Did you know that Sex Trafficking is an ongoing illegal trade in our world?
Did you know that an estimated 17,500 may be imported into the USA each year?
Would you believe that 500,000 women are sold into European prostitution each year?
Can you imagine that most are below the age of 18?
Did you know that at least 10 million are victims of trafficking (both sexual and forced labor), and some say the number might be closer to 25 million?
What in the world can we DO about this?
Don’t just say this is awful, DO something:
http://www.thehomefoundation.net/ - Started by Natalie Grant to fight sex slavery.
ht: natalie grant
(Info taken from www.thehomefoundation.net and www.nataliegrant.com.)
24 responses so far ↓
kristiapplesauce // September 4, 2008 at 4:11 pm
It just takes a conversation!!!! Seriously and I have hook ups with hookers in SA if you need any information or want to help out in this area. Yay! Thanks Mandy.
LSOF // September 4, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I’ve heard about this…its insane…Natalie Grant’s song ” Held” is supposed to be about them.
{ okay, great minds think alike, I just emailed you and then noticed the sidebar LOL)
mandythompson // September 4, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Your hooker stories are so dang powerful. I’m proud of everything you do over there!! And I’m glad you take the time to share it all with us.
edfromct // September 4, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Natalie is “doing something” important to help those who need it the most.
In every city I have been to in America I have seen far too many young Americans on the street corner selling their bodies to survive.
I don’t know what the answer is. With a trillion dollar national budget we don’t devote anywhere near enough resources to this problem. At least people like Natalie are working to give children living like this some hope.
I do some volunteer work at a shelter, just four hours a week. It helps remind me that we are not nearly the great society we cliam to be.
angelbearoh // September 4, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Our church as a recurring guest preacher, a Scottish guy named Philip Cameron. His trademark ministry is several safe houses in Romania and Muldova called “Stella’s House”. These houses house orphans in these countries who would otherwise be abducted and sold into the sex slave trade.
In digging up with info for you, I found out that Mr. Cameron has a blog, and I’m seriously thinking about dropping him a line. Maybe tell him about our recent Northland Jubilee.
mandythompson // September 4, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Ed: You said it right here - “we are not nearly the great society we claim to be
Angel: Yeah! I’d love to hear more…
mandythompson // September 4, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Angel: I checked out his blog. Thank you for the link.
M // September 4, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Hi. I found your blog through another one that I read. You should check out a new book (out this month) called The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam. It is a heartbreaking memoir about a woman who was sold into sexual slavery as a child in Cambodia and who is now working to end that trade herself. A quick read that will surely break your heart but it is something that everyone needs to know about!
Pete Wilson // September 4, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Eye opening! Thanks so much Tam. I needed to read this tonight.
TheNorEaster // September 5, 2008 at 12:22 am
Disgusting.
There was actually something in the local paper about it a few years ago. It happens in my state capital, but nobody ever talks about it. Nobody dares. It’s too disgusting, too dangerous, too depressing…
…But not nearly as disgusting, dangerous, or depressing as people knowing about this and not going anything about it.
Rachel Rowell // September 5, 2008 at 1:07 am
Something we don’t think about nearly often enough. Thanks for opening our eyes to it.
lovewillbringustogether // September 5, 2008 at 6:08 am
if it wasn’t so ‘popular’ if the demand was not there the ‘industry’ would not be there.
Cane any one of us stop it - no - can we DO Something? i believe so!
it might not be much but each of us can have a small part to play.
How might we help eliminate, or reduce, individual sexual lust in our own community/local city?
It’s not easy - that does not mean we cant have victories and achieve some reductions.
Maybe we need more discussion to raise ideas?
<B
mandythompson // September 5, 2008 at 8:24 am
Love: Discussion definitely! Have you checked out the links above? They are doing some powerful work to stop this…
TheNor: You’re right - NOT doing anything is so wrong. SO wrong… I had no idea that these things still happened today, until I happened across Natalie’s blog. I found myself sitting there in shock reading her post. Talk about eye opening!
brainteaser // September 5, 2008 at 9:48 am
I know it exists, and I have a lot to say about it, I don’t know where to start.
