HIGHWAY CHAPLAIN
HIGHWAY CHAPLAIN
Once arriving here, their passports are taken from them and they are forced into prostitution. Yet it isn’ t just foreign girls and women who are being forced into the sex trades, because here in America some 300,000 teenagers( both girls and boys) are targeted for the sex trade industry. They are runaways, street kids who are just neglected by their parents; some are just hungry for the attention and some are just out right abducted off the streets.
These teens are targeted through the Internet via chat rooms, social networks, and email. Many of the pimps have teens in the schools feeding them names and pictures of girls and giving them information of their habits( if they smoke, drink, or do drugs, or if they have problems at home). These girls are targeted by the pimps.
Once they are abducted, these girls and some boys are then forced into the sex trade by the use of drugs and threats and beatings. They are then mostly promoted on the Internet in sites like backpage. com. It is when they are transporting these girls and boys that they are most vulnerable to capture. Many times it is during transportation that the pimps will work the girls in travel plazas and rest areas. This is why you are being asked to join in the fight for those who may be being held against their will, and report what you see to the proper authorities.
Truckers Against Trafficking is an organization that is focusing on the human trafficking problem with their focus on the transportation business. The focus is to get drivers, companies, travel plazas and rest area employees trained to recognize and report activities which appear to be human trafficking. Their mission is to educate, equip, empower and mobilize members of the trucking and travel plaza industry to combat domestic sex trafficking. Their website is truckersagainsttrafficking. org. On their website you will find a training
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video, newsletters, informative articles and you can also make a donation to help them to continue their work. Please if at all possible make a donation. I have rarely asked for my fellow drivers to help financially support an organization, but this is one time that I am.
Drivers, how many of you will join me and become a watchman? Think about it this way: what if it was your daughter or granddaughter forced into a lifestyle not of her choosing, wouldn’ t you want someone out there looking and possibly spotting her and reporting what they saw? I know I would.
July was the month we celebrated our freedom from tyranny, a nation that fought for its freedom. There are those riding alongside of us everyday along this great nations roads and highways who are not free. It might just be you that will be that one who was watching that opens the door of freedom for one of these.
This month, there is an additional opportunity for you to become involved with Truckers Against Trafficking, who is working in conjunction with the Truckload Carriers Association to certify drivers with daily training sessions during the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. For more information on how you can participate, visit www. truckload. org or www. gatsonline. com.
Won’ t you become a watchman today? Get trained, get active, and get to watching. And as always, Godspeed and good running.
The Highway Chaplain ■
If you prefer to send a check make check payable to Truckers Against Trafficking Mail to: Truckers Against Trafficking PO Box 816 | Engelwood, Ca. 80151 Phone Contact: 720-202-1037
Check out the Highway Chaplain Facebook page df 0813 Text. indd 52 7 / 10 / 13 8:42 AM