- This week marks the official beginning of summer, and for many people, that means a favorite childhood campfire treat — the s’more. But as child labor, forced labor and trafficking continue to fuel the cocoa industry, traditional s’mores might leave a bitter aftertaste. That’s why chocolate lovers across the country are calling on some of America’s favorite celebrity chefs — Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray and Emeril Lagasse — to post Fair Trade s’mores recipes and additional information on their websites to help raise awareness about potential solutions to the problems that plague the cocoa industry. Sadly, none of these chefs have made a Fair Trade s’more, yet.Across the country, campers and other people with a sweet tooth are participating in a fun summer action called “We Want More from Our S’mores,” where concerned consumers make their s’mores using Fair Trade Certified chocolate to support positive change in the cocoa industry. But they know that a gooey, delicious Fair Trade s’more treat made on the grill by Bobby Flay or with some extra Southern love by Paula can help inspire real change in the cocoa industry. That’s why they’re asking these chefs to put Fair Trade on their plate and stand up for kids in the coco industry.
Ask Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, Emeril for Fair Trade S’Mores This Summer
Three girls arrested in local sex trade sweep
Three girls were arrested on charges of prostitution during a four-day roundup of those involved in the sex trade industry in the valley, Las Vegas police said Thursday.
Sgt. Gil Shannon with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Vice Section said the sweep, which took place June 19-22, was intended to rescue children caught in the sex trade.
“Even one is successful when you’re taking children off streets who are engaging in prostitution,” Shannon said.
In addition, 61 adult prostitutes and five pimps were arrested locally during the sweep, dubbed “Operation Cross Country.”
Shannon wouldn’t disclose where the three girls were taken, saying only, “We have them in a safe location.”
He also wouldn’t specify the girls’ ages other than to say they were younger than 18.
Shannon said the arrests made only a small dent in the local prostitution market. He estimated that thousands of prostitutes work throughout the Las Vegas Valley.
Shannon said 37 agents with the FBI and Las Vegas police collaborated to make the local arrests.
Nationally, 345 people, including 290 adult prostitutes, were arrested in the sweep in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami and other cities.
In Reno, agents arrested 13 adults.
Demi Moore Sells Personal Toy Collection to End Child Sex Trafficking
Actress and advocate Demi Moore is so committed to eliminating child sex trafficking in the U.S. and around the world, she is selling some of her prized possessions to raise money for the cause. Demi’s personal toy collection is up for auction on Ebay this week. Every penny of the proceeds will go to fund the DNA Foundation, an anti-trafficking nonprofit she set up with husband Ashton Kutcher. Demi’s toy auction and the campaigns it will fund demonstrate how creative celebrities can fight human trafficking.
Demi Moore, as it turns out, is a passionate toy collector as well as a modern-day abolitionist. But she has been generously willing to part with some of her collection in order to support the DNA Foundation, which recently announced the launch of their new “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” campaign at the Clinton Global Initiative last month. The campaign is based on the idea that high-profile men speaking out against child sex trafficking can help reduce the demand for young and younger girls in the commercial sex trade. So far Ben Stiller, Michael Phelps, and Snoop Dogg have signed up, along with Ashton Kutcher. 100% of the proceeds from the Ebay auction will go to support “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” and other DNA Foundation efforts to fight child sex trafficking in the U.S.
The DNA Foundation auction runs from November 1 -11 on Ebay. You can check it out and bid for items here. And while the idea of celebrities selling personal items to raise money for a cause they support may not be revolutionary, this is (as far as I know) the first celebrity stuff auction of this scale to support human trafficking prevention. And it’s not surprising that Demi and Ashton, who have become the queen and king of celebrities fighting trafficking, are behind this effort. What is surprising is Demi’s apparent affinity for the mid-90s Nickelodeon show Rugrats. I thought I was the only Rugrats fan left in the U.S.
So check out the Demi Moore’s toy auction and bid on something fun, whether it’s for a child in your life or a shelf in your living room. You’ll not only be the proud possessor of something formerly owned by G.I. Jane herself, but you’ll also be helping support an organization working to end child sex trafficking here in the U.S. and around the world.
Now is the time for the North Las Vegas Police Department to FINALLY start investigating like they should have 4-1/2 years ago!!