In my country, news about human trafficking is so common. I don’t know of anyone here who had not heard of this happening yet. Maybe not much on sex trafficking, but labor trafficking.
Are we doing something? I believe so. But we’re not doing enough.
I don’t want to blame our government, although I believe it is not doing much to curb the problem, so I’d focus on what I have just experienced recently.
Before that, let me give you a little backgrounder:
A third-world country, we are known as among the greatest importers of labor in the world (sad, but true). My countrymen, many of them are degree holders, work abroad as either factory workers, domestic helpers, or nannies, or what have you. Some are lucky enough to work as professionals abroad, but many have to forget they have even gone to a university.
Last month, my sister-in-law was scheduled to fly for abroad to work as a domestic helper —against our advice. Thinking that she was going to Singapore and seeing that she was decided to leave, I eventually thought we’d better help her out (because we couldn’t stop her anyway), so she and my brother could have a better life..
But then I learned, a few days before her flight, that she was going to Lebanon. For US$300 a month!
Lebanon? $US300/month?
Imagine how I had felt when I got this information. I had advised her, begged her, threatened her, not to go because it wasn’t worth it. US$300 is not that much. And mainly because of the political situation over there.
She told me she had an aunt there, and that the situation is not really as bad as it is in the news. I wanted to believe her, because it’s the same here. They say it’s not safe here, but that is only true in a very small part of the country.
But Lebanon? US$300 a month?
Then I checked over the internet how the situation over there really is. And I found out that there is a deployment ban to Lebanon. I checked some more, and I found that since January 2007, 90+ foreign domestic helpers had died there, 15 of them are from our country.
What?
And my sister-in-law’s going there? For US$300 a month?
There’s a ban, my goodness sake!
I dug some more, and I found that it was supposed to be a direct hire. It was then that I stood up against her plan. I said, “you may hate me for this, but I cannot, and will not, be able to hold it in my conscience to let you go, knowing what could happen to you. If you still want to go, ask help somewhere, I can’t give you the money you need.” It was then that she told me that the one who was helping her started threatening her when she indicated she may have to back out. She was told she will have to pay back $1,000 if she backed out. That they will have her banned by our country’s overseas employment office, and she will never be able to leave the country. Ever!
I am not a lawyer, and I don’t know much about the law, but I knew right there and then that those who were “helping” my sister-in-law were up to no good.
I pointed out to my sister-in-law it couldn’t be. She hadn’t signed any contract yet, so how could they do that? Then I found that those who were “helping” her were not accredited by the country’s employment office, so if someone will be banned, it’s going to be them, not her. There was (and still is) a ban to Lebanon, so what they were planning to do with my sister in law is a form of human trafficking.
To cut the long story short, my parents used some form of parental power (if that thing exist) to stop her from leaving. We even advised her to make a statement at the police station, because they had her passport. Yes, I said it right, they had her passport. Also against the law, I know.
So I know this human trafficking thing happens. And I feel so helpless thinking there’s not much I can do. Just this past month, I read a news article that a countryman supposedly committed suicide in a Middle East country. She is the eighth from our country who is said to have committed “suicide” in that city this year.
And just the other day, a neighbor asked me to talk to their relative’s employer in the Middle East because they haven’t heard from their sibling since she left in February. They have been trying to talk to the agency, here and abroad, but to no avail. And because my neighbor and the agency in the Middle East couldn’t speak English that well, they asked me to speak with them, hoping that we’d understand each other.
I was able to talk to the agencies (here and abroad) but until now, we still haven’t heard from their relative. We’re not getting much help. The agency had told me they’d ring me back, but it’s been two days since, and we haven’t heard from them yet. I have advised my neighbors to go to the country’s overseas employment office, because if anyone could help them, it should be those in this office. And we’ve asked help from friends overseas as well. We hope to hear some news soon. Hopefully, it will be good.
