By Sarah Carrillo
Assistant News Editor
Radha, a 16-year-old girl from Calcutta, India, was sold into prostitution and forced to work in a brothel in Bombay. The International Justice Mission’s undercover investigators were able to infiltrate the brothel and document Radha’s experience. Then, working with police, International Justice Mission workers raided the brothel, freed Radha and found her a safe new home.
The International Justice Mission is a Christian-based human rights organization that works to help people like Radha and others who are victims of sexual trafficking, forced labor and illegal detention. This year Pepperdine has its own chapter of IJM and will work with the international organization to promote human rights throughout the world.
“God is angered by injustice and wants to use us to bring justice,” said Pepperdine’s IJM founder and President Diana Rozendaal. “I started IJM on campus because I want everyone to have the opportunity to know they can make a difference, that they are important.”
The International Justice Mission is based in Washington D.C. and has ongoing projects in India, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras and Peru.
According to the IJM Web site, www.ijm.org, the group’s objective is “to rescue victims from the hands of their oppressors by using our particular strengths (legal expertise and investigative experience). By doing so, we are demonstrating the love of Christ.”
Pepperdine’s chapter will be assisting IJM in its work mainly by fund raising and raising awareness. Rozendaal identified three main goals for the club: to raise awareness, to pray for the victims and the oppressors, and to do projects like fund raising.
“Right now we’re doing a lot of the groundwork,” Rozendaal said. “We’re thinking of ways to get more people involved on campus and educating members about the problems the International Justice Mission is fighting. I just want everyone to develop a passion for what we are doing.”
The group is also working on letter campaigns. One campaign is to free a student demonstrator that has been imprisoned in Burma since 1989.
“People can disappear when no one knows about them,” Rozendaal said. “But when we write letters it shows the government that we do know about these people and that makes them afraid to do anything to them. It seems so little, that one signature, but if it’s with another and another then it’s like the body of Christ coming together.”
Currently, all the chapters of IJM are focusing on Burma and so Pepperdine’s chapter plans to have a Burma movie night and have discussion sessions about the situation in Burma.
“In Burma, the military manages the country using fear,” Rozendaal said. “In 1988 there was a peaceful protest for democracy by monks, villagers and students and the army gunned them down. What was their crime?”
Coincidentally, Rozendaal has been interested in Burma for a while and even attended a mission trip to Burma with her church. In Burma it is illegal to be a missionary and so Rozendaal and her group entered the country as tourists and then did small outreaches to the Burmese people.
The group Rozendaal went with consisted of members of her church and members of the Global Missions Fellowship. The group was only there to teach about Christianity, which was difficult for Rozendaal at times.
“Because of my interest in Burma it was hard being there because I wanted to do so much more, but I couldn’t exactly start shouting ‘democracy’ down the street because it would have endangered the rest of my group,” Rozendaal said.
Rozendaal’s interest in Burma began when she participated in Pepperdine’s Thailand summer program and saw the problems facing that part of the world.
The club meets every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in PLC 100. Everyone is welcome to join. There are no membership fees but donations are accepted. Interested people can e-mail Rozendaal at diana.rozendaal@pepperdine.edu to be put on an e-mail list and receive notices of upcoming events.
“I encourage people to come and see what we’re all about and know God has a calling on all of our lives,” Rozendaal said.
November 06, 2003