SALT LAKE COUNTY – The Elizabeth Smart Foundation (ESF) has halted its latest campaign to raise awareness of the ‘Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’ (MMIW) crisis.
The group MMIW USA said they are excited to work with ESF, but they accuse the foundation of using their platform to serve their own interests.
Elizabeth Smart is shown on a video introducing the week-long fitness challenge called “Find them all.”
Smart returned to her family in March 2003 after being abducted for nine months. In this latest campaign, she promises to find all women.
‘There is so much that is never found – that is never even sought after. They just disappear and nothing ever happens. “Unfortunately, none other than indigenous and indigenous women and girls,” she said.
She explains that all proceeds go to the prevention and recovery of missing and indigenous women.
“Because every missing person deserves to come home.”
In a Facebook post, MMIW USA issued a warning to their fans:
“This organization approached us to ‘work with them’ to find all women.” Initially, of course, we were excited that our English counterparts were interested in helping us. Our team initially spoke to a representative of their organization to get a feel for what they are trying to achieve.
“Unfortunately, we were greeted with a condescending tone from a man who was culturally insensitive. In short, it seems that their interest in helping us is rooted in a desire to promote themselves and of a woman who has little knowledge of the #MMIW crisis; and showed no interest in learning more about our struggle when it comes to finding and justice for our people.
FOX 13 News reached out to the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. They explained that they had approached MMIW USA and several organizations to help provide content and people who could tell their story:
‘With the development of this initiative to detect missing indigenous and indigenous people, we have conducted important investigations and investigations. This included working with various groups, including tribal councils, to help us figure out how best to help them find missing loved ones. Unfortunately, after launching the Find Them All campaign, despite our best efforts and several efforts to meet the expectations of MMIW USA, we were unable to find the common ground. Out of respect for them and all indigenous and indigenous voices, and also to prevent the greater effort being overshadowed, we step back to find other ways to provide support. As a basis, we will continue our work to end the victimization and exploitation of sexual assault through prevention, recovery and advocacy. ‘
Despite the dropout, indigenous activist and runner Jordan Daniel, who was included in the fitness challenge, says she believes the foundation means good.
Daniel says she was disappointed to hear about their problems with MMIW USA, but he would like to work with the ESF to find a common ground.
The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center also weighed in with a statement to FOX 13:
‘As a culture-based resource center dedicated to ending violence against indigenous women, the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center works with an extensive network of tribes, advocates, indigenous organizations and surviving families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). ). We are very intent on developing these partnerships because of the sensitive nature of our work. We recently met the Elizabeth Smart Foundation and are opening up the lines of communication for conscientious and collaborative development of MMIWG awareness activities that increase the voices of indigenous advocates and families affected by this violence. ”