In my young adult fiction class, my professor is reading "Sold" by Patricia McCormick to our class. This is a devastating, heart wrenching novel about a 13 year old sold into sex slavery in India. As I listen during each class to her story, I can't help but think about the millions of girls in this world imprisoned in the same world as the main character, and about how they are forced to have sex with tons of men twice their age. Their insides are left ripped and bleeding. Don't even get me started on the sick men who look at little girls with that hunger in their eyes.
It is easy to think these kind of nightmares only happen in other parts of the world. That we are exempt. I-5 from Canada to California is one of the largest trafficking sects in the world. The parking lot off Northwest and Birchwood in Bellingham is the prime trafficking spot. If you sit and watch you will see girls dressed as prostitutes picked up and dropped back off twenty minutes. I guarantee these girls aren't there by choice. Every day we drive by trucks filled with terrified girls taken from their homes.
According to Hope 4 Justice, 450,000 children run away from home every year. Of those that leave one out of three teens will be lured into sex trafficking within 48 hours of leaving. The average entry into prostitution is between 12-14. Victims aren't just picked up around Bellingham. They come from places like Russia, the Philippines, and Mexico.
Organizations like Hope 4 Justice and Shared Hope International put on events to make us aware; yet many people don't go to these events. I'll be honest; I've yet to go to a Hope 4 Justice event. But this needs to change.
Every one of us needs to stand up and do something. If we are in any way appalled every time we hear accounts of this injustice, then we need do something about the injustice. It's so easy to feel helpless when you look at the statistics. 450,000 is a big number, but we just need to take it one person at a time.
To start, we need to get educated, buy fairtrade products, and find places to volunteer. Hope 4 Justice is a great organization to get involved with. You can also get involved with Share hope international. If neither of those appeal to you. Engedi Refuge Ministries in Lynden, Washington is a shelter for women who have escaped the trafficking world. You could volunteer there as well. You could work directly with these survivors, and help piece them back together one day at a time.
There are many ways to get involved. If we each take it one person at a time, then the number of people affected by human trafficking will drop dramatically. The worst thing that we can do is sit back and say that there's nothing that we can do. We need to take that first step toward changing the world that we live in. The change starts with us taking that first step, so don't wait any longer.
