A ten year old girl is walking alone heading home from
visiting a girl friend down the street. A van with darkened glass pulls up and
two men jump out grab her and put her in the van. She is beaten, rapped, and
drugged. They take her to a city like Louisville
where she is sold to a pimp and forced to have sex with a lot of men every day.
Today at my church’s Men’s Fellowship meeting our program
was a social worker Marissa Castellanos who works for Catholic Charities Human
Trafficking program. The sad fact is that human slave trade is second only to
the drug trade for making money by criminals. The statics are staggering and
the salve trade is not just for prostitution but also for domestic servants,
hotel house keeping and restaurant staffs. As a pastor I was aware that this
happened but the numbers presented today are appalling. I thought that most of
the human trafficking victims were from over seas but half are American children
and young women.
Awareness is our key to dealing with this issue. First we
must all be aware that it happens and report what we see. The HOTLINE number is
1 888 373-7888 use it to report or get help. Second make our girls aware what
could happen and train them to avoid walking alone and what to watch for. Girls
who run away are often targets for the slave/sex trade recruiters. They never
think about that possibility when they run away.
The problem is world
wide and much of the coffee and coco we consume is provided by slave labor in Africa and other places. There is a web site to check on
which companies are using and selling products that come from salve labor, www.free2work.org and those who use free
trade products.
Slavery is illegal but there is a lot of profit in buying
and selling slaves and it will take all of us being aware and willing to report
when we see it.
Please pass this information on to others.
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