The devastating reality of human slavery is touching every country in our world today - including our own. UNICEF estimates that 2.5 million people are victims of human trafficking today - and it has become a $32 billion/year enterprise (other organizations estimate the numbers may be closer to 20 million trafficked people world-wide. Statistics range and it is difficult to get exact numbers because of the ways these crimes are hidden, the shame often involved in having a family member sold or stolen into these work places, and language barriers in the understanding of what exactly constitutes the trafficking of a person). The sex slave trade has especially caught the attention of many in recent years - including mine. As I've read books, researched, heard first-hand accounts of those involved in the fight against sex slavery, I have become more and more drawn into the issue. I've had nightmares about being forced into this lifestyle, but the reality is that I wake up - for others just like me around the world, waking up and realizing it's all a nightmare is not a possibility. This IS their every-day reality.
I would love to be able to fly to Nepal or India and fight this first-hand. I would love to be able to pursue a career right here in the US working to create legislation that would affect this issue here and abroad. But, like most, I can't do that right now. But to say I can't do anything is simply ignorant.
Here's the short:
We're baking & eating in Eau Claire to make a difference around the world. Invite anyone you know to be apart of this. Simply email TraffickingTuesdays@gmail.com by Monday afternoons with your
- Name
- Address the baked goods can be delivered to
- How many servings you would like delivered (ie. 1 cookie = 1 serving)
By Tuesday night we will have the goodies delivered right to you! Give a donation of your choice (a few bucks, or a few more - whatever you want!) and 100% of the proceeds will go to Project Rescue.
- $30 provides monthly night-shelter care for a child of a prostituted woman
- $100 provides monthly care for a woman or child in a Home of Hope
- $90,000 helps provide a safe, permanent Home of Hope
Want to be apart of the baking, delivering, or purchasing of ingredients? Email TraffickingTuesdays@gmail.com for that too!
If you're interested in learning more of the inspiration of this project,
and more of the issue, read on ...
I (a recent Eau Claire grad living & working in the area) have discovered a passion for justice, as well as a passion for Jesus Christ who brings healing to those of us around the world who are broken. Couple these two together, and action to knowledge inevitably follows. I love God's heart for justice and His call for us to make movement -
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them...if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness..." (Isaiah 58)
"This is what God the LORD says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.." (Isaiah 42)
"The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene..." (Isaiah 59)
We have the capability to intervene in small and big ways - so let's do it! I am convinced there is hope in hopeless places and healing for the most broken of hearts. Quite frankly, if I was a girl being sexually abused day in and day out, it would seem absurd to me that people who knew the life I was in would only sit back and wonder at the situation. It would mean the world to me if I was the child that was benefited by the small amount of money provided for me to have a safe place to stay. I would sure want to believe that there was hope for a life beyond the doors of the brothel.
Some of us in the Eau Claire area will be getting together to bake Monday nights. Every Tuesday we will deliver our baked goods to people in the area who are interested in buying any amount of treats for any amount of money. 100% of the proceeds will go to Project Rescue - an organization that provides safe houses ("Homes of Hope") for women and children who have been rescued from a life of sexual slavery, as well as safe places for their children to be so that they can grow up outside of brothels and hopefully avoid the same lives their mothers have been chained to. Check out www.projectrescue.com to learn about the organization.
Project Rescue also has some great resources if you want more information (http://www.projectrescue.com/resources.html).
Some powerful videos on sex slavery can also be found from the organization Love146 on Youtube - worth checking out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2UaymytjO4 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb6vcPDJKpc&feature=related). Although Love146 is not the organization that this project will fund, it is an organization partnering in the fight against sex slavery.
Several authors, including Julia Pennington, a faculty menber from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, includes this quote from their research article "The Cross-National Market in Human Beings":
“The Commonwealth Secretariat (2003) recommends that trafficking victims be provided appropriate housing, counseling, and information on their legal rights in their native language, medical, psychological and material assistance and employment, and education and training opportunities. Non-governmental organizations that perform these services are constantly short of money, and require both governent grants and charitable donations to try to undo the damage that traffickers have done.”
This is the road Project Rescue has been walking down, and is the journey we hope to encourage.
We will continue updating this blog with information on our progression, upcoming events related to human trafficking, and more...
