Free Book Opportunity - Just a Few More Days!

The book Not For Sale by David Batstone is available to download for free right now (the month of February) from the web site http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ . The download also comes with a free Bible study guide. I've read the book and recommend it as a good resourse for anyone 17 and over who is interested in the issue of trafficking.

The REAL cost of your Valentines Day Chocolate

For the last few years around Valentines Day there has been a concerted effort by organizations and some in the media to educate consumers about chocolate and how it is a crop that is notoriously harvested by child labor as well as child slave labor. 

Over 40 % of all chocolate produced in  the world is grown in one country - the Ivory Coast and 70% is grown in West Africa. The cocoa bean is actually enclosed in a large pod with a sweet pulp. The pod grows on trees and is harvested by whacking the trees with machetes. The pod is then opened with a machete and the beans are separated from the pod and dried before bagging. Child labor is used to harvest and open the pods, spread the beans out to dry and bagging the beans. Children involved in the harvesting of the pods are often injured by the machetes that they use.  Most cocoa is produced on small plantations who then sell their beans to a middle man that collects the beans and carries them to large companies. They then ship the beans to their chocolate factories in the US and Europe. These large companies know that the beans are produced by forced and slave labor, but claim that they are not responsible. Under public outcry they have in the past come up with plans to try to decrease child labor violations, but have not done the one thing that would allow farmers to prosper which is to pay more for the crop. 

When you buy chocolate from a company that is not involved in buying fairly traded cocoa there is a good chance that a portion of it was produced by child slave labor. Below are some companies that produce fairly traded chocolate - Most can be found at Whole Foods or other Health Food stores. Trader Joe's also carries their own fairly traded chocolate bars.

Equal Exchange - http://www.equalexchange.coop/

Sweet Earth - http://www.sweetearthchocolates.com/

Devine - http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/

Green and Black's Maya Gold Chocolate bars are made from fairly traded cocoa beans. Every time you buy a fairly traded chocolate bar you are voting with your dollars for just and good labor practices.

For more information on the problem of slave labor and trafficking among cocoa producers please check out the following web sites;

http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/main.html

http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/chocolates1.htm

http://www.laborrights.org/files/ChocolateScorecard09.pdf

Sex Trafficking - Part 2

The group from Grace Church that went to India this last week have returned and hopefully will be posting some of their thought over the next few weeks for now here are some excerpts from  Arielle's emails home.

" We just got back from touring the brothel district in Mumbai. Let me just say, everything you have heard from Debbie Walker from Freedom Firm or Linda Smith from Shared Hope International... it's all true. Stall after stall line the filthy roads and everywhere there are girls... young girls... lining the streets, waiting for customers. It is insane to think that this is allowed and even condoned by many in this day and age, but it is deplorable when you see it for yourself. Praise God for groups like the Freedom Firm who are risking everything to give some of these girls a better future."

"Please be praying for the Freedom Firm team tonight. The undercover operatives are going out tonight to conduct a raid. They received word a few days ago that there are 4 or more new minor girls located in a brothel in Pune, India (the city we are in). They are on their way to meet the police and hopefully get these girls out tonight. Physical

protection and the cooperation of the local authorities are a must for this to work. There are 3 under cover operatives, a director, and 2 female social workers on the team. Please pray it will be successful!"

Sadly, the raid was not successful, the brothel operators hurried the girl that was there out the back and will have trafficked her to another city. I wish someone would make a movie about the men and women who risk a lot to enter brothels and try to remove these girls right of the hell that is their life as a sex slave. Of course the ending might not be as neat as a scriptwriter would like. Rescue is great but the girls face the painful reality that their lives are irreparably changed and most can not go back to their families, villages or even have an expectation of marriage. 

Sex Trafficking - Part 1

This afternoon three women from Grace Church, Chapel Hill www.gracelife.com left to travel to India to visit a ministry called Freedom Firm. Freedom Firm www.freedom.firm.in works with local police and governments to free underage girls from sex trafficking in India and also has a home for girls freed from trafficking. These young girls have had their childhood stolen and their innocence stripped away from them in the vilest manner. Some of them are so severely emotional damaged that they will never be able to function in normal society. In India, as well as many other countries, they can not go back to their families, sometimes because it was their families that sold them in the first place.  Their chances of being married and having a family are slim.

The stories the girls tell and the things that have been documented about their lives in trafficking are astounding. Many were 11 or 12 when they entered trafficking. In some cases they are forced to service multiple clients in a night's time. They are treated like property and if they become sick, pregnant or infected with STDs or AIDS they are kicked out and abandoned on the streets.

It is hard to hear about children in India being abused like this, but at least it is happening far away and is someone else's fault and another government's failure to protect the innocent, right?Well, in the US last year about 200,000 women and girls and boys were trafficked in the sex trade. Some statistics suggest that 80% of runaways are picked up by traffickers in bus stations or along the streets within 48 hours of running away. Women from other countries may be trafficked here because they are desperate to find work or sometimes to fill an appetite for a certain race or type of woman, others trafficked are the daughters of average American families who were enticed through the Internet or relationships at school or local hangouts. Many are minors. Like the girls in India some become so emotionally damaged that they can not function in society when they are discarded by their traffickers. Drug and alcohol abuse are almost a given as they seek to self medicate the pain they feel. 

