Zino Chan, a singer-songwriter from New Zealand, wrote and performed this song Faith, Hope, Love based on the experiences of a sex trafficking victim.
Sylvia Yu Friedman is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker, international speaker, and writer. She is the author of two books, Silenced No More: Voices of Comfort Women, the only journalistic account of historical Japanese military sex slavery during WWII, and Heart and Soul: The Life Story of Augustus Chao.
A current affairs documentary producer, former TV anchor, and advisor to philanthropists, Sylvia was among the Top 100 Human Trafficking & Slavery Influence Leaders List in 2017 by Assent Compliance. She won the prestigious 2013 International Human Rights Press Award for her three-part documentary series on human trafficking in China, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
After ten years of intensive research and interviewing elderly survivors, academics, lawyers and activists in different nations, Sylvia is considered a global expert on “comfort women” military sex slavery. She’s been interviewed or featured on the BBC, CNN, SCMP, the Globe and Mail, CGTN, among others, and covered widely in Asia and the Chinese media. Sylvia is a SheSource expert of the Women’s Media Center, founded by Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem, and is listed in a database of women experts who serve as a resource for journalists.
Sylvia believes her core calling is using her communication skills to mobilize people and resources to help those suffering in the most marginalized places. Since 2005 Sylvia has managed and directed millions of dollars to major humanitarian portfolios impacting at least more than one million people. This work has given her access to many influential networks in different countries.
Sylvia led a Hong Kong–based movement of “passionate compassion” against human trafficking that involved more than 120 churches, NGOs, and organizations and later expanded to other nations like Malaysia, China, Canada, South Africa, and the U.S.. Through more than fifty-five slavery awareness events, her team reached more than 25,000 people in eighteen months in universities, schools, and major corporations like Goldman Sachs.
Sylvia is married to Matthew Friedman, a leading global expert on slavery, the CEO of The Mekong Club, and former United Nations director. Together in the summer of 2016 they gave 113 presentations in 27 U.S. cities. She and Matthew are based in Hong Kong. (end)
Issachar Productions tells stories to change the world. We hire vulnerable & marginalized people as production crew.