AIMING TO EMPOWER
Jeannie McGinnis moved to the UK from the US ten years ago. She is a model, writer, TV presenter and in her spare time helps victims of trafficking. Catherine Scott meets her.
Model, writer and TV presenter who helps victims of trafficking
IT WAS reading a book about the plight of young girls being trafficked for sex in Thailand which made Jeannie McGinnis determined to do something to help.
She had just moved to Yorkshire from America with her husband who was studying for his Masters and PhD at the University of Sheffield and their two small children.
“Our children were three months old and two years old and I didn’t know anyone and had no support network,” recalls Jeannie. “Although if we had still been in the States it would have been a four-hour plane journey to my family anyway.
“I was used to travelling as I had moved around America a lot as a child.”
Originally born in Florida, her family moved every few years due to her father’s job in the oil business. The oldest of four children, Jeannie’s childhood ranged from Alaska and Colorado to Louisiana and North Carolina and eventually landed in Texas where she attended high school and university.
But moving to the Uk was a different experience.
“I didn’t know where to buy things – even things like nappies as we call them diapers.
“My husband was busy with his PhD and also was a pastor at a local church, so I think I joined every mum and toddler group going.”
Once she felt settled she decided she really wanted to do volunteering.
She had worked full-time in America in PR and marketing until a chronic illness forced her to re-evaluate.
“I suffered from a multisymptom nebulous illness before I had kids for about two or three years – the main culprit was severe food allergies that had developed which left me with a highly restricted diet of gluten free, diary free, sugar free and all processed foods.
“But I got progressively better – I now follow a fairly healthy (balanced) diet by choice as it changed my eating habits dramatically.”
Although she really wanted to help the victims of trafficking, at the time she couldn’t find anything locally and so started volunteering for a project which worked with prostitutes in Sheffield’s red light district.
“We would go out and talk to the women and offer them advice if they wanted it on where they could go if they needed help or wanted out,” explains 42-year-old Jeannie.
“I was surprised at how approachable and friendly they were to me. They used to call me Julia Roberts after the role she played in Pretty Woman, on account of my American accent and auburn hair – they thought I was a movie star.”
Jeannie would also go into the brothels and talk to the madams, who said that some of their girls were the victims of trafficking.
By the time the project closed Jeannie had made friends with a social worker who was working with the victims of trafficking.
“She was working in a safe house and said there was a gap in the system. People who were rescued from trafficking were only able to stay in the safe house for 45 days and then there was nothing. She came up with the idea of the Snowdrop Project which gives support and advice to them after the 45 days.”
Jeannie is now a case worker with the charity. “Many of the women have become pregnant as they were trafficked for sex,
People were only able to stay in the safe house for 45 days. Jeannie McGinnis, who is a case worker with the Snowdrop Project in Sheffield.
we help them through pregnancy and help point them in the direction of further support and help. Our aim is to empower them to live normal lives.”
Jeannie says she underwent intensive training before working for the project which helped her to not become too emotionally involved with the women.
When not working with the project Jeannie McGinnis is one busy woman.
In 2010, she joined a local writing group which led to a new passion for creative writing. Since then she has written numerous short stories, radio plays, a novel, poetry and short film screenplays. Her first novel
Beauty Pageant to Brothels is due to be published next year.
In summer 2013 Jeannie was scouted by a local model agency. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “I had won a couple of beauty pageants in my teens in America but I never considered modelling as a career. Then in my 40s I am approached to be a model. I love it. You find that the models of my age tend to have other careers as well and so it isn’t nearly so cut throat. I do mainly commercial work, but that has led to other things.
Jeannie does voiceover work and a little acting and has combined her multi-faceted career into a company, Jeannie McGinnis Media.
She was then asked if she would consider becoming television presenter for the Sheffield Sharks basketball team, shown on Sheffield Live.
“My father and husband both play basketball so my family has always had a love for basketball,” explains Jeannie. “The Sharks’ games are a great family event and so when I am presenting and interviewing coaches, players and the commentators, I also get to sit during the game with my family. It honestly is such an enjoyable, entertaining experience for me that it hardly feels like my job.”
In 2013 Jennie McGinnis launched a blog in called www. confessionsofanamerican.com win which she talks about her life in the UK, health, wellbeing and the Snowdrop Project.
Jeannie, who lives with husband Daniel and children Madeline, 11, and Aiden, nine live in the Hillsborough area, now hopes to travel to Thailand in the near future to learn more about human trafficking.