offensive? i hope so.

Here as a passionate response to human trafficking. It’s a good read.

 

I hope you are not offended by simple words… but by the injustice. 

 

Mercy.

33 Ways to Respond

Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation

33 WAYS TO RESPOND

1. Tell others.
   Expose the truth about modern-day slavery. Make sure everyone knows the 27 million dirtiest secrets. Make sure they see the film, and talk about it afterward.
2. Invest in change.
   Support those on the frontlines and enable them to make a difference. Help fund the most effective projects to reduce slavery and care for its victims at:
   http://www.callandresponse.com/takeaction_fap.html.
3. Join the network.
   At betheresponse.com, connect with other abolitionists in your area and with organizations addressing the issue. Receive and respond to messages with calls to action. Together, we can make change.
4. Consume wisely.
   Hold businesses accountable and ask corporations to join the fight. At chainstorereaction.com, email companies to ensure that their products are slave-free. Soon you will be able to demand the SLAVE-FREE brand.
5. Volunteer.
   Volunteer with a local anti-trafficking organization. They need your help!
6. Watch.
   Keep an eye out and don’t turn away. If you suspect slavery or exploitation, call the national trafficking hotline: 888-3737-888. Find out what to look for at: www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking
7. Text.
   Text RESPOND to 90999 to donate $5 to a project on the frontlines. Text CALL to 90999 to add your name to the network of abolitionists.
8. Write.
   Submit an op-ed. Encourage newspapers, magazines and television stations to publish or to write stories about modern-day slavery, and how to stop it.
9. Map it.
   Document slavery in your area with slaverymap.org.
   Pressure law enforcement agencies to make investigations.
10. Tourism matters.
    Visit the Trafficking In Persons Report from the State Department (http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008/). Find out which countries are the worst trafficking offenders. Write a letter to their travel bureau and tell them you won’t visit the country until they address the issue.
11. Purchase.
    Buying products made by survivors helps ensure their self-sufficiency. Shop at the Emacipation Network’s www.madebysurvivors.com.
12. Make help available.
    Place coasters at bars and sleeves for coffee cups to promote the hotline (888-3737-888). In public places, disseminate posters, brochures and other materials about trafficking. Download them from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
13. Organize.
    Organize your community to address the issue in your area. For tips on how, see www.stopmodernslavery.org/docs/toolkit.pdf
14. Advocate for change.
    Call or write your elected officials. Tell them that you care about the issue of human trafficking and want stronger laws to protect victims. Keep telling them. Get news from www.polarisproject.org on how to engage in political action and advocacy.
15. Give healthcare.
    Help collect and pack medical supplies and equipment to be sent to shelters for survivors. (Check out Giving Children Hope: www.gchope.org)
16. Walk.
    Global March has freed over 60,000 slaves in India. Their marches promote education for children instead of forced labor and exploitation: www.globalmarch.org
17. Cybervention.
    Make sure trafficking does not happen on the internet. Keep an eye on Craigslist and advertising spaces.
18. Fight sex tourism.
    Ask travel agencies, hotels and tour operators to sign the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children in Travel and Tourism (www.thecode.org).
19. Learn more.
    Find useful documents to download at www.freetheslaves.net and http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008/
20. Prepare caretakers.
    Encourage healthcare providers and law enforcement officials to be aware of the signs of human trafficking. Download resource guides from www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking
21. Rescue victims.
    Pressure for raids of forced labor and slavery situations. Lawyers can make a big difference in advocating for legal investigation and prosecuting perpetrators. Have them join the team at www.ijm.org.
22. Do good business.
    I nitiate business-to-business campaigns (Hagar Soya Company). Consult for anti-trafficking non-profits. Hire survivors of slavery. Ensure fair labor. Encourage your CSR campaigns to focus on anti-slavery efforts.
23. Go.
    Volunteer with organizations caring for survivors. Help build shelters. Teach English. Provide skills training. Ask the organization how you can help.
24. Assist victims.
    Volunteer at a local shelter for survivors. Help survivors access medical care and counseling, legal services, housing, a new job and companionship. Do a drive for supplies and donations to care for child victims of slavery.
25. Slave-Free Campuses.
    Start a group at your school or university, and make sure your campus is free of products made with slave labor.
26. Safeguard transportation.
    Ask airlines to provide training manuals to all their flight attendants on how to watch for victims being trafficked. Find the manual at www.innocentsatrisk.org
27. Motivate others.
    Post the Call+Response trailer on your Facebook and MySpace pages. Join the cause. Join the causes of other organizations. Encourage your friends to do the same.
28. Love Freedom.
    Give all you would spend on Valentine’s Day to buy freedom for slaves and to care for its victims. Support organizations on the frontlines at callandresponse.com. Tell those you love that you want them do the same.
29. Remember the facts.
    Memorize the statistics about child and sex slavery. Tell people.
30. Faith, Schools and Freedom.
    Help your faith community or school become an Abolitionist Organization. Find theses handbook in the action downloads section at: www.notforsalecampaign.org.
31. Spread the word.
    Download posters from the C+R website and hang them in town and at school. Email to all your friends, family & coworkers the website link: www.callandresponse.com
32. Get insights from the UN.
    Learn more and find expert advice in the UN’s Toolkit to Combat Trafficking: http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/HT_Toolkit08_English.pdf
33. Do what you love.
    Use your talents to fight slavery. Do an art project and display it in a public place. Use a sports event to raise awareness and funds for the issue. Talk about the issue at a concert, or make it a benefit for survivors. Film a movie on the state of modern-day slavery. Write about the issue and post it on blogs.

