Ever since I heard about the International Justice Mission I've been reading their Aussie Facebook page and trawling through both their International and Australian websites. These people are truly heroes in the developing world. They are feet-on-the-ground, supporting people who need justice and support to recover and thrive.
As I was reading their Facebook page this week I discovered that today is "World Day Against Trafficking in Persons". The statistics for this crime are heartbreaking: 68% of the victims of people trafficking in Africa and the Middle East are children. Children! Sixty percent of all victims of people trafficking are women.
These statistics are devastating and infuriating. It is completely incomprehensible to me, in my very safe corner of the world, that people are experiencing this as their reality. I just don't even have language or coherent thoughts about how to begin expressing how I feel when I imagine what a woman or a child might endure in such a situation. And I have a completely uneducated brain on the subject. I'm about to remedy that - I'm awaiting the arrival of "The Locust Effect" by Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros and "Half the Sky" by Nicholas Kristoff.
So even though I know almost nothing I am again experiencing heartbreak. That "break my heart for what breaks Yours" prayer is bursting to the top of my 'urgent' pile again, refusing to be assuaged by a "someone else will take care of it" approach, which would be so easy.
UNODC have some suggestions for people who don't know what to do in a brochure which you can find here. You could also find ways to support the International Justice Mission who are doing the hard yards to rescue people, get justice for them and help them to recover. They have suggestions on their website.
If you have social media accounts for Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr you could go here and join the ThunderClap campgain. It looks easy enough...if you're a social media kind of person. Not like me!
We can all take a step from where we are now towards rescuing those being trafficked. How bizarre that all these years after William Wilberforce put a stop to slavery it seems that not a lot has changed.
1 comment:
It is awful to consider that all the hard work that was done to abolish slavery hasn't been able to rid our world of it. Honestly, I don't think we ever will but we can sure work might hard to try. Thanks for this great post and for visiting my blog.
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