Let us remember: What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.
Close your eyes, and imagine the tragic incident that took the life of both of your parents. Now envision yourself as that young girl, living in an abusive household; with little to no food or water. Losing both of your parents was hard enough, but now you are stuck in a poorly run foster care home. A place where emotions such as love, encouragement, and support no longer exist. The feeling of abandonment starts to set in and all you want to do is runway from reality, now open your eyes! Sex trafficking is a worldwide phenomenon and it is now more prevalent than ever.
Twenty seven million women, men, and children are currently being enslaved all over our world today. Unfortunately, this number is currently on a steady incline. CNN has reported on this issue a numerous amount of times and they continue to update their viewers more and more as time progresses. A director from Equality Now, Lauren Hersh; was on CNN talking about her involvement
in a sex trafficking program. Her program would make others understand the battle of violence against women and girls that sex trafficking creates. Lauren came across a young girl that she called "Ruth", whom was sexually exploited at the early age of twelve and was even raped by her own mother's boyfriend. After being trafficked, she was often beaten, raped, and even had scars to prove the horrid nightmare in which she lived. Lauren's program will allow the voices of victims to be heard worldwide and provide them with the proper amount of support and guidance they may need, just like Ruth. This will be known as the Survivor Stories Series, and it will help raise awareness to the misinformed. Sharing personal stories is a incredibly powerful advocacy technique used to sway ones prospective. Not only this, but many times it ends up changing laws or even lives for that matter. The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services stated, "In 2011, three times as many women and girls were arrested for prostitution in
New York than pimps and buyers." In my opinion, I believe that this statistic should be turned the other way around. These girls should not be seen as anything but victims, especially criminals. Also, I have the utmost faith in Lauren Hersh and think that she hit the nail on the head with her new program. Once the public starts to hear personal stories from those whom have been exploited, they will become aware of what is going on behind closed doors. Once we are educated on the matter, we then have the opportunity to reach out to others whom are unaware like we once were. Spread the world, and bring sex trafficking to an end; you don't know how many lives you could save!
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/11/victims-plea-change-new-york-law-charge-the-traffickers/
http://www.equalitynow.org/people/lauren_hersh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT0Euu1Lovw
Nicolette I liked the way you wrote your post. It was a very emotional and informative post. I also completely agree with you. I never really thought of human trafficking as slavery, but there is no better way to describe such an inhumane tragedy. It is depressing to think that there are around 27 million human beings being abused right now. The first time I heard of sex trafficking I was completely shocked. I literally did not know that such horrifying events occurred daily all around the world. Fortunately, there are many organizations like Lauren Hersh’s program that are fighting against sex trafficking.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting that you connected sex trafficking with slavery, but that is exactly what it is. I had never thought of it that way. With that being said, it is very sad that so many human beings are being victimized by this horrific act of sex trafficking. Its good to know that there are organizations out there trying to fight this problem. Hopefully that number will be turned around soon, and we will put away these pimps and buyers for good.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I really did not know about human trafficking until high school. They sent a letter home asking the parents to talk about it with their children and to ask questions. I would not even think that that would be something that is still occuring. Also, as Kristen stated, I would have never grouped it with slavery either, but I guess that's exactly what it is. It is a shame these incidents are increasing, but the awareness isn't.
ReplyDeleteS/N: Have you ever read about the woman who is in jail for life who for murdering the guy who raped and pimped her out?
I think you picked a really powerful image to attach to this blog post. I really like your writing style as well. Human trafficking is definitely and under discussed issue around the world and I'm glad you decided to choose that topic to focus your blog on.
ReplyDeleteI like the mix of engaging stories you used and the solid information from a very credible source. You did a good job of using facts to back up your argument and using a catching title to draw your readers in.