Evon Benson-Idahosa – Modern Day Slavery

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
the overwhelming majority of people who are involved or enslaved, in sex trafficking, over 90% are women and girls.

Jay Ruderman:
Hi, I’m Jay Ruderman and welcome to All About Change, a podcast showcasing individuals who leverage the hardships that have been thrown at them to better other people’s lives.

Jay Ruderman:
And today on our show, Evon Benson-Idahosa

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I was always questioning and pushing and talking back. and I put that in air quotes, because I was really just trying to be the voice that, that I believe God had called me to be from a very, very young age.

Jay Ruderman:
Evon is a Nigerian native, a leading expert, and thought-leader on the subject of modern-day slavery. But before she was an activist, she had a ‘previous life’. Achieving tremendous success as a lawyer in NYC. But one day she woke up wondering – “what have I done with my life?”

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I’m a partner at my, at my firm. I’m supervising, lots of associates. quote unquote to the external world, I was successful. Um, but what was more important to me at that point? Was it financial success or was it having a life of significance?

Jay Ruderman:
She turned to her boss and informed him that she would be leaving her job to become a full-time activist.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I’m not sure who was more, who was, whether I was more shocked in that moment or whether he, whether he was, because we both would’ve looked at each other like, are you really doing this?

Jay Ruderman:
Moved by the plight of Nigerian women all over the world, she decided to address gender-based violence and the sexual exploitation of women. She founded Pathfinders Justice Initiative (PJI), a leading international impact organization dedicated to the prevention of sex slavery, and the eradication of its root causes.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
There’s about 50 million people who are currently enslaved. I think a lot of people tend to think, you know, slavery was something that happened, you know, in the 15th, 16th, century in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But there are actually more people enslaved. In this day and age than at any other point in history.

Jay Ruderman:
So Yvonne, thank you so much for being my guest on all about change. I’m looking forward so much to this discussion. The work that you do is incredibly important, affecting so many people around the world. But maybe we could start the discussion by talking about your family. Your father was a very well known re religious leader, who had impact. Well beyond Nigeria, and I’m just wondering about your childhood and what impact your childhood had on you and your direction that you chose to go in life.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Well, Jay, it’s a pleasure, um, to be able to join you. I’m always honored when people start, start, start with my childhood. Cause I think it, it, it has a way of bringing. A lot of context Right. To, why I do what I do and the woman that I am.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
But, uh, yeah, like you said, I grew up, you know, to parents who were, were ministers and who were pretty much larger than life right? In, in my, in my mind, even as a child. But I think one of the most, amazing aspects and one of the things that, I, I took away from that relationship was just the, the fact that we. I got to travel with them. so I was born in England. My parents are from Nigeria. but I, you know, I also schooled in the, in the US as well, but even in my childhood, we got to travel with my parents wherever they were going to speak, uh, to preach, uh, to, you know, to teach.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
you know, my mom was in school when she was in England, so all of this really informed. My worldview. It really ch, it really informs the way that I move through the world cuz I’m able to see things from multiple perspectives. And I think even as a child growing up, I, one of the things I recognized was that even though I was born, into a family that valued education, I was born with, a certain extent of, of privilege.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
What I, what I, what I knew. intuitively as as a child, was that there was some level of imbalance here. There was some level of injustice because I would go from, depending on where I was, I would go from country to country and recognize that people were treated differently, not just because of. Um, not just because of, of where they were born, but also to whom they were born.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And as a child, I, I recognized that distinction very at a very young age and started questioning it quite a bit. it came across, I mean, I, in some ways as, as quite rebellious. and I, I, cuz I never understood injustice. I always. Felt this sense of, when things were unjust, there needed to be an explanation for it.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And I was always questioning and pushing and talking back. and I put that in air quotes, because I was really just trying to be the voice that, that I believe God had called me to be from a very, very young age.

Jay Ruderman:
You know, I find your philosophy to be very, uh, first all resident. Resonates with me and it, and it’s very, inspirational and, and meaningful in that you look at the world as you believe God believes it should be and not as the way it is right now. And they’re able to see things in a more, just an equitable and godly way. And, and I assume that that comes from, Your family life and your education and, and, and how you were brought up.

Jay Ruderman:
So you. Are a born activist and you’re, you’re picking this up from your parents and they’re encouraging you. How do you maybe talk a little bit about how you decided to become a lawyer and be educated in the United Kingdom and then become a very successful attorney in New York and, and, and talk about that part of your life?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
It’s interesting because I, I’m not sure I would’ve chosen law on my own. Right. Um, and you know, alluded to this earlier when my parents, gave us a choice and an option. You know, I put choice in, again, in air quotes because it was either law or medicine.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And you know, my brother, and this is from when than we were. Three, four years old. My brother, you know, said he wanted to be a doctor and I had no idea what a lawyer was. But again, I think as a reflection of my naturally quote unquote rebel self, I was like, I’m not doing whatever he’s doing. I’ll do the other thing and that was a lawyer.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And so from when I was young, my parents would always say, oh, you’re always arguing, you’re always, talking back, you’re always, questioning and, so yeah, maybe you should be a lawyer. And so I think in my mind I thought, oh, okay, this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
So I went to, I ended up, finishing, after I got, asked to leave politely from my dorm when I was 15. Um, I then traveled, my parents then had some friends in Atlanta. I was in Nigeria at the time. And I moved, um, over to the us. I finished my high school, did my undergraduate degree, and then went to law school, in England.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And I got called to bar over there and decided, You know, I didn’t want to wear those ugly white wigs. Um, after the first time I put it on, I put them on, put one of them on my head, which is at my, at my graduation. And funny enough, I actually handed my law degree to my mother at my graduation. I had not seen it since that day, and that was over 20 years ago.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
yeah, once I got called to, called to bar and became a barrister at law, I decided, you know, it looks. Like what, what they’re doing in the US looks a bit more exciting. You know, they talk back to judges, people are jumping over turns, style, not turns styles. you know, it would just seem like, um, it seemed more like my personality, the way that law was being practiced in the US and, and in England it was just a lot more stoic, a lot more quote unquote respectful and uh, so I decided, you know, I’m gonna come over to the US and I flipped a coin, literally flipped a coin.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
because New York and, uh, California were the only two states that would allow me to use my law degree almost immediately without having to go back to some, it takes some other courses. And I flipped a coin, it landed, um, on New York and I packed up my bags and um, and I moved to New York.

