Abolition Begins With Awareness

In anything, we can't do anything to meaningfully fight against an injustice unless we are aware that it exists.  Then, we need to educate ourselves on the tragedy and care about ridding the Earth of it.  Once we care about fighting against it, we are ruined in a beautiful way because we absolutely have to do something to fight against the injustice.  The horrible injustice known as human trafficking is no different.

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and if you aren't already fighting against it in some meaningful way, I hope that you take some time to acquaint yourself to the epidemic that plagues babies, children, and adults around our world today more than it ever has in our Earth's history.  Then, I hope that you are brought to care about eradicating the world of the tragedy on your way to helping the fight against it.  (At the end of this post are few great organizations you can get involved with if you want to fight against trafficking, both on the prevention and intervention sides.)

My story involves simply becoming aware of human trafficking by reading a book discussing the practice, "Good News About Injustice," by Gary Haugen (www.ijm.org) when I was comfortable practicing law in a firm in Sacramento (which just happens to be the #1 human trafficking city (per capita) in the US).  Well, that book got me to care and I was forced to do something about it.

So I started looking into how I could fight against it with my legal skills and IJM seemed to be a natural fit.  That wasn't to be, but in the process I researched into the annals of human trafficking and found that orphans are commonly the victims of the epidemic because they don't have anyone to advocate for them.  That caused me to look into the prevention side of the fight against human trafficking - that is, how to prevent the orphans and other children from being forced or tricked into the terrible industry.

There is a whole lot more to the story, but the short of it is that my quest for a fit for an organization fighting to prevent orphans and at-risk children from the ills of trafficking led me to Providence.  How is Providence fighting human trafficking?  By working to inspire and equip others to raise orphans and at-risk children in families, with incredible educations and nutrition, so that they can become societal leaders rather than being susceptible to traffickers.  We hope that through excellent orphan care, less children will be trafficked and there therefore will be less need for intervention in the future.

So if you care about fighting against trafficking on the prevention side, get involved with orphan and at-risk care with Providence (www.providenceworldministries.org) or another great orphan care organization such as Lifesong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org), The Hands and Feet Project (www.handsandfeetproject.org), Show Hope (www.showhope.org), Arrow Ministries (www.arrow.org), Casa Viva (www.casaviva.org/costarica), or America World Adoption Association (www.awaa.org) (to name a few).  The Christian Alliance for Orphans website is a great place to start if you have never looked into orphan care and want to see the landscape of orphan care (www.christianalliancefororphans.org).

However, the reality is that there is still a HUGE need for intervention today.  There is a huge need for people to uncover the trafficking operations, rescue and provide aftercare for trafficking victims, and prosecute the offenders.  There also is a huge need to fund and pray for such operations.  Every one of you can do at least one of those things.  If you feel led to fight on the intervention side, there are some great organizations on the front lines of the war on trafficking that would love to have you join their army.  Ones that I respect very much are the aforementioned International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org), The Not-for-Sale Campaign (www.notforsalecampaign.org), and Courage House, for those of you in Sacramento (www.couragetobeyou.org).