multiple resources to help you educate yourself and others.
Learn how to spot trafficking in your own community. If you live in the U. S. and suspect someone is a trafficking victim, he or she can get help regardless of immigration status via the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline: 888-3737-888. 5
Pray and Give
The familiar responses of prayer and giving can’ t be overstated here. A dark, demonic network has a hold over victims, traffickers, and customers in this decadent industry. Combine illicit sex, force, violence, and power, and you have a recipe for Satan’ s ugliest work. This is not primarily a battle against flesh and blood; it’ s a battle of supernatural proportions. Pray and recruit others to pray.
Groups seeking to end modern-day slavery always can use financial gifts, so consider creative ways to contribute to one or more groups with your wallet.
Advocate
Trafficking victims don’ t have access to the resources we take for granted. They may be held under lock and key and may not even know their exact locations. In addition to physical barriers, many are held in prisons of fear due to threats of violence. These women, children, and men need others to advocate for them – as human beings, it’ s our responsibility to advocate for the oppressed.
Responsible Consumerism
Victims of the labor trade have made some of the goods sold in our stores. How many times have you bought chocolate this year? Who harvested the cocoa beans in that chocolate? You might not have a clue, but with a little research you can learn whether the chocolate you enjoy was made on the backs of slaves. More than 35 percent of the world’ s chocolate is made from cocoa beans grown in Cote D’ Ivoire where children are forced to work all day long. 6 Check out stopthetraffik. org for more information on whether or not your chocolate is“ slave-free.” The Fair Trade Federation also has information on responsible buying on its website, as well as a tool to locate stores in your area that sell fair-trade products( fairtradefederation. org).
Offer Dignity and Respect When talking about victims of human trafficking – whether they’ re working in prostitution, laboring in a field, or carrying weapons in their young hands – these victims are people. They’ re God’ s creation. Throughout your education and conversations, encourage language that removes derogatory terms from the“ job” a person is being forced to perform – such as“ the prostitute” or“ hooker” – and instead refer to them as“ victims of prostitution,” etc. Watching our speech is a good way to start treating these individuals with the dignity and respect they’ re due as fellow human beings.
Final Thoughts
The topic of human trafficking is en vogue right now, but that’ s not why we’ re into it. We have to stand up for the women, children, and men who suffer the effects of slavery. We can – and we need to. Let’ s revolt against this evil and join others in freeing all the Eliras and James.
Portions excerpted from What Can We Do? by David Livermore and Terry Linhart( Zondervan 2011).
About David Livermore
David Livermore is a thought leader in cultural intelligence( CQ) and global leadership. He’ s president and partner at the Cultural Intelligence Center in East Lansing, Michigan and a visiting research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has done training and consulting with leaders in 100 countries across the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe, and has authored several books. To learn more about David’ s work, visit: www. davidlivermore. com.
Artwork by Ryan Hanberry
1 Kevin Bales, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy( Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1999), 9. 2 U. S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons,“ U. S. Department of State: Trafficking in Persons Report”
( June 4, 2008), http:// www. state. gov / g / tip / rls / tiprpt / 2008 / 105376. htm. 3 Polaris Project: For a World without Slavery, http:// www. polarisproject. org. 4 Caitlin O’ Neil,“ Sex Trafficking Hits Close to Home,” http:// www. thelantern. com / campus / sex-trafficking-hits-close-to-home-60-90-womenaffected-in-franklin-county-1.890395( accessed February 9, 2011). 5 U. S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, http:// www. state. gov / g / tip. 6“ Campaign Against Child Trafficking in the Chocolate Industry,” Stop the Traffik, http:// www. stopthetraffik. org / ourwork / chocolate.
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