At our last event, on September 12th, 2009, ATLtwestival supported Not For Sale Campaign, and had a chance to learn more about the important issue of Human Slavery and Child Sex Trafficking. Even though, for our next event on March 25th, 2010, our attention will be focused on supporting Concern Worldwide, we as a city are still committed to fighting this crime against humanity, and are willing to reach out to any partners here in Atlanta or around the globe that want to stand up against injustice, wherever it presents itself.

With that in mind, we wanted to present the words of Sunitha Krishnan. She presented at TED about the work that she does in aiding young girls who are abused, defiled, and shamed every day in an industry that treats them like soil.

ATLtwestival had the great pleasure of attending TEDxPeachtree, a local TED event and there we were able to engage with several local groups and individuals who are compassionate and concerned about this problem, and we look forward to joining them in their efforts. Atlanta remains one of the 3 worst cities in the United States, and a contributing member to the fastest growing criminal industry in America.

Hear what she has to say, and be moved to act. Join the movement, and let us end slavery in our time.

Charity:water’s Project Manager, Becky Straw, reflects on her experience bringing water to a village in Northern Uganda, in an article entitled “Will the beautiful women of the world please stand up”.  While traveling to Uganda to evaluate the well drilling for charity:water, Becky met Helen.

Helen spent most of her day walking and waiting. She told me each day she’d say to herself, “How should I use this water today? Should I water my garden so we can grow food? Should I wash my children’s uniforms? Should I use it to cook a meal? Should we drink this water?” With two children, one husband and 10 gallons, Helen had to make choices.

Becky reminds us that water means more than health and survival; water can mean dignity, quality of life and choices.

Esther Havens captured these beautiful photographs while traveling with Becky in Uganda. At Atlanta Twestival in February 2009, we were honored to have the work of Esther Havens for sale.  See more of Esther’s photos of Becky’s trip here.

A big thank you to everyone who came out to the Atlanta Twestival on September 12th, 2009. We are able to raise $278.00 for Not for Sale and present them with a copy of Microsoft Office for them to continue their work with.  A huge thank you to @octanecoffee for donating the space and raffle prize.  Also, big thanks to Mark Hoerrner from Not for Sale Georgia for coming out and talking about Not for Sale.  We are honored to help support the great work that you do here right in our back yard.

I know that we have been quite lacking in communications and updates, but we are working on that.  In fact, if you want to help organize the next Atlanta Twestival, DM @atltwestival or contact Sam at atltwestival at gmail dot com.

Did you know that there are more than 27 million slaves in the world today?

… that human trafficking is the second fastest growing criminal industry in our world today - grossing an estimated $32 billion each year?

… that each year the United States is a destination country for an estimated 17,000 trafficked men, women and children?

… that according to the US State Department 2008 Human Trafficking Report, about 50 percent of transnational victims are minors, and roughly 80 percent are women and girls?

… that 70 percent of prostitution in the United States is linked to organized crime?

Did you know that there is hope?

… that Not for Sale runs 40 Regional Operations across the US and Canada, Africa, and the UK to investigate, map and intervene in cases of human trafficking and slavery?

… that there is a Georgia chapter of Not for Sale?

Here’s a bit about Not For Sale Georgia…

Not For Sale Georgia (NFS-GA) has been actively involved in supporting state legislation that will benefit victims of trafficking, especially in the area of child sex slavery. NFS-GA has worked alongside partners StreetGRACE, Wellspring Living, A Future. Not a Past., and the Barton Child Policy Clinic at Emory Law School to successfully change the wording in the child abuse reporting law that had previously restricted who in the child abuse system would have to report child sexual exploitation. With the passage of this bill, NFS-GA was able to pave the way for hundreds of Georgia’s children to receive new avenues of care.

Recently, NFS-GA with the help of Soumya Kantamneni, a rising second-year law student at George Washington University Law School, has been promoting HB 582. This bill would change how minors are classified within the sex industry. The bill would exempt minors from prosecution as prostitutes and will instead treat them as potential victims of exploitation.

Did you know that you can help by attending Atlanta Twestival Local 2009?

Atlanta Twestival 2009 was a ton of fun, but we hope that Atlanta Twestival Local 2009 will be even awesomer!!!

Twestival Local is much like the global event that occurred in February 2009, however, the local event allows cities to contribute to charities of their choice.  Learn more about Twestival Local here.

