On the11th and 12th of March I was down at a church in Black Diamond, WA helping the nonprofit Generation 4 Justice put on a retreat raising awareness about modern day slavery - i.e. human trafficking.
If you don't know about human trafficking...and I hope you do...it's when people, the majority being women and children, are tricked or forced into dangerous or backbreaking work for no pay in poor conditions (often they're beaten, raped etc), or even more horrifically forced prostitution (often they're beaten, repeatedly raped, and things I don't even want to describe). I really don't know how anyone can read an account of someone who's been through it and not feel angry or sad - much less go to a weekend primarily focused on it and not be messed up totally by what they hear - even if you've known about it for years. The first time I heard about trafficking was several years ago. And I'm just as - actually more - bothered by it than I was then.
Honestly since the retreat I've felt really angry and frustrated. It seems like it's such a losing battle, even just in the United States, to end this thing. Even here in Washington there is trafficking, both people being taken from here and people being sold here. It's an industry that will surpass drug trafficking in profitability within a few years. While they're improving, laws often seem to be easy to loophole and getting enough evidence on traffickers to convict them is rare. Illinois just got its first conviction on the 14th of March this year, so only a few days ago, and Chicago is known for being a really big hub for sex slavery. And it's even more prevalent in countries with more corrupt governments. South America is becoming a bigger and bigger circuit. Traffickers take women and children from countries like Mexico and Guatemala and bring them further south to countries like Columbia and Brazil where sex tourism (exactly what it sounds like, a vacation for exploiting girls) is very popular. Asia and Africa have been huge trafficking zones (both for stealing and for selling girls) for a long time.
The week before the conference, as I was researching and getting ready, almost every evening eating dinner with the family I thought "there are girls being raped right now, children being beaten and starved right now...for no reason other than greed...and I'm enjoying a great meal..." And I don't know what to do with it. I thought that being a part of the Generation 4 Justice retreat would make me feel like "yes, I've helped make a difference for these people" but while at times when i was there it did...there were times I felt like I wasn't doing a thing and being a little over a week away from it I feel even more like there must be more I can do...like I'm useless and wasting my time. If I just knew where they were around here - what businesses are using forced labor...what establishments are offering girls to customers for sex behind closed doors I could do something that would directly result in the freedom of these people. Instead I am sitting here writing a blog while young children and women are being repeatedly abused and molested.
But I refuse to believe that I am powerless. And I know people like the G4J crew refuse to believe it too. You should refuse to believe that as well.
I have spent hours online looking for anything I can plug into in Illinois...or anywhere else...where I can actually be useful to putting a dent in this and all I find is "plan an awareness event" and "give money" which are great things (creating awareness is critical for helping people avoid getting tricked into being trafficked and is instrumental in the long term and can help people recognize trafficking that's hiding in plain sight and I'm hoping to instigate events like the G4J youth event or speaking at churches etc in Illinois) but I don't want to only talk about it and I'm already giving most of the money I could use as fun money to helping educate and improve the communities of 3 girls in Guatemala which significantly lowers their chances of being sold off into the sex trade so their parents can afford to eat. I can't get away from the feeling of "it isn't enough" "there's more you can do."
One practical thing that teens can do is reach out to their hurting friends. A lot of pimps and recruiters target lonely girls, pretend to be kind and in love with them and the next thing the girl knows she's in a living hell because she bought the whole thing and no one was close enough to her to be there and see the red flags. It's worth noting also that there wouldn't be a sex tourism industry if there weren't clients - known as "Johns" who pay to rape and molest women and children. I don't even know how to process that so many men can take part in sex tourism enough that 1 girl can make a pimp/trafficker $150,000-$200,000 a year with millions of victims. Not to mention slave labor trafficking...
Feel free to leave comments, start a discussion...(I may not be able to always jump on and join in, the next 4-5 weeks are going to be insane) there's so much that I barely touched on or didn't talk about at all. If nothing else my hope is that I'll expose you to or remind you of what's going on right around you and in almost every nation on this planet and that you'll think about it and start doing something about it.
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