From left to right: Peridot Fine Jewelry Owner Dawn Hendricks with her daughter, Jessica.
By Stefani Kim
larchmont.patch.com
She saw them lined up outside restaurants in Cambodia, waiting for
customers. Girls of all ages—many of them very young—were working for
their next meal or, perhaps, working off the debt incurred when they
were sold by their families into prostitution for as little as $150.
Larchmont resident Jessica Hendricks, 24, was in Cambodia on a side
trip while in Southern Thailand teaching English, when she was
confronted with the dark side of a nation whose people and countryside
she had fallen in love with. For many, the realities of abject poverty
had forced them to weigh the benefits of survival against morality and
the value of human life.
“It was a very intense experience to be there,” she said.
According to humantrafficking.org,
Cambodia is a destination country for women and children trafficked in
from Vietnam and China, with approximately 2,000 victims being sexually
exploited. Up to 1/3 of trafficking victims involved in prostitution
are children, according to End Child Prostitution, Abuses and
Trafficking (ECPAT) Cambodia.
Upon returning to New York, Hendricks read two books that helped her process the atrocities that she witnessed in Cambodia: The Road of Lost Innocence by former sex slave Somaly Mam and Half the Sky by NY Times Columnist
Nicolas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. In a serene community like
Larchmont, however, her attempts to engage others in discussions about
human trafficking, however, fell flat, with many people “shutting down.”
“I wanted to create a way to talk about this issue that was inviting,
welcoming and not too upsetting,” said the 2010 NYU Tisch graduate and
self-proclaimed “storyteller.”
It was then that she realized that jewelry would be the perfect
medium to communicate her message without necessarily silencing a room.
“Jewelry is sentimental and fun…and special to people,” she said, a
lesson she learned by working in the family jewelry business; her
mother, Dawn, owns Peridot Fine Jewelry in Larchmont.
“I wanted to make the issue visible—women who are trafficked don’t
know that they are victims…their voices are silenced,” said Jessica.
Partnering with a fair-trade team of Cambodian artisans, The Brave Collection’s
bracelets are simple: silver, gold or cord chains with the Khmer
(Khem-eye) word for “Brave”-“Klahan” (Klaa-han) hand-cut of recycled,
Cambodian brass. They are meant to be layered with other jewelry.
Who are the bracelets for?
“A woman who cares about this issue but has many things going on—the bracelet is a reminder,” she said.
For now, though, Jessica is content to sell her bracelets locally and
on her website, one day moving onto bigger platforms to spread the
word.
“Change will come eventually—I’m finding ways to spread the word,” she said.
The Brave Collection can be purchased at Peridot Jewelry on 134 Larchmont Ave. or on the website here. A
portion of every sale is donated to partnering non-profit foundations
that combat human trafficking. Peridot Jewelry is celebrating its
10-year anniversary this weekend; the store also has a location in
Greenwich, CT.
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