For the time being, it’s a waiting game for us.
brainteaser // September 5, 2008 at 9:57 am
Hi Mandy. Please forgive the errors. I just typed it up and submitted it without reading it twice, because I thought if I’d re-read it, I might decide against submitting it.
maji6 // September 5, 2008 at 9:59 am
@ Brainteaser..thats really sad And I hope things work out.
May God rid the earth of people who do and are involved in such things.
mandythompson // September 5, 2008 at 11:38 am
Brainteaser: I am blown away by this. Simply blown away… I’ve gotta find some way to bring attention back to this.
Michelle Bentham // September 5, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Hey Mandy!
Christine Caine with Equip and Empower ministries (affiliated with Hillsong Church in Australia) has a project called A21 that you can read about here.
http://www.thea21campaign.org/
She has taken up this cause and has a video there. Also, Lisa Bevere has partnered with James Robinson at Life Today to get the word out. Read about the Zoe Project: http://www.gozoe.org/about_projects.php
One of the ways we can get involved on the front lines is to write our congressmen and women as well as our state legislators to impose stiffer penalties on people in this country who participate in the sex slave trade market. The victims of human trafficking are often young, non-english speaking teens and pre-adolescents who are looped in with promises of fame, fortune and future only to be sold into the pimp/prostite lifestyle that A21 talks about.
We have had that in our runaways here in the states for such a long time - think of Las Vegas where prostitution is legal.
The truth is - how do you prove it? And how do we help? Supporting the overseas projects are good, but we need grass roots action right here. Anyway… I’m rambling.
Brandy // September 5, 2008 at 9:08 pm
*sigh*
Breaks my heart and makes me sick.
TheSleepingBear // September 6, 2008 at 12:33 am
Regarding BrainTeaser’s Comment:
As an American, I know that the people of my country have the power to bring this matter to the attention of our leaders. Sadly, there is so much prejudice and racism here in the United States against people of color and especially against immigrants that the prevailing attitude here is, quite simply, “Oh, well!” Or “It’s their fault for being so naive.” Or “That’s not my problem!” Or “That’s not fair!” But there is nothing naive, or wrong for that matter, about wanting a better life and seizing what one believes to be the promise of one.
What is WRONG is American apathy toward the situation. What is WRONG is American prejudice toward those who were not born into the priviledge of opportunity like we were. What is WRONG is Americans having the power as the richest and most powerful nation on Earth to change these horrible situations and yet the extent of our political involvment is simply laughing at jokes that politicians make about one other.
And I say this because I, too, am guilty.
“People are defeated or go mad or die in many, many ways, some in the silence of that valley, WHERE I COUDN’T HEAR NOBODY PRAY and many in the public, sounding horror where no cry or lament or song or hope can disentangle itseslf from the roar. And so we go under, victims of that universal cruelty which lives in the heart and in the world, victims of the universal indifference to the fate of another, victims of the universal fear of love, proof of the absolute impossibility of achieving a life without love. One day, perhaps, unimaginable generations hence, we will evolve into the knowledge that people are more important than real estate and will permit this knowledge to become the ruling principle of our lives. For I do not for an instant doubt, and I will go to my grave believing that we can build Jerusalem, if we will.”
~James Baldwin
NOTHING PERSONAL
mandythompson // September 6, 2008 at 10:49 am
My gosh! These discussions are breaking my heart and breathing life into me all at the same time. I think I’m speechless. Chewing on all this, but speechless.
annie // September 11, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Wow. Wow. Shocked. Speechless.
brainteaser’s dream « mandythompson.com // September 15, 2008 at 12:13 pm
[...] during that conversation, Brainteaser left a comment that shook me - a comment that you don’t wanna miss. She told the story of her own [...]
alece // September 15, 2008 at 2:32 pm
woah…
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