Human Trafficking… Child Slaves
Human trafficking…
is it something for us to think about?
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Fact: Human trafficking involves children sold for slavery, the sex trade or even organ harvesting.
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Fact: It’s not only prevelant in Asia, Africa or Latin America, but also in the United States. You say, ” No way this could be true!”
Journalist Makes A Point
He made headlines a few years ago by “purchasing” two young Cambodian women to win their freedom from a brothel owner.
“It was terribly unjournalistic and unprofessional,” Mr. Kristof said after purchasing the two young women to free them from a brothel owner, adding that he paid $353 for their freedom. More shocking, though, was the fact that the brothel owner saw no problem giving him a receipt for the deal.
“It’s an astonishing world,” he said, “where you can get a receipt for buying another human being.”
Think About This
What I’ve been contemplating is supporting the cause for reclaiming the ‘taken’ children no matter what part of the world. We talk about literacy and giving children a ‘head start’ with reading before entering school. We gather books to send to children in need of reading material. These are all necessary and good things.
But what about the children who have never been taught to read because their mother was ‘taken or sold’ as a child and grew up in a brothel? These mothers of brothel-children are desperate to save their children from the life they now live. How could anyone help them? This is prevelant in Thailand, other parts of Asia and Africa where children are sold to pay family debts or just stolen from the parents. Then there are the missing children in the United States. How can we help in their rescue so they can learn to read one day and come out of poverty?
Why even be interested in something like this? All Christians are given the Great Commission to “Go into all the world and publish the good news”. Part of my publishing the good news (or as I like to say, ‘the almost too good to be true news’) will be sending a portion of my sales to benefit the ‘saving’ of these broken children. When you make a purchase, you will be helping the ‘throw away’ children, the stolen children and the abused children. It’s a small drip in a large bucket, but “Despise not small beginnings” and “Many hands make light work”. I can at least start, trusting that God will complete the work.
If you would prefer to give a donation yourself to a certified charity, then The http://www.pearlalliance.org/ is a good choice. The umbrella group it falls under is http://www.messengerinternational.org/. This is where my donations are going.
What do you think about child slavery? Do you think it’s possible to bring literacy to them?
The trafficking is a growing epidemic on the international stage. It is ranked as the third largest criminal network worldwide, and it continues to grow. The UN estimates that about 2 million children are trafficked every year.
ECPAT-USA, which stands for Ending Child Prostitution and Trafficking, is a network of organizations and individuals aiming to end the sexual exploitation of children. Through advocacy, research, and training, ECPAT-USA combats human trafficking. Therefore, I was very excited to see you speaking about this issue.
Public awareness, knowledge, and concern are essential components to ending child trafficking. So, I applaud your efforts and literacy program initiative. Furthermore, I would like to give you a few tips on how else you can combat child trafficking:
-Follow ecpatusa on Twitter to enlarge the public awareness campaign.
-Check out http://www.ecpatusa.org to find more information and resources.
-Support The Code of Conduct for the Travel Industry. Many times the travel industry inadvertently facilitates the exploitation of children. However, The Code promotes responsible, preventive protocols. You can support the campaign by printing out an awareness postcard and dropping it off with your hotel, airline or travel company. It can be downloaded at http://www.ecpatusa.org/thecode/.
-Purchase a TassaTag, which are bright colored, fair trade certified luggage tags, to support ECPAT's work and mission. The tags are produced at The Regina Center in Nongkhai, Thailand with proceeds being returned to the women in the center. This enables the women to stay within their local communities, produce a steady income, and enroll their children in school. These three initiatives are essential components to preventing the trafficking of children. Tassatags can be found at http://www.tassatag.org/.
Lastly, thanks again for your work and support! If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please contact me at angeline@ecpatusa.org.
Angeline:
Thank you for your comment, which is truly useful to anyone seeking more information on the issue. You've really opened our eyes even further.
I'll be checking into Tassatags http://www.tassatag.org/ What an excellent way to participate!
Downloading the awareness postcard for hotels and airlines by going to http://www.ecpatusa.org/thecode/ to support The Code of Conduct for the travel industry is such a simple idea but so effective!
I'd love to see the TSA's at the airports hand out a flyer that would coordinate with this. Could your organization get Starbucks involved, as they are at almost all airports.
Oh my… I am greatly distubed by these statistics! Thanks for initiating an awareness on the subject. I certainly had no comprehension of the severity of the problem. It just breaks my heart.