Amelia Korangy is the development and outreach officer at Fair Fund.
What is Fair Fund?
Fair Fund is an international organization that works with young people who are most vulnerable to sexual assault and human trafficking. The point is to engage them in their own communities so as to alleviate their risks. Most of our work is preventive education.
Where is Fair Fund located?
Fair Fund originated out of expertise in the Balkans, and we now have programs in the Balkans and Kenya. But we’re headquartered here in Washington, where we also work in the D.C. public schools.
What do you do in the schools?
We work with health classes to talk about what it means to be sexually exploited. If you are in America and under the age of 18 and involved in commercial sex, it’s considered a form of human trafficking. Roughly 30 young girls are arrested for solicitation every month in D.C. The average age of entry into this world is about 14 years old.
How do you help them?
We try to sensitize them to what exactly human trafficking is on a global scale and then how it specifically can affect young people in D.C. and in other cities around the nation. We want them to understand what it is to be in an exploitive relationship and what some of the risks are and some of the signs are, and then what resources are available here in the District for those kids.
What do you like most about your job?
I’m given the opportunity to leverage the massive philanthropic power that is Washington, D.C., to help these young girls — who have been just brutalized in so many ways — find solace.
What do you like least?
Right now I’m doing a mail-merge document that makes me want to bang my head against the wall.