Of course there would be no trafficking if there was no demand for the product. In sex trafficking the girls, women and sometimes boys are abused by both the trafficker who controls them and the man who buys them and demands their "services". 

Shared Hope International www.sharedhope.org works with victims of sex trafficking internationally and here in the states. They have started a campaign to educate the demand side of sex trafficking by creating a educational campaign and having men sign a defenders pledge http://thedefendersusa.org/.

A plug for The Stand a UK concert

This weekend The Stand a UK concert to raise awareness of human trafficking will be broadcast. Here's the report from Christian News Wire:

MEDIA ADVISORY, Jan. 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- Centuries after the abolition of slavery, there are now more slaves in the world through human trafficking than ever before - a modern day catastrophe, which many people and organizations are trying to stop. Now GOD TV is joining in the fight as it partners with Hope for Justice to air 'The Stand', a major event aimed at inspiring viewers to take action and see God restore broken lives.

 

Recorded in Birmingham, UK, in November last year, 'The Stand - Freedom to Reign' comprises three programs with performances from leading musicians as well as an address by UN.GIFT Special Advisor on Community Action against Human Trafficking, Steve Chalke.  Top-ranking British bands, Delirious?, YFriday and bandwithnoname are featured, as well as Jon Foreman from the US band, Switchfoot and many other prominent musicians.

 

The three programs will air on GOD TV on Friday January 30th at 10pm; Saturday January 31st at 9:30pm and on Sunday February 1st at 5pm (EST) and can be watched via satellite on channel 365 of DIRECTV or via webstreaming at www.god.tv/stream. The broadcasts will also be made available for video on demand viewing at www.god.tv/god.

 

In addition to being a music concert, The Stand also includes hard-hitting video footage, taking viewers on a journey into the world of human trafficking and showing how it impacts innocent lives. This includes the heart-breaking story of Geeta, a young girl from Nepal who was sold into prostitution in India and a British mother shares her tearful account of how her teenage daughter was trafficked.
 

Founded by Ben and Debbie Cooley, Hope for Justice exists to inspire people to rise up against the injustice of human trafficking and see God restore broken lives -  with the motto 'No one is free until we are all free'. "Trafficking is a global issue and it is our prayer that the Church would continue to unite, and stand for freedom and justice," said Ben Cooley. "It was incredible to have so many top Christian artists and speakers at The Stand supporting the cause and an awesome sight to see the crowd with their arms raised in worship, praying for change and being inspired to make a difference."

 

Founded by Rory & Wendy Alec, GOD TV reaches almost half a billion people worldwide with several different regional GOD TV feeds, each of which will be screening The Stand this weekend.
 

"Human trafficking is a horrific reality so many people are unaware of, yet statistics show that some 27 million people are trapped in modern-day slavery across the world," said Wendy Alec who is Director of Television at GOD TV. "It is time for God's people to join the fight against this. We all have to play our part and I encourage the GOD TV family around the world to tune into these important broadcasts this weekend and find out how they can make a difference."
 

For more information about GOD TV visit www.god.tv 
For more about Hope For Justice visit www.hopeforjustice.org.uk

Ten things to do if you Want to Help Stop Trafficking

Here's my top ten list for things to do if you are serious about being a part of the solution to trafficking. This is a list I'm working through myself.

1. Check out web sites and blogs on Slavery and Trafficking.

2. Watch the videos and slide shows on the sites or on U-tube. A picture is really worth a thousand words.

3. Read a good book or two on trafficking - check out the reading list in the side bar.

4. If you live near a major university see if they are going to sponsor any conferences on trafficking.  Conferences are wonderful ways to get a lot of information in a short time.

5. Connect with others in your area who are interested in trafficking by typing trafficking and your city into a google search. You are likely to find groups and churches that will have already created their own lists of resources.

6. Meet with those of like interest in your church to share information and resources.

7. Present your collected information to the leadership of your church - they might be interested in becoming actively involved as a church.

8. Pick a few ministries that are working in trafficking to support with your dollars. 

9. Come up with some creative ways to raise funds. Our church is doing an improv night this week to raise money for a group in India we have partnered with.  

10. Connect with a ministry that works in an aspect of trafficking that especially tugs on your heart and pray specifically for their needs and the needs of the people they rescue. 

Thoughts on the Relationship of Abortion to Slavery

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade the Supreme Court case decision that in 1973 made abortion legal. As I contemplated what to write about slavery or trafficking today I kept coming back to the thought that an unborn baby whose mother is choosing abortion is a lot like a slave. The child is innocent and helpless, caught in a situation not of it's own making, it's life in someone elses hands and considered disposable. The largest difference being of course that at least at this point in America the child does not bring financial gain to it's mother or those who may be trying to influence or control her decision. That's not to say that in a future America a child might be conceived purely for financial gain through the sale of tissue or organs.

As a Christian who believes that human life is made in the image of God I feel challenged to be deeply saddened any time someone tries to cheapen or redefine the worth and equality of another human's life whether they be a baby at 15 weeks gestation, a 12 year old caught in sex trafficking or a 40 year old man caught in slavery in the rainforest. 

Below are links to several groups that work with women in difficult situations.

http://www.optionline.org/ 

http://www.pregnancysupport.org/

http://www.safehavenministries.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx