Fil-Am awarded for fight vs human trafficking

A young Filipino-American woman received the Jefferson Award for Public Service for helping curtail human trafficking in the United States. Andrea Mendoza, together with teammate Ariana Taveras, a Dominican Republic national, spearheaded a campaign to stop child labor by major manufacturing companies and to eradicate other forms of modern-day slavery. Mendoza, an incoming senior high school student, was born in the Philippines and her family is from Mandaluyong City. They migrated to the US when she was six years old. Mendoza and Taveras, both from the Benedictine Academy in Elizabeth, New Jersey, created a “Student in Action" program that generated public awareness and media attention from Cable News Network or CNN, an all-news television channel. “The program has empowered us to reach out to the media, to government, and to major organizations. It has taught us to not only to dream big… but to also become activists for social change on both the local and global level," Mendoza said in one of her speeches. Global network By working with young leaders of the Benedictine Academy, Mendoza helped establish a global network of people and organizations that are against modern-day slavery. The global network included anti-human trafficking champions from the Philippines that created an interaction among the anti-slavery groups and individuals via social media. The network also pushed for the passing of a National Youth Commission’s (NYC) resolution to be actively part of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ)-Inter Agency Council Against Trafficking. Some Filipinos that form part of the network are: