This was meant to be part of a video on human trafficking...the video didn't work out for now, but the message is stilll there!

We live oblivious to what is going on around us...
We live oblivious to what has propelled this...
We live oblivious to the trauma of those who have lived this, are living this, and are about to live this...
It's time to be AWARE...

Every day, an untold number of children and adults are forced to be sex slaves...
Or work in conditions that would make most of us shudder...

HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS REAL...AND PRESENT ALL AROUND US

And what are we going to do to stop it?

Human trafficking involves a victim who is essentially imprisoned for the purposes of sex or labor, or even to be a child soldier....

How does this happen?

Victims are poor.  Victims are given opportunities for a better life.  Victims see no hope but to leave their homes.  This happens all over the world.  They BELIEVE those who give them a chance at putting food on their table.  They BELIEVE they are going to be nannies, to be waitresses, and that they will have a better life than the one they are currently living in.  They BELIEVE in hope. 

And, many are KIDNAPPED.

Photo: Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department

Wouldn't you want to leave this poverty?

Families living in horrific poverty give their children to others for labor in order to obtain money, not knowing the horrors that await them upon arrival to their destination.  Often, they never see their children again. 

Photo: Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department

How are they kept imprisoned? 
Often, their captors lock them in apartments unless it is time to work. 
Often, their captors threaten them into submission, and threaten harm to their families if they escape...
Often, their captors physically harm them, including sexually assaulting them - OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

How BIG is the problem of human trafficking?

BIGGER THAN YOU THINK.

There are millions of victims...and some of them exist here in the United States.  It's here.  It's not going away.  We cannot avoid it.

Do NOT think that it is NOT in our backyards.  IT IS. 

What if it was YOUR daughter?
YOUR son?
What would YOU do?

FIGHT FOR THEM!  DON'T GIVE UP!!

Help them!!!

Photos: Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department



Call the National Human Resource Trafficking Center at 1-888-3737-888....Or call law enforcement...

LET'S FIGHT THIS BATTLE FOR THOSE WHO ARE TOO IMPRISONED TO GET THEMSELVES OUT.  LET'S FIGHT THIS BATTLE FOR EVERY CHILD WHO DREAMED BIG DREAMS.  LET'S FIGHT THIS BATTLE FOR OUR OWN HUMANITY.

Photos from http://www.gtipphotos.state.gov/