Every 30 seconds someone becomes a victim of human trafficking. There are about 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today. Over 50% are children.

SEX TRAFFICKING

Sex traffickers use fear, control, drug addiction, and physical violence to keep their victims silent and submissive. Daily beatings and brutal rapes are common. This I know. I spent three harrowing years with a gang of ruthless pimps and their brutal leader, Shane, in a rundown NYC apartment. If not for the courage of my sixteen-year-old roommate, Dani, (also a victim), who ran away and brought the police back to the apartment, the chances I would be alive today are slim. Once a girl is too old, (twenty or so) she simply disappears. I was almost twenty-two. New report estimates almost $100 billion annual profits in sex trafficking in 2014. Source: Time

FORCED LABOR

Thousands of victims end up in Forced Labor. You can help by googling the names of corporations listed who take part in using or selling goods made by victims. “In 2014, the International Labor Organization estimated that forced labor generates $150 billion in profits a year worldwide.”  The Polaris Project

List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

GET INVOLVED

Become a volunteer with a human trafficking organization (you can google these online), raise awareness in your community by hosting events, get permission to start a human trafficking awareness group in your college, write your local, state, and federal officials, etc.

20 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking

BREAK BUBBLES

Most importantly, many are still unaware that slavery exists today. You never know whose heart you touch, who you cause to get involved, when you share awareness of this criminal activity. You may very well save a victim’s life. Please help.