The Current

April 16, 2012 might be my all-time favorite day this year.  My colleagues Annick and Tim and I met at Dunkin Donuts on Capitol Hill at 7:00 am and picked up several dozen donuts and some boxes of coffee, packed them in Tim’s Jeep and drove to a nearby church where we set up tables and spread out breakfast.  Within an hour, 2 giant buses arrived from across town carrying over 160 IJM volunteer advocates, who had been in D.C. for an intensive day of advocacy training and were now joining us for our 4^th annual Lobby Day on Capitol Hill.

Our advocates – who came from 40 states! – gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol for a photo shoot, and then convened in the basement of a nearby church for coffee, prayer and last-minute instructions. At 9:30, we set out for lobby meetings with members of Congress and their staff.  I had four lobby meetings myself.  As I trooped around the House and Senate buildings, I kept running into friends from various teams on their way to their meetings.  We high-fived, exchanged anecdotes and hurried on to our next meetings.

The group was in town to push for co-sponsorship and passage of two important pieces of anti-trafficking legislation.  One is the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which is legislation dating back to 2000 that must be reenacted every few years.  This year’s TVPRA includes some important and badly needed provisions to sharpen the U.S. government’s tools for addressing trafficking and slavery at home and abroad.  The other bill is the End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, which would improve accountability in subcontracts of the U.S. government overseas and would help prevent trafficking abuses in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

In all my years as a human rights advocate, nothing has brought me greater joy than seeing an ordinary person travel at their own expense to Washington to tell their elected legislators that they care about slavery and want our government to do something about it. It is enormously encouraging to my Government Relations teammates – Eileen, Erica, Annick, Seth and Melanie.  But it’s also tremendously inspiring to everybody at IJM’s headquarters and in our field offices that so many volunteers care about IJM’s work and want to join us in it.

There’s something transforming about experiencing democracy first-hand. Take one volunteer, 28-year-old Liz.  She had never participated in a legislative meeting in her life and was shaking with nervousness as she headed out for her first meeting.  I met up with her a few hours later and she was beaming with joy and bubbling with excitement. 

“Holly, I had my first meeting and I thought I must have been a failure because the legislative aide just sat there and looked at us.  He didn’t even say hello!  But then at our next meeting, the staff was really interested in slavery and trafficking.  She made us feel so welcome, and I think her boss is going to support our legislation.  I love doing this!” 

Exactly. I love doing this too.

Check out pictures from the event!

Holly Burkhalter is the Vice President of Government Relations at International Justice Mission. IJM's Justice Campaigns mobilizes people around the country in support of U.S. policies that will lead to the abolition of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.