How You Can Combat Sex Trafficking
Pray
Pray for freedom for everyone currently a victim. Pray for physical, spiritual, and emotional wholeness for sex trafficking survivors, and for their continued safety and possible reintegration into their family or community.
Throughout the year, find updated prayer requests on sex trafficking at www.TodaysChristianWoman.com.
Learn
Discover what's happening in regard to sex trafficking in your state. Subscribe to the free U.S. Policy Alert Service through the Polaris Project at www.polarisproject.org to receive regular updates, maps, and notifications of legislative developments on trafficking in the United States.
Sign up for the latest news and information about sex trafficking from the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking (IAST) at www.iast.net.
Tell
Hang an anti-trafficking poster in your church, business, or office. Posters advertising the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) victim hotline are available at www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/index.html or by calling 1-888-3737-888.
Introduce your book club, Sunday school, or other gathering to a book or movie on trafficking. Suggested books include Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery, edited by Jesse Sage and Liora Kasten, and The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade, by Victor Malerek. Movies include Trade (2007) and Human Trafficking, the four-hour Lifetime miniseries on European women trafficked into the U.S. for prostitution (2005).
Subscribe to Today's Christian Woman
In each issue of the magazine throughout 2008 we'll update you about this growing concern, introduce you to inspiring women who are battling this evil, and provide ways that you can join the fight. Subscribe today and $3.00 of your payment will go to our ministry partner, the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST). Together, we can make a difference! Subscribe now!
Advocate
Ask your state legislators how they're working to stop sex trafficking in your state. If they're not, offer to provide information on what they can do. To obtain this information, see the U.S. Department of Justice webpage on slavery and trafficking at www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/tpwetf.htm, and the model state law on trafficking at www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/model_state_law.pdf.
Serve
Contact FAAST, the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (www.faastinternational.org), for current volunteer opportunities in the U.S. or abroad. FAAST welcomes volunteers to research, write, do graphic design, review laws, plan events, and more.
If you suspect slavery or trafficking is happening near you, report it to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1-888-3737-888 or the U.S. Department of Justice Trafficking in Persons Complaint Line at 1-888-428-7581, or the FBI field office nearest you. Your call could save lives.
Originally published in: Today's Christian Woman, 2008, January/February, Vol. 30, Issue 1, Page 21
Related Topics:
Sex Trafficking
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Jo
Michaele What you may not realize about both trafficked women as well as those prostitutes in your own town is that while some have decided to sell thier bodies of thier own volition, many are tricked into signing up for jobs abroad and then literally sold to a pimp who systematically tortures them and beats them into submission until they have been "trained" to attract customers and make money for the pimp. You should educate yourself about the twenty first century slavery that we passively ignore.
EBMurphy
Thanks for your work in highlighting this amazing cause. I'll be adding you and the donation site to my blog about fighting sex trafficking. (http://seasonoflight.blogspot.com) Wish this could be your championed cause every year :)
Michaele
Sex Trafficking! What about all the prostitutes who advertise themselves and pictures on the internet. For instance Craigs list, and on and on. They are easy to contact, and usually call back on a different number and are right in your own backyard. They can easily arrange a meeting at a local motel. They may even be staying at a local resort where you and your family are vacationing! How come this is so easy and there are no limitations. Michaele
Diana Scimone
I have a blog with regular updates on how we can stop child trafficking: www.dianascimone.com
Diana Scimone
I've traveled to 40 countries and seen the horrors of child sex trafficking firsthand. Most children and teens are sold into trafficking because they don't know what they're getting into. Wherever awareness materials are available, the rate of trafficking plummets; there are just not enough materials available, nor in every language, nor targeted to the very kids who are at risk. That's why our non-profit organization, PawPaw's Pals, Inc., has launched the "Not For Sale" child-trafficking awareness project to educate at-risk children around the world. We're creating children's books, curriculum, parent materials, and more--all to create awareness about child trafficking with the ultimate goal of ending it. For more information: www.pawpawspals.org notforsale@pawpawspals.org
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