Jay Ruderman:
And, uh, and you had the, you, you had a great career in New York. You had the corner office, you had. A nice car. You were in charge of many subordinates. were you happy as a lawyer in New York?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I actually, I was happy. I would say that I was, I, I, I say happy, but was I joyous? No. Was I fulfilled? No. Um, was I good at what I was doing? Absolutely. I, I was successful. in the general sense of, of how most people define success, you know, which is financially.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I was at a space where I was training other lawyers. Yeah. I was a lawyer’s lawyer. I was, teaching other lawyers how to avoid getting sued for malpractice. I was, Happy in the sense that I was, every day I was, I woke up with a sense of, Of a connection to the work that I was doing because I was good at it.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
But there was an underlying sense of, of incongruity between what my life had been calling me to do and what I was currently doing and it got to a point though where, I refer to it as God giving me the gift of discomfort where so, Unaligned with your current life and current reality, that it gets uncomfortable for you to be yourself in that space.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And so every day it just became this growing sense of this is not what you’re supposed to be doing. This is not my life. I was in search of, of ensuring that that alignment, Um, within the work that I was doing and the life that I was living, was actualized.

Jay Ruderman:
So what was that moment? That moment where you said, “I can’t do this anymore. I need to change my life.”

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
It wasn’t one single moment. It was a buildup. But I do remember a particular day where I woke up and I just asked myself, “What have I done with my life?”

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And it wasn’t because I hadn’t achieved anything. It was because I realized that I hadn’t aligned my life with my purpose.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I was living a life that looked successful on the outside, but on the inside, I felt empty. And that emptiness became too loud to ignore.

Jay Ruderman:
That’s a very powerful realization. So what did you do next?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I went to my boss and I told him I was leaving. And like I said earlier, I’m not sure who was more shocked in that moment, him or me.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Because from the outside, it didn’t make sense. Why would you leave a successful career, financial stability, everything that people work towards?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
But for me, it was clear. I needed to do something that had meaning.

Jay Ruderman:
And that led you to founding Pathfinders Justice Initiative?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Yes. But it wasn’t immediate. There was a journey in between.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I started by trying to understand the issue more deeply. I went back to Nigeria. I started speaking to women. I started listening to their stories.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And what I found was heartbreaking. Women who had been trafficked, exploited, abused.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And I realized that this wasn’t just an isolated issue. This was systemic.

Jay Ruderman:
And what did that realization do for you?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
It gave me clarity. It gave me direction.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I knew that this was the work I was meant to do.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And so I founded Pathfinders Justice Initiative to address not just the symptoms, but the root causes of trafficking and exploitation.

Jay Ruderman:
And what are those root causes?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Poverty, lack of education, gender inequality, systemic injustice.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
These are not simple problems, and they don’t have simple solutions.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
But if we’re serious about ending trafficking, we have to address these root causes.

Jay Ruderman:
So when you talk about scale, when you talk about 50 million people enslaved today, it’s almost hard to comprehend. How do you even begin to tackle something of that magnitude?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
You start with one person.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
I think when people hear numbers like that, it becomes overwhelming and they feel paralyzed. But the reality is, every single life matters.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And if you can impact one life, that matters. If you can impact ten lives, that matters. And that’s how change begins.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
At the same time, we also have to think systemically. We have to think about policy, we have to think about prevention, we have to think about long-term solutions.

Jay Ruderman:
What role does education play in this work?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Education is critical.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Because a lot of the women that are trafficked are deceived. They are promised opportunities, jobs, a better life.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And if they had access to education, if they had access to information, many of them would not fall into those traps.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
So prevention is just as important as rescue.

Jay Ruderman:
And what about the role of governments?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Governments have a huge role to play.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
There needs to be stronger laws, better enforcement, and more accountability.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
But we can’t rely solely on governments. This is a collective responsibility.

Jay Ruderman:
What keeps you going in this work? Because I imagine it can be emotionally very heavy.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
It is heavy.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
But what keeps me going is the impact. The stories of the women who have been rescued, who are rebuilding their lives.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
That gives me hope.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
And also the belief that change is possible.

Jay Ruderman:
What would you say to someone who wants to get involved or make a difference?

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Start where you are.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to start an organization.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
But you can educate yourself, you can raise awareness, you can support organizations that are doing the work.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Everyone has a role to play.

Jay Ruderman:
Evon, thank you so much for sharing your story and for the incredible work that you do.

Evon Benson-Idahosa:
Thank you so much for having me.

Jay Ruderman:
Thank you so much for listening to All About Change. Today’s episode was produced by Tani Levitt and Mijon Zulu. Stay tuned for our next episode. Spread the word, tell a friend or family member, or leave us a review on your favorite podcasting app. We’d really appreciate it. That’s all for now. I’m Jay Ruderman, and we’ll see you soon with another episode of All About Change.

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