Charity | manhattanmanhattan

The other "REAL"

Melanie Siben lobbied on Capitol Hill for bills to eradicate child trafficking

Melanie Siben lobbies on Capital Hill for bills aimed at strengthening survivors' rights

and enforcing harsh penalties

for child traffickers

What drives Melanie is knowing we're in this world for a higher purpose.

For 16 years following her work as a journalist, Melanie became a pioneer in the battle against human trafficking. In 2000, she founded Media 4 Humanity, a 501-c-3 dedicated to eradicating child trafficking and abuse in the United States.

Melanie, along with thousands of media professionals and nearly 400 students over the years, worked tirelessly on their "Get REAL" campaign. Rescue, Empowerment, Awareness and Legislation were their programs.

The internship program Melanie started grew to one of the largest unpaid, non-profit programs in the country and attracted students from every Ivy League university and other fine academic institutions.

Now that Melanie has returned to real estate, her internship program focuses on CSR... corporate social responsibility as well as the Awareness and Legislation elements of M4H's Get Real Campaign.

Together, their long-range goal is to create non federally-assisted yet self-sustaining housing for survivors of child trafficking and eventually for all homeless individuals. "Teach a man to fish..." is their approach to starting and sustaining this ideal.