No matter what you think about the slavery of the past - know that the slavery of today must have warriors like William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King Jr.
27 Million people are enslaved around the world today for labor and sex.
32 Billion dollars. That is how much the human trafficking and sex trade industry makes currently, that is how much it is worth.
80% of those enslaved are women and children.
In case you didn't catch it, I never mentioned only one country...in fact I mentioned 161 countries that promote or partake in the disgusting act of selling human beings. The US included.
I'm not here to say I'm some magical warrior that can change the world with a little bit of money or an army, but I am saying that I am already part of an army that should take a step towards doing something about it. The world is torn every day into a million little pieces of consumerism and poverty. Every day men and women turn on their computers to watch women, men, and children strip and lay with people they have never met before. Which means every day women, men and children are forced in front of screens and told to do as they are demanded - or die.
Some reading may find it extreme, or think I am over exaggerating but read closely as I go on.
This act of sex and labor trafficking does not just happen in far off countries that no one has ever heard of, it is happening in my backyard and I am sure your's as well. Detroit, Pontiac, and Toledo are three of the top hubs for human trafficking in the world. Not country. I said world. I live two and a half hours from Toledo. I live fourty-five minutes from Detroit. I live fifteen minutes from Pontiac. I am a target.
My roommate is a target.
My boyfriend is a target.
The children I babysit are targets.
This is not to say "don't ever go to any of these places" or "don't leave your home". Instead I am asking that as a body of individuals who believes this is wrong that we take action against it.
What can be done?
Below is a list of organizations you can become a part of, or at least assist in their already strong fight for the rights of ever man, woman, and child ever sold for labor or sex in the world today.
Exodus Cry
Hope Alliance
Polaris Project
Not For Sale Campaign
Tiny Hands International
Those are just the few that come up, and I can say that all of them have one common goal - to rid this earth of one of the most hainess crimes ever committed by its people. If you aren't disgusted by the statistics, or even the idea that minutes from where you stand someone is being drugged and shoved into a van to be sold to men around the world - stop reading now.
If a lump just formed at the bottom of stomach because you never knew, and want to know more - the only way to change something is to educate yourself and others. Spread the world, and help put an end to Human Trafficking.
until next time.
