Case alum to help children build new lives after slavery
Christa Hayden heads to Cambodia to work with International Justice Mission
September 26, 2005 | For more information: Susan Griffith 216-368-1004
Christa Hayden, a 2005 graduate from Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences (MSASS), leaves on September 22 for Southeast Asia on a mission to bring justice and relief to children rescued from commercial sexual exploitation. She will become the new aftercare coordinator for International Justice Mission (IJM) in Phnom, Penh.
It is estimated as many as 50,000 children between the ages of 5 and 17 are enslaved in Cambodia. Hayden will use the skills acquired as a graduate student in Case's social work program at MSASS to assist children through the legal system and regain their lost childhoods through therapy and other measures to help them deal with the trauma they have suffered.
She will depart from her hometown of Fresno, Calif., to fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital.
It will be her second trip to the country. Her first trip was a summer ago when she volunteered as a social work intern in the IJM Cambodia office. She saw first hand the work of IJM in rescuing children-the work also featured on recent segments of NBC's Dateline.
According to Hayden, poverty-stricken families many times are deceived by the traffickers into sending their children to the city to work in what they are told are legitimate businesses or homes where the children will have food and shelter.
Instead the children's lives are filled with violence and torture as they are sold into slavery for labor or sexual exploitation, said Hayden. Children can also be kidnapped and forced into slavery for sexual or labor purposes.
It is no surprise to the faculty at Case's MSASS that Hayden heads to Cambodia.
According to Grover C. Gilmore, dean of MSASS, "Christa was attracted to MSASS because of the history of the school in international social work and the current international work of Professors Victor Groza and Terry Hokenstad. Christa had a broad base of experience and a clear vision of what she wanted to accomplish. Working with the faculty, she was able to craft a program of study that took advantage of the wonderful academic resources across the university and to gain field experience relevant to her interests both in Cleveland and Cambodia."
He added that "her commitment of the heart was matched with professional training and experience at Case" that permits her to be a very effective social worker.
Hayden began helping children in the early 1990s while an undergraduate at Tulane University where she majored in political science and minored in Africa and African Diaspora Studies and had the opportunity to spend a semester abroad at the University of Accra in Ghana, West Africa.
While at Tulane, she volunteered with the youth ministry program Young Life New Orleans, which had programs to build cross-cultural mentoring relationships between college and high school and middle school students.
With her interest in the political system and making large-scale systemic changes, she headed to Washington, D.C., after graduation. She had frontline political experiences with Washington politics as a staff member in the office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer from California.
From Washington, her life began a new path as she flew to Aviano Air Base in Italy where she was an outreach worker with the Military Community Youth Ministries/Young Life Program. She worked with children whose parents were fighting in Bosnia and had to deal with issues of war. She also traveled with the children on planned trips throughout Europe as well as service projects in Romania and Bosnian refugee camps in Slovenia.
"These experiences fueled my passion for working overseas and with kids who have experienced abuse or lived through armed conflict," she said.
She also volunteered with the International Justice Mission in Bolivia during 2001 where she assisted with investigations of the abuse of children living on the streets.
Approaching the age of 25, she headed back to the United States determined to go back to school. She went home to Fresno for a year and a half in order to gain experience working with abused children in a psychiatric hospital. She returned to Washington in 2001 to start saving for graduate school and to research where to go.
Her search for a school pointed her to Case where she was able to design an international social work program and take advantage of the many internationally related courses at the Case medical, management and law schools.
"I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be overseas and work in post-conflict development, helping individuals and communities rebuild and recover from sexual and physical violence," said Hayden.
Each year, MSASS students provide approximately 125,000 hours of paid placements in field work experiences at organizations around Cleveland.
Hayden's first year field experience was spent at the Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services where she welcomed, assisted and helped newly arrived individuals primarily from Afghanistan, Somalia and Liberia as they adjust to American life. She also worked in an after-school program with the children.
Hayden's outstanding work was recognized by MSASS when she was named a Mandel Scholar and earned a full-tuition scholarship in honor of her leadership. Her second year at MSASS she learned about community development in foreign countries during her three days each week with International Partners in Mission, a nonprofit group that provides technical assistance and financial and relational support to 50 international community-based organizations.
"International Partners in Mission is one of the most innovative, cutting-edge international development organizations in the United States," Hayden said. She noted that Clevelanders are able to develop mutual international relationships, as well as support positive and sustainable development around the world through IPM.
Between her first and second years at MSASS, she again volunteered with International Justice Mission as an aftercare intern where she worked with the rescued children trafficked for sexual exploitation.
"Seeing the changes in the girls after they are freed from their abuse is incredible," said Hayden.
Not only will she be helping to save children from enslavement, but Hayden will contribute to Cambodian's rebuilding and healing after decades of conflict. "Cambodia faces many challenges in its rebuilding process, "she said.
But Hayden also said that last summer she recognized "incredible hope, energy and concern" by the people to rebuild and put in place new organizations and systems that work to bring a better life for the country's people.
"I have a huge job ahead of me, but I feel prepared for what I am about to do because of my past experiences and the excellent training I received at the Mandel School," she said.
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