Wednesday, August 06, 2008

help = hope

My daughter and I are getting invovled in the fight against Human Trafficking.

Over 27 million children and adults exist as labor, sex, and war slaves globally today. 100,000 exist in the U.S. alone. 30,000 more are smuggled through the U.S. as they travel to other international destinations. Human Trafficking is the 3rd most profitable illegal trade. The U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted criminals of the slave trade in 91 cities throughout the U.S. and in almost every state of the nation.

A symposium is being held in our area on September 20th. HTA symposium - Please try to attend and educate yourself more than anything.

Last night we met as a group to watch Trade the Movie.
I was left with so many emotions. Watch it if you have a chance.

The practice of slavery in the US is something most people think ended with the 13th Amendment in 1865, but in recent years it has returned in an even more virulent form. Fueled by the collapse of the Soviet Union and other eastern European countries, new technologies like the internet, and sieve-like borders, the traffic in human beings has become an epidemic of colossal dimensions. The State Department estimates that as many as 800,000 people are trafficked over international frontiers each year, largely for sexual exploitation. Eighty percent are female and over fifty percent are minors. Many people in this country push this atrocity out of their minds, believing that it only occurs in faraway countries like Thailand, Cambodia, the Ukraine and Bosnia. The truth is that the United States has become a large-scale importer of sex slaves. Free the Slaves, America's largest anti-slavery organization estimates that at least 10,000 people a year are smuggled or duped into this country by sex traffickers.

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