Human Trafficking

Hopefully you all have heard a lot about human trafficking. It is a horrible and serious problem in the world. I came across this statistic today...

"There are more slaves now than in the entire history of the transatlantic slave trade. There were at least 11 million Africans sold into slavery and exported to the Americas. Today, 200 years later, there are more than 20 million slaves across the world. Human-trafficking is modern-day slavery. It describes the transportation of persons into forced labour, sexual exploitation or other illicit activities. In other words, through the use of coercion, deception, and manipulation,
people are dehumanised into commodities."

I tried to find a reliable source for this statistic and came up dry for this specific number. However, I did find this from the U.S. Government's 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report:

"A wide range of estimates exists on the scope and magnitude of modern-day slavery. The International Labor Organization (ILO )-the United Nations agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues-estimates there are 12.3 million people in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, and sexual servitude at any given time; other estimates range from 4 million to 27 million.

Annually, according to U.S. Government-sponsored research completed in 2006, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions trafficked within their own countries. Approximately 80 percent of transnational victims are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. These numbers do not include millions of female and male victims around the world who are trafficked within their own national borders-the majority for forced or bonded labor."

As Christians, we must be informed and involved in putting a stop to human trafficking. There is absolutely no reason for us to remain idle while millions upon millions of valuable human beings are being exploited every single day.

But there comes a question... How can we help? Sometimes I become so overwhelmed with a situation that I don't even know where to begin. There is so much to change and stop, where do we start? I wanted to give you some hopefully practical links after I searched for a way to help myself.

Number one is, of course, to pray. Prayer does work and is absolutely necessary (I know you all know this!). Pray for protection, for slaves to be miraculously released, pray for healing, and ministries/organizations to begin to minister to the victims and also the ones who exploit. Prayer requests are absolutely endless in this. Imagine one of the victims being your daughter, son, niece, nephew, or cousin... wouldn't you be motivated to stop this?

Beyond prayer, there are more "practical" things you can do:

Inform Yourself
* Skim (or read!) the 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report
* Read survivor's stories. They are easy to find, just do some googling and you will come across them (there are often many at BBC News).
* Visit human trafficking sites to understand more facts and statistics. Here are some great links!
* Watch a Dateline special on trafficking If you're a Dateline watcher, you may have already seen this since they air it frequently (I've seen it a few times). It is powerful and motivating. You can't ignore the issue after seeing this and the children's faces.

Talk and Inform Others
Once you have information on human trafficking, make your friends and family aware of the problem! It is so important for people to understand what is happening in the world, even if the topic is depressing or hard to swallow. If you need help in this area, the end of James 1 always motivates me not to be passive!

Give financially
* There are a ton of organizations out there that are working to end human trafficking. I have gathered many that I know are reliable, to give you easy access to links:
* World Vision (monthly)
* World Relief (Choose "Anti-Trafficking Activities")
* Shared Hope International
* Village Focus International
* International Justice Mission

Write to your congressman
* It is always great to write personally, but if you don't have the time or don't know what to say, World Vision offers a message already prepared. You just spend less than a minute entering in your information: Click here

An acquaintance of mine in Oregon named Ro has started her own ministry called The Freedom Project. While teaching English in South Korea, Ro was struck by the enormity of the sex industry. She wanted to reach out to the prostitutes by teaching them English, but she was only able to reach them by teaching the pimps first. Her testimony always amazes me. She has committed her life to stop human trafficking and recently was all over Europe to investigate the issue there. Also, this past spring, she organized a rally in downtown Salem, Oregon to inform people of the issue. I invite you to check out her website and help her by prayer, encouragement, or finances.

Human trafficking is an issue that has been really close to my heart lately. While I was in Southeast Asia, I came face to face with the sex industry. My stomach churned every time I saw a single white male by himself, especially when his arm was around a young Thai woman. While we were debriefing on a beach near Bangkok, we even saw someone shooting images of pratically child pornography with some young Thai girls. It was so disturbing. Also, when we were in Poipet, Cambodia, we drove through the brothels one night and were told that the most popular brothels had prostitues that were 5 and 6 years old. How do you even process that? How?! (You will see faces like that in the Dateline link posted above).

There is just no way we can sit and let this continue on. Ask God what He would like you to contribute to stopping this NOW. Slavery needs to end!

Remembering Cambodia

I am up quite late, because I can't sleep. Tonight I watched the movie "Blood Diamond" and I simply cannot shake all of things that movie stirred in my heart. The movie depicts such horrors, not just in the violence and brutality, but selfishness in all of our hearts. I invite you to all check it out, although a warning that it is quite violent.

As I've said, my time in SE Asia is never far from my thoughts. In fact, I think about my experiences and the people I met at least 5 times a day. I just can't forget or ignore those 9 weeks. There's no way... it's not possible.

Poipet, Cambodia often comes to mind as I think about all of the poverty I was face to face with... and yet all the hope there is for that country and city. Recently I was looking at a Lonely Planet type book about Cambodia, and for Poipet it said something like: "There is absolutely nothing that would bring you to this dirty city, except for a bus layover or a chance to gamble in SE Asia". That quote made me so angry and sad. I thought about all of the children I held there... children who were dirty, hungry, in need of love. There is every reason for people to visit Poipet, if only to see how people live. I realize the book is directed toward tourism (which, we all have to admit, is primarily selfish), but it still greatly upset me. I pray for the children at the pre-school every day.



This is Silyn, who I grew so attached to. I taught her english every afternoon, and instantly her and I had a bond. I can't even explain it, really. Yes, she was really cute and wanted to hold my hand and be held all the time, but it was something deeper. She had a real passion and spunk and was quite feisty and strong willed. I was so drawn to her and every break I had from teaching, I would try to invest my time especially in her and play with her and make sure she knew I truly loved her.

There were a group of girls that I grew really close to in the afternoon (Silyn was obviously one of them) and we would always play together. There was this one game that I especially liked, I of course don't know the name, but part of it involved a Khmer song and I loved hearing their little voices sing. The girls also loved playing with my hair and gave me some very interesting hairstyles (here's one example, although I had taken out 2 braids by this point):



On our last day at the school, I held Silyn as much as I could. I took a video to show the pre-school a little and display how the kids would climb all over us. I was holding her while taking the video, with two little ones at my knees, begging to be picked up, and even hitting each other at who got to be held next. Here it is:




Shortly after I took that video, I gave Silyn a card that I made her. I don't even remember what I said in it (I wish I had written it down for myself), but I just wrote blessings over her, encouraged her, and kept emphasizing that she is special, loved and created for a purpose. I hope and pray that Heng (her teacher) was able to translate the card for her. She was really excited to receive it, but oh my word, do I wish there was more I could have done for her... Here she's holding the card:



One last picture to show you. It cracks me up so much. I had been taking these really adorable group shots of team members with the children surrounding them, but as each picture went on, the kids grew more and more excited. I went last, and by this point, the kids could just not sit down. So, here is the picture that ended up being taken:



Those children were so beautiful and amazing. I can't help but think about their lives and the horrific things they've seen and endured, but I am so encouraged that they are able to get an education, receive a meal, and have a safe and clean place to be all because of MMF.

I think I will need to make another Cambodia post. That will come soon... :)