QUEENS AMBASSADOR AWARDS
Shandra Woworuntu
Traffi cking survivor helps others fi nd freedom
Shandra Woworuntu, 41, was
named in 2017 L’Oreal Paris Woman
of Worth National Honoree for
founding the Astoria-based
Mentari USA, a non-profit
which has worked to help
the victims of human
trafficking.
W o w o r u n t u ’ s
personal odyssey
began in her native
Indonesia in 1998 as
a 21-year-old, college
educated financial
analyst who lost her job
in the Asian banking
crisis and needed a job
to care for her daughter.
With no options available,
she answered an ad for a sixmonth
seasonal waitressing job
in Chicago. The job offer was a hoax.
Woworuntu traveled to the United
States in 2001, landing instead at
JFK International Airport where she
was met by a Malaysian man named
Johnny, who took all of her documents
and passport and led her to a car which
took her to Flushing and eventually a
brothel in Brooklyn, where a few hours
after her arrival in the United States
she was forced to have sex.
For more than five
months, Woworuntu
was transported from
brothel to brothel along
the I-95 corridor as a
sex slave nicknamed
“Candy” with other
girls from Indonesia,
Thailand, China and
Malaysia always
under the threat of
violence and forced
to take drugs and
alcohol.
Later that year,
Woworuntu jumped from
the window of a Sunset
Park brothel in Brooklyn
with another woman and sought help
from the NYPD and the Indonesian
consulate to no avail. Homeless, she
often slept in the subways or on the
Staten Island Ferry until a sailor
from Ohio met her in a Brooklyn
park, fed her, listened to her story and
called the FBI.
Ran Yan
At the helm of an historic Queens site
Ran Yan se r ve s as the
Exe c ut ive D i r e c t or o f L ewi s
H. L at i mer House Mus eum.
She r e c eive d a n E dwa r d
I . K o c h F e l lowsh ip
i n 20 1 3 pi lot ing
t he L at ime rNOW
p r oj e ct to
r e i m a g i n e
t r a d i t i o n a l
h i s tor ic hous e
mus eums a nd
r e v i t a l i z e
t he Lat ime r
Hous e .
She works
t o eng a g e
a dive r s e
a u d i e n c e
t h r o u g h
a c c e s s i b l e
p r o g r a m s
r o ot e d i n A f r ic an
Ame r ic an inventor
a nd humani s t Lewi s
H. Lat i mer’s le g acy, and
bui ld par t ne r s h ip s wit h
c ommu ni t y st a keholde r s in
Flushing , Que ens and v a r ious
c u l tu r a l or g a n i z at ions
t h r oughout N ew York C i t y.
Yan le ads the Mus eum
to become a center of
i n novat ive le a r n ing
and common ident it y.
Befor e movi n g to
New York Cit y,
she stud i e d
a rchi t e c t u r e a nd
p r e s e r v a t i o n
a t Tong j i
U n i v e r s i t y
i n Sha ngha i ,
Chi na and
c o m p l e t e d
her Ma s t e r ’s
Deg r e e in
H i s t o r i c
P r e s e r v a t i o n
P l a n n i n g
a t Cor ne l l
Uni v e r s i t y.
Yan is a Bei j i ng
nat ive i n love wit h t he
nei ghb o rho o d a nd c it y she
cu r r ent l y r e s ide s i n.
Dime
Community Bank
Congratulates
Florin Cristian
Pascu
And all of the
2019 Ambassador
Awards honorees
Dime understands the importance
of serving and supporting our
communities. That’s why we salute
Florin Cristian Pascu, Dime Assistant
Vice President, and all of this year’s
Ambassador Awards honorees.
800.321.DIME (3463) • dime.com
Dime Community Bank
26 TIMESLEDGER, JUNE 7-13, 2019 QNS.COM
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