To expect the unexpected..
Human Trafficking is no doubt an international issue. Out of all the trafficked victims every year an approximate 43 percent of the victims are forced into sexual slavery. Every 30 seconds someone falls victim to sex trafficking, according to the A21 Campaign. With 98 percent of trafficked victims being women and children, men are forced into sexually slavery as well. In modern day there are over 27 million sexually trafficked victims with the youngest, and majority of, victims being around the age of 12. It’s the second largest organized crime in the world, generating over 31 billion dollars per year.
Many people don’t know that human sex trafficking is a major issue in the world today, many people view sex workers as prostitutes. Human sex trafficking is the second largest organized crime in the world and, according to the European Commission; all human trafficking has outweighed the spread and smuggling of drugs. However, people never know the full story and are quick to judge. People don’t know that some of these ‘prostitutes’ aren’t taking part in the world’s oldest profession by choice; they were forced into it for a variety of reasons. Such reasons include: a horrible home life, no job, money or home, or they were even possibly even conned into being a sex worker. Everyone does know the scenario of those who go to a different country and are unsuspecting and taking advantage of because they are tourists. These people are willing to believe someone is just being nice because they are in a strange country when they are than deceived, beaten and raped (the famous movie Taken).
When someone falls victim to human sex trafficking they suffer a lot more than just being forced to have sex with strangers. They suffer from malnutrition, emotional and physical abuse, the possibility of contracting AID’s or STD’s, forced abortions, and more.
Annually only 1 to 2 percent of trafficking victims are rescued. In addition to this shockingly low number, only around 1 in 100,000 traffickers are convicted per year. The people that run these trafficking organizations are very smart and sometimes the local police are on the payroll for those who run the trafficking rings and they sometimes even go as low as to take advantage of those victims as well. Sadly, in many countries punishments are not all that severe for those running the organizations. Many are working to fix this though, like Unicef and the European Commission.
There are other organizations devoted to ending sex trafficking than just governmental agencies such as the A21 Campaign. The A21 Campaign is a non-profit organization set to end sex trafficking through a variety of ways. They hold fundraisers, allow people to donate on their website, send speakers out to schools or other institutions and more. They even allow you to sign up to receive newsletters about any important information as well as to volunteer or even intern. The organization has numerous stations from the United State, all over Europe, Africa and even Australia.
YouTube is a great way to learn about sex trafficking from the numerous videos devoted to the issue. YouTube is a great way to get the word out on an issue, your video could possibly ‘go viral’ and before you know it your video could have hundreds, even thousands, of views. People are more willing to sit there for a few minutes and watch something someone created than read a 4-page paper. Creating an interesting video, like the Kony 2012, shows people how much time and effort that person is putting into this cause and how much it must truly mean something. Although there are not many specific YouTube channel’s devoted to the topic of human sex trafficking there is a channel devoted to making videos for good causes and getting the word out there. The Jubilee Channel creates heart touching videos for a varity of causes.
Tumblr is also a good way to get the word out about sex trafficking. Being a blogging website, with millions of users, people are always searching new things and tags trend. If you get the right tag on a text post or photo that you put up you can get thousands of notes and get more people aware of this issue. Hash tags are more recent, they have become very popular, very fast and people actually pay attention to what’s trending. People do care about what’s going on in the world and when they see pictures, like on tumblr a picture blogging website, they feel heartbroken and some sort of emotional attachment. There are a variety of different blogs devoted to sex trafficking. The most updated and current one is called Human Trafficking Exists. This specific blog is constantly updated with news going on all around the world, including America, and even for people to write in with their own personal stories or issues.
Human Sex Trafficking is a social justice issue for me because at first I honestly had no idea this was a major issue. I knew about prostitution but I never knew the real story behind some individuals and never thought someone would actually be so heartless as to force someone against their will into having sexual relations with a stranger and be treated like dirt. I learned more about sex trafficking through a high school international justice project and learned the realities of some individual’s situations. This is a social justice issue for me also for that I have relatives and friends who were sexually abused and they shared their stories with me. I could never believe some of these stories at first and it amazed me how they coped so well with what happened to them.
When looking at this issue in retrospect it’s extremely horrifying. There’s no particular victim, it can happen to anyone, anywhere. It could possibly happen to you in your own hometown, as scary as that may sound. You just have to be cautious who you talk to and ask for help. Someone can come across as the nicest person you have every met but sometimes you just never truly know a person. You never judge a book by it’s cover.
When looking at this issue in retrospect it’s extremely horrifying. There’s no particular victim, it can happen to anyone, anywhere. It could possibly happen to you in your own hometown, as scary as that may sound. You just have to be cautious who you talk to and ask for help. Someone can come across as the nicest person you have every met but sometimes you just never truly know a person. You never judge a book by it’s cover.
*The first image, the map, was taken from http://ifslaveryisnotwrongnothingiswrong.wordpress.com/
*The second image, slave traders earnings, was taken from http://www.pbs.org/
*The third image, help me, was taken from http://thegospelcoalition.org/
*The fourth image, a21 campaign, was taken from www.thea21campaign.org
*The fifth image, tumblr, was taken from www.windowsphone.com
*The sixth image, the quote, was taken from blog.chron.com
*The second image, slave traders earnings, was taken from http://www.pbs.org/
*The third image, help me, was taken from http://thegospelcoalition.org/
*The fourth image, a21 campaign, was taken from www.thea21campaign.org
*The fifth image, tumblr, was taken from www.windowsphone.com
*The sixth image, the quote, was taken from blog.chron.com