What sparked this post was an article I just read yesterday about a major sex-ring bust right here in our very on U.S. of A.
For me it happened mainly in my own backyard. The Everett-Seattle-Tacoma area had the largest number of children rescued. 23 of the 69 child prostitutes were from this area.
Kind of scary to think about isn't it?
Up until about a year ago I didn't even know what human trafficking was. I thought it was smuggling people to be honest. Which is part of it, but not the whole story.
During my time in the Movement, down in LA, we'd get a variety of speakers coming to talk to us about random things. Sometimes it'd be ministries inside the Dream Center, or people coming to encourage us. The one that stuck with me the most was a lady from Oregon who talked to us about raising people's awareness of human trafficking.
There are five types of human trafficking:
1. Prostitution: by far the most wide spread, and well known.
2. Forced labor: kind of self explanatory, normally people come to the US looking for a better life, and are forced to "work off" the cost of the trip which was paid for by their employer. But the work never ends, they usually sleep, eat, and live all in the same place. They aren't usually allowed to leave, they're slaves basically.
3. Child soldiers: completely self explanatory.
4. Organ theft: by far one of the most elusive forms of human trafficking is the black market for stolen organs. Either the people are promised a large sum of money for their organ (usually a kidney), and are paid very little. OR they just take your organs by force if you either refuse the offer, or try to back out at the last minute.
5. Forced begging: think "Slumdog Millionaire." You know the scene where they're blinding the children. It's very sad, but very true. In many foreign countries this does happen.
Well, that's a little bit of a downer isn't it. I feel like it's good to know the facts. It's heartbreaking but it happens.
Now you're probably thinking what can I do about this? I know when I heard all this for the first time, I was couldn't help thinking, "Why have I never heard about this before?"
I was outraged, and sick to my stomach. I wanted to find a way to help, a way to make a difference.
Here's some people making differences. I encourage you to check out these websites, and see what people are doing to put an end to this horrible crime, and see about ways that you can get involved.
Stop the Traffik: http://www.stopthetraffik.org/
Not for Sale: http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
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