People Behind Purpose at Cisco: During World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Everyone Can Be an Advocate

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 11, 2023 / Cisco Systems Inc.

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This blog is part of our People Behind Purpose at Cisco series that focuses on employees driving Cisco's purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All. Each blog highlights a different Cisco employee whose work positively impacts people, communities, or the planet. The series was formerly known as people behind Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Cisco.

July 30 is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Globally, an estimated 24.9 million people are subjected to human trafficking, which generates an estimated $150 billion annually in illicit profits, per the 2021 National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking White House report. According to UNICEF, more than 1.2 million children are trafficked across international borders each year. More than 17,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year. Many are children. These are very sobering statistics that only continue to grow each year.

The Foundation for a Slavery Free World (SFW) is one organization that has partnered with Cisco through Cisco's Community Impact to end human trafficking by public outreach via education and events, supporting law enforcement's efforts to rescue victims, and collaborating with the IT industry to develop new technologies. Cisconian Scarlet Estrada, CX enablement program manager, shares about her involvement with SFW and how all Cisconians can be an advocate for this important topic.

Tell us a little about yourself and what brought you to Cisco?

Scarlet: I was born in Venezuela and began my career with Chevron, working several different analyst positions in both Venezuela and California for a little over ten years.

I then moved to Canada to start a new life with my young family, starting with Boston Pizza as a community relations coordinator, which allowed me to start a new professional network and afforded me the flexibility to raise my young children at the time.

I also held positions as a quality engineering assistant, communications coordinator, and client services account coordinator for different companies.

Through the years, I kept in touch with many colleagues in the corporate world. A friend who was at Cisco reached out to me in 2018 to let me know about a renewals manager position within Cisco's Customer Experience (CX) organization, stating that my background in account coordination, customer experience and marketing would be beneficial to the team. I interviewed, got the job, and began my Cisco career in November 2018.