Imagine being held hostage for a few hours. Or having a knife pressed against your eye. Or being shot at twice. Most of us couldn’t possibly think of this happening to us in our lifetime and you might think these kinds of incidents only happen to the ‘bad guys’ or in other parts of town or other parts of the world. For Kae Denino, this is just part of her job, right here in central Ohio. In each instance of violence, Kae was able to keep calm and do what was needed to reach safety. Kae is the U.S. Project Coordinator for Doma International, a non-profit with the focus of early intervention and prevention in the lives of orphaned children and vulnerable women and families involved in human trafficking.
Kae runs a 32-hour course called Abolition U. At Abolition U, men and women learn, explore, and decide how they would like to get involved locally as activists against human trafficking. Kae also created and works with survivors of sex trafficking with Freedom a la Cart. Freedom a la Cart is a mobile food cart and social enterprise in which the women learn to cultivate relationships with local farmers and to cook, eat, and sell healthy foods. Freedom a la Cart has been a huge success with not only the people who eat the amazing food, but also with the women who learn new job skills including how to cook nutritious food, implement marketing & sales, and earn a real pay check.
Kae actually didn’t learn about human trafficking until later in life. “I didn’t really have a career. I had to deal with a lot of confusion from family and friends who didn’t understand why I didn’t have a ‘real job’ or much direction. I cooked and farmed, taught English and yoga. It wasn’t until I learned about human trafficking at the age of 37 that I knew what to do with my life.” And to add to the excitement, the day that Kae got her first job dealing with the topic, she found out she was pregnant with twins!
Kae’s inspiration comes from her friends, be they farmers, abolitionists or both, from Doma’s survivors, and from her twin boys who she says “keep falling on their bottoms and getting right back up.” Kae also gets inspiration from Harriet Tubman. “Harriet Tubman just followed the next step in front of her. She never learned to read or write, but she led 13 rescue missions into the deep South and through Canada in the winter. She was a volunteer. So my plans for the future would be to also follow that next step.” Kae’s next step is to build Freedom a la Cart as the catering business in the city and to raise awareness, rescue and restore survivors, and strengthen the law against human trafficking. For more information about Doma and Freedom a la Cart please visit www.domaconnection.org.