Tag: minors

How Do We Blackout Trafficking?

Last year, I became aware of a second “fashion challenge” focused on fighting human trafficking. I had already been a participant in Dressember for several years, but a friend was doing Blackout Trafficking during March. I was in the midst of the first year of widowhood, and needed to surround myself with color to keep my head above water. But, I was intrigued by the simplicity of wearing a black piece of clothing for a month to spread awareness and focus on the need to donate toward effective nonprofits this arena.

From their website: Limiting Our Freedom To Bring Freedom To Others — Once a year individuals from around the world commit to igniting a broader awareness of human trafficking while raising funds for anti-trafficking organizations. The method is simple–wear your chosen black item of clothing each and every day of March.

We’ve been so busy developing out trainings, online challenges, and building the Bring Freedom programs. I felt the need to ground myself in a daily choice to show this mission of ending human trafficking to anyone I encounter. So, I chose to wear an item of black clothing every day in March. Surprisingly, I do actually feel limited.

Zona and I have been posting daily, and decided to focus our own fundraising efforts on Bring Freedom’s upcoming K-8 program. Our goal is to reach children in the classrooms with short video messages in order to prevent trafficking and abuse, as well as offer partnerships to their parents so that the entire family is equipped and educated to fight this injustice in their own homes and communities. By breaking it down through the numbers of our goal reach, it will only take $25 to sponsor a classroom for this groundbreaking educational tool. We can all Blackout Trafficking by working together!

Wrapping up National Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Since 2010, January has been set aside as a month of recognition of the dangers and realities of human trafficking in the United States of America. We raise awareness, we share stories, we celebrate victories in the continued fight for justice. It’s a moment for us to collectively look at ourselves as Americans in the mirror and come to terms with how far we have to go toward ending slavery in this day and age. Bring Freedom has a goal of ending human trafficking within our lifetimes. That will take teamwork, connections, education, and above all — PREVENTION. Just a couple days ago, I was smacked in the face with a statistic shared on the Operation Underground Railroad Instagram feed, “Last year, over 50% of trafficking survivors in the U.S. were minors.” (From the Human Trafficking Institute)

I was overwhelmed, once again, by the magnitude of the task before us. Let’s take a closer look at that statistic. They are mentioning trafficking SURVIVORS, which mean that they are including all of the individuals who have been rescued last year. We already know that less than 10% of trafficking victims are rescued. The necessity of preventing this injustice is of utmost importance. We need to protect our children. We need to keep our neighborhoods, schools, and churches safe. It’s going to take each one of us to make the commitment to join hands and be present in our own towns to end human trafficking. Prevention is the quickest and most effective way to do this. As we wrap up National Human Trafficking Prevention Month this week, let’s make that commitment once again. We can do this, we will do this.