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My Words as Weapons: Giving Hope to the Hopeless

Posted on April 2, 2014 by caverns of my mind

Sometimes I have felt that though there was a lot to learn initially when I became interested in fighting human trafficking, other than individual horror stories, I’ve seen or heard all the statistics and there seems to be no new news. In fact, the latest news tends to be that numbers are constantly trending higher and it sometimes feels like a hopeless fight. But that’s the problem right there: I have to stop looking at the big picture and think about those individual stories, because helping everyone begins with helping someone. This is another reason I like presenting my readers (and those they share with) information on individual organizations out there dedicated to justice. They may mostly share the same information, but their different approaches are what is interesting.

This week I am highlighting an organization based in Louisiana, Trafficking Hope.

And I did learn something new from their website. It isn’t good news, but to me anyway, it is new news, and I was impressed with their page as it dedicated a list of some common myths of human trafficking. There is much about this atrocity that people do not know or understand, so knowing the uncommon information is important in how we approach it.

MYTH: Females are the only victims of sex trafficking Estimates show that as many as 20% of sex trafficking victims are males. (United Nations Office on Drug & Crimes)

Another resource Trafficking Hope offers that I think is great is being able to sign up for their Trafficking Report in order to “Be prepared, Stay informed, and Get Involved!” This seems to be a gathering of various news articles and such on recent events, happenings, and trends. I just signed up myself.

This organization seems to offer help both locally and nationally, as they have Hope House, a refuge and place of renewal for those escaping sex trafficking as well as advertise the number for the human trafficking hotline- yes, there is a hotline!

Trafficking Hope’s tagline appears to be “Giving hope to the hopeless,” which I absolutely love.

Proverbs 31:8-9

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
ensure justice for those being crushed.

Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
and see that they get justice.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Posted on March 6, 2014 by caverns of my mind

I pulled this image from a great and brief blog post by Rob Morris of Love 146

Exactly a week ago I had a large red X drawn on my hand as a symbol to bring awareness to modern day slavery, more commonly referred to as human trafficking (a term many don’t understand), and so did many others. I blogged about Shine a Light on Slavery Day and the End It Movement, and so did many others.

It was awesome to see celebrities and regular people flooding social media with inspiring quotes and pictures of them showing off their marked hands. People who had been unaware were asking questions, which was exactly the point.

But now what? I wore an X on my hand and more people know about slavery, but what can we do about it? Plenty. You can give to an organization that fights the atrocity. You can find a way to get involved in the fight through one of the great organizations out there. You can blog about it or find your own way to continue to spread the word.

JUST DO SOMETHING. Sorry- I don’t usually do the all caps yelling thing, but I really need to emphasize this idea. You need to find your own way to contribute to the fight. Imagine if everybody who now knows about the 27 million slaves today took some sort of action. That number would fall drastically. So help to end slavery. How? Below is a list of several organizations I know of, and there are so many more. I suggest you research what is available in your local community too.

International Justice Mission