So, we are very excited to be calling on our city to come out and contribute to the work of Not For Sale Campaign, which is working to end human slavery and trafficking.

The Not For Sale Campaign equips and mobilizes Smart Activists to deploy innovative solutions to re-abolish slavery in their own backyards and across the globe. Together, we can end slavery in our lifetime.

We chose Not For Sale because Atlanta consistently ranks in the top three worst cities in the US for human trafficking.  We hope to aid in healing our city moving forward with technology, community, and energy!

Become a fan of Atlanta Twestival Local on Facebook.

First of all a huge thanks to our sponsor JWT for providing the space.  We started off the evening at JavaVino with beverages and hors d’oeuvres , nametags and introductions.

Sue, @mrsbear, brought @estherhavens amazing prints to sell for charity:water.  If you couldn’t make it to the Atlanta Twestival, you can check out Esther’s work here.  Esther works as a photographer out of Austin, Texas; not only does Esther donate her art work to great causes like charity:water, but she seeks to inspire others to take action through her photography.

John, @human3rror, broke out the camera and vola! we were livestreaming from the Atlanta Twestival.  I think most of roughly 30 folks that were there Thursday night were interviewed, which was a hoot!  Hey John, folks want to know if the livestreaming video has been lost to the interwebs forever, or if we can find them somewhere.  Let us know.

Allison Weiss played a number of songs while folks chatted about the most popular topic of the night… twitter.  If you are still wondering what the site Allison was talking about Thursday night — besides twitter, it was tumblr.

Samantha Murphy then played two songs for us.  Our small crowd was completely silent as Samantha held the last note of Johny Cash’s Ring of Fire for… was anyone timing? over a minute? Beautiful!!

Next we raffled off the Motorola Z9 phone that The Highway Girl had donated.  And using random.org, Sue, who coincidentally had dropped her cell phone in water only a week prior, won the raffle!!!!

We wrapped up the evening with folks sharing their favorite Twitter stories and applications.

Overall, with the one week we had to plan the event, I think the night was a success.  Atlanta raised $270 from ticket sales.  Sue sold some prints for Esther.  And everyone was talking about the next Atlanta Twestival!

I know I am missing some pics, posts and people here; email atltwestival… at… gmail… so I can add you here if you were at the Atlanta Twestival ‘09.

Pics

on flickr

Posts

atltwestival pure awesome

there were alot more people at the atltwestival

Peoples

@human3rror

@allisonweiss

@thehighwaygirl

@wuhu411

@ddeseta

@kingsoul

@jros

@gcrisp

@samelawrence

@sandypants

@mags2122

@moore27

@shbbll

@coreyanderson

@paulshok

@kristengreen

@briandewitt

@nolesfanKK

@ashleycrutch

@noahk17

@justmebo

We are proud to announce that the 2009 Atlanta Twestival will be held at JavaVino on Thursday, February 12th, at 7:30pm.

There will be a wine tasting with h’orderves, several raffle prizes and music from Allison Weiss and The Highway Girl.  JWT has been very generous to sponsor this event on a very last minutes notice.

Tickets are $10 and can be bought at Amiando or at the door (cash only).  We, of course, will be taking donations for charity:water, and then you can also give money using TipJoy.

If you unable to attend this year’s Atlanta Twestival, remember that you can support charity:water by

• Uploading or buying music at Twestival.fm.
• Buying a Twestival t-shirt.

Thanks to a little help from Allison Weiss and Samantha Murphy, having only a week to plan the Atlanta Twestival won’t stop us from supporting charty:water and having a super time.

Samantha Murphy, of The Highway Girl fame, will be performing at the Atlanta Twestival.  She and her cohorts were already donating over 120 songs to the Twestival cause.  Samantha helps today’s artists manage their careers in the digital age through her traveling music show.

Also performing is Allison Weiss. Allison is “musician by night and graphic design student by day”.  Only 22, if you read anything about Allison and her work, you will realize that she has got to be the hardest working gal in Athens… and her music will melt your heart.

Lastly, we already have some awesome raffle prizes…

• Motorola Z9 AT&T phone courtesy of The Highway Girl
• Tickets to the Atlanta High Trek Urban Race courtesy of High Trek Adventure

Venue to be finalized soon… promise!!!