Call + Response

 

Traveling mercies

Sex Sells: Children.

“Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery of practices similar to slavery

_U.N. Definition (from Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Person, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime)

• Worldwide, it is estimated that somewhere between 700,000 and four million women, children and men are trafficked each year, and no region is unaffected.
• An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 women and children are trafficked into this country each year for sexual exploitation
• UNICEF reports that across the world, there are over one million children entering the sex trade every year and that approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation over the past 30 years.
• Despite an estimated prevalence of 100,000 to 150,00010 slaves in the U.S., fewer than 1,000 victims have been assisted through the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement since 2001, when services for trafficking victims were first made available

     _Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking

 

The statistics: staggering, unbelievable, unfathomable, repulsive.

 

It’s a sick and twisted world we live in… this is real.  Human trafficking and sexual exploitation is alive and well in other countries… and our own.  I hope this isn’t a new topic of discussion for you or that this is the first time you ever heard about this world wide epidemic… but the said thing is… it most likely is.  

 

It breaks my heart. Truly. It breaks my heart to utmost core of who I am.  

 

Thankfully… there is Hope in this world… and there is a Savior who can be healing… and through his obedient followers… be the Remedy.  There are many organizations and movements that have been formed to help stop the inhumanity and bring love into a hurting world.  

The Sold Project is a movement that evolved out of a broken heart for the woman of Thailand.  Rachel Sparks put together a team of artists, photographers, and ordinary people to travel to Thailand and shoot a series of short films and documentaries on sexual trafficking in a feeble attempt to bring about more awareness of this topic on a national and global scale.  They encourage people to become activists in their communities to spread the word about human trafficking and they long for people to simply have conversations and dialogue regarding this issue in an attempt to eventually bring healing to a broken group of people.

 

The SOLD Project – Web Promo 1 from The SOLD Project on Vimeo.
 

The Sold Project is simply one movement fighting the evil. Check out these other movements.

Not For Sale

The Polaris Project

HumanTrafficking.org

Made by Surviors

 

I pray we don’t become apathetic to yet another tragedy within our world.

 

Get educated. Get involved. Fight the injustice. 

 

Traveling mercies