Slavery - Trafficking

Today my eyes were opened. I have heard of it and somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it happened in my own proverbial "back yard" but it is not until today that I really paid attention. I was oblivious. It is horrible but true. A significant amount of prostitutes are trafficked women whom are promised a better life. They fall in the hands of pimps who completly dehumanize them. They are raped, beaten and broken. Stripped of their dignity, their humanity torn. We need to open our eyes to what is happening in our world, our country and even our city. This has a great impact on me, a girl living in Amsterdam where prostitution is legalized. In our red light district the Ukrainian girl standing behind the window is a girl, a girl who was taken away from her family and is now nothing more than an object of  lust. The Thai girl standing there behind the window, taken from the countryside, promised education, now nothing more than a servant of a male's fantasy. The African girl, promised a future for her and her family, now nothing more than a sex slave for the men in Western society. Their pride taken and every part of them broken.

We forget another thing. We assume slavery is something from the past. The dark past. But it is not. The chocolate you eat might be a product of child labour or adult slavery. Can you imagine your child, sibling or cousin working for your pleasure. Just for the chocolate you eat thousands of children and men and women die. Please open your eyes. I pray that the hardened nature of the human heart will be filled with brotherly love and compassion. Don't be oblivious to this. There are many things that you can do such as; buying fairtrade products (chocolate, clothes etc.), bringing awareness to the people around you and support a non-profit organization such as Stop the Traffik or Terre des Hommes. Please remember that our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch. The last thing I want to do is leave some words of wisdom with you: "My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together." -Archbishop Desmond Tutu


In Christ,
Me