“And who is responsible for this appalling child slavery? Everyone.”
– Mary H. Jones
“And who is responsible for this appalling child slavery? Everyone.”
– Mary H. Jones
I literally weep for Africa.
It started as disgust. But as time passed and evidence mounted, the pain has worked it’s way deeper into my soul. There is no way to fully describe the anguish that comes form watching, listening, or reading reports of the atrocities committed against our world’s innocents. Young children are the targets of unthinkable cruelty. They’re easier to manipulate, brainwash and abuse. And while the attacks are bad enough, the lingering effects of their abuse are overwhelming. These children will never be the same again. They are forever scarred. Our world is forever scarred.
“About 30% of the child soldiers in the Liberian civil war were girls, most of whom were used as sex slaves. Many of them became pregnant or contracted HIV/AIDS. Because they were used for sex, their families cannot ask for a dowry for them when they marry.” – Hannah Baldwin, From Memory To Action
If it is true
that I am what I do,
and I do nothing,
then I am nothing.
You can’t get far in an internet search without running into reputable sources that detail amazing number of slaves still being traded in the world today. The numbers are so overwhelming that, at first, I wanted to refute them. How could this be? 27 million slaves? This is obviously an estimate, but it’s an estimate that is touted by the best sources.
“There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in it’s global reach – and in the destruction of lives.” – Andrew Cockburn, National Geographic Magazine
This interactive map, from National Geographic, shows the scope of slave trafficking throughout the world.
“Though many complain, the power of shame has stirred many to action and sparked unprecendented reforms. Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling and we will never subjugate it to the narrow demands of the day.”
– Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, May 10, 2006, Independent Women’s Forum