It’s hard not to look out the window of this second-story coffee shop, glance from face to face of the tourists, and not try to understand what their real purpose is here in Cambodia. I look primarily at the men as suspects, animals capable of so much destruction to even one human life. And it’s hard not to think this when you see a grown man in his sixties, white, walking a little Cambodian girl by the hand. It looks innocent enough… but not when the she’s no different than the beggars around her.
It’s not uncommon for children like her to be picked up by human traffickers.
And so I’m still not giving this issue any rest. In the back of my conscience I can’t help but mull over this and pray over it daily. I cannot effectively communicate the way that I’ve been ruined, and perhaps I’m still trying to get over the shock factor and couple it with my ability to react. I just want to make a difference. I want to awaken our generation to such things.
I realize there’s much more going on in the world than just human trafficking, yes. There’s a crisis that yet remains in Darfur. There’s still hell in Uganda’s society. There’s still people wrestling to feed their family’s in Russia.
But there’s some things in life that God just removes the blinders to.
I don’t have much time to write today, but I wanted to leave you with some resources so you can do some research and learn about this yourself. Stephanie Fisk, who was on last years World Race and is currently leading the July 2008 squad, sent me some links. They did a bike-a-thon last year to raise awareness of the human trafficking issue, not just as an international issue, but as a domestic one as well. Because folks, ‘the USA is one of the number one countries creating demand for this kind of thing. Anyway, here’s some links. Please check them out and prayerfully consider your involvment in abolishing modern-day slavery.
(Special thanks to Stephanie Fisk, Eric Hanson, Eric Retterbush, and Clay Massey for letting me rip this off of your website!)
Organizations/Projects/Groups/Books
Not For Sale http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
The Amazing Change http://www.theamazingchange.com/
Polaris Project www.polarisproject.org/
Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking http://www.iast.net/
Free the Slaves http://www.freetheslaves.net/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=183&srcid=-2
Trafficking in Persons Report (June 2007)
Movies: Amazing Grace (’07), Trade (’07)
Books: Not For Sale by David Batstone, Disposable People by Kevin Bales, The Natashas by Victor Malarek, Be the Change by Zach Hunter, A Crime So Monstrous by E. Benjamin Skinner.
Organizations Around the World
NightLight http://www.nightlightbangkok.com/
…a ministry in urban Bangkok, which reaches out to women and children working in the bar areas of Nana/Sukhumvit. Located in a neighborhood with a growing sex trade, Nightlight’s vision is to share the Light of the world in both word and deed to those who live in darkness. To know more visit their website.
The RugMark Foundation. RugMark is the international nonprofit organization devoted to building schools, programs and opportunities that give children back their childhoods by ending child labor in the handmade carpet industry in South Asia.
Hagar Project http://www.hagarproject.org/
Childvoice International http://www.childvoiceintl.org/
Domestic Organizations (State-side)
Center to Restore Trafficked and Exploited Children www.crtec.org
Innocence Atlanta http://www.innocenceatlanta.org/
Organizations focused both Abroad and Stateside
International Justice Mission (IJM) is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community and civic factors that promote functioning public justice systems. To read more visit their website at http://www.ijm.org/
Make Way Partners http://www.makewaypartners.org/
