#Volunteerstories: Bethany Eberle

“I’m currently conducting research on human trafficking networks, while at my university I met a friend who I told that I was doing my research and what it was about, and he told me that here in Peru there was an organization that has a database and does a type of analysis that I could probably be interested in.I learned more about human trafficking in Peru and also about the RETA, which caught my attention because in the United States we don’t have a national database.

In these 3 weeks the people at CHS Alternativo have helped me a lot, they taught me how the RETA system works. They are all very dedicated to their work and find themselves in a struggle that is very difficult, but they perform very well in collecting information and data in order to help the victims.

Professionally this experience serves me as a model of anti-trafficking for us in the United States, there are many examples and models of how we can use information and what kind of analysis we should do there.

I think that this experience was very good not only for me, but also for the other people who are going to read my work and know a little more about the fight against trafficking here in Peru and how we can improve it there, because many times in the United States we use models from Europe or Asia, but we don’t see so much from South America and for me here there is a lot of what we can learn.”.