held in Chicago on Sept.18 included Ambassador Mark Lagon and feminist legal visionary Catherine A. MacKinnon, who has been a role model for so many of us. CounterQuo materials were distributed at the launch, as part of a reminder that trafficking and sexual exploitation are not separate from, but a critical part of, the fight to end sexual violence.
As Jennifer Buffett noted in her remarks, advocates and leaders on trafficking here and worldwide are looking closely at the "End Demand" campaign as a model.