Peter Todd is the person who we were told, by many people, beat Jessie and forced her to work at an escort agency. Several people at this agency, including the manager, have told me personally that Jessie had bruises from Peter, and she was afraid to leave him. They also all ‘knew’, as did many people in that walk-of-life, that Jessie was beat to death by him in the house at 1009 Cornerstone Place, North Las Vegas, NV USA 89031 and buried in the Mojave Desert north of where they lived. I get calls all the time, the most recent one was just in August 2010, from a woman who knew Jessie (she knew her as Taylor) back in 2005, she said she believes Jessie is dead, that she was murdered by Peter Todd.
The police have NEVER done a proper investigation of the house they know she lived in, even though they say they have no reason to do this investigation, it makes me wonder how else you can solve a crime . . . without investigating?!?!?!? How do they know if he did it or not if they do not investigate? If they don’t rip up carpets and baseboards to look for blood drops or splatters? How does someone not even be investigated and therefore ‘wins’ by default?
I don’t know if Peter did anything or not, but I do know he told me 3 different stories about the last time he saw Jessie. Well, I have one story about the last time I saw Jessie . . . it was as she was leaving Kamloops and her family on CHRISTMAS DAY, DECEMBER 25, 2005 so she could go back to Peter and Las Vegas and the fate that she met, 3 months later – and my story has NEVER changed! How could it? The truth does not change! Our Christmas was forever changed, who do I have a different story about that.
However, regardless of what we don’t know happened, what we do know happened is this:
– Jessie was taken to the USA by Donald Vaz.
– Donald Vaz left Jessie in the company of Richard Barrington Walcott and Yvonne Hubrechtsen.
– Richard Barrington Walcott and Yvonne Hubrechtsen then left her in the company of Peter Bertrand Todd.
– Peter Todd ended up her ‘fiancé’ and it was who she was living with, and his identical twin brother, James Andrew Todd, when she vanished 10 months later, never to be seen or heard from for 4 & 1/2 years.
On March 29, 2006, JESSIE FOSTER, for all intents and purposes, COMPLETELY VANISHED!! IT IS LIKE SHE SIMPLY FELL OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!! IT IS LIKE SHE CEASED TO EXIST!!! AND, her:
– passport was NEVER used again!
– debit card was NEVER used again!!
– cell phone was NEVER used again!!!
– credit cards were NEVER used again!!!!
– bank account was NEVER used again!!!!!
– loved ones NEVER heard from her again!!!!!!
AND:
– she does not have a known American Social Security Number!
– there has NEVER been anything on her Canadian Social Insurance Number!
If Jessie did ‘cease to exist‘, then we know, it is because someone murdered my daughter.
If Jessie is alive, (like my heart has always told me), then it is because someone did something to her to make her disappear.
I don’t know why I have to share this now, but suddenly I have something I NEED to tell you.
There is something that happened I have only told a few people about – my family, a few friends and a couple of reporters, but it has never been written about. However I am going to share now. It is a very emotional thing for me to relive, and when I do, always I cry hard, so the tears will be pouring down my cheeks and the snot will be dripping from my nose, but you know what, nothing is worse than having a missing daughter. So compared to that, this will be a piece of cake.
First of all, the last time I talked to my beautiful daughter, Jessie Foster was on March 24, 2006 when she called to see if her little sister, Jennee’s birthday present had got there and to tell me she had a dentist appointment booked for March 27, she called me twice that day. Jessie was 21 years old at that time.
Then on March 27 Jessie called her dad’s house and left her stepmom a happy birthday voice message and said that she was going to the dentist that day.
Crystal talked to Jessie several times on March 28, 2006 – I didn’t, but I had talked to Crystal.
Then on March 29, 2006 I got up for work at my usual time of 3:00AM. Because I was in the same time zone as Las Vegas, there were many times that Jessie would call me at that time to talk, she knew I always had time for her, even at 3 o’ clock in the morning. So it did not surprise me when the phone rang shortly after I got up. What did surprise me was what I heard on the other end.
The first thing I noticed was it was not Jessie cell phone – she still had her same number from Calgary, AB. It was a 7 -0 – 2, Las Vegas area code, but not a number I recognized. But I knew, before I picked it up, that it was going to be Jessie. So I said HI SWEETIE! And then I heard it – it sounded like someone was yelling into the phone. It sounded crackly, like a bad connection with lots of static and I could not understand a thing she was saying. BUT I STILL ‘KNEW’ IT WAS JESSIE, and not just because of the Las Vegas area code on my call display! I felt it was her.
It made me very nervous, because it sounded like Jessie was desperately calling for help. Like she was screaming. I was yelling back, JESSIE . . . WHAT IS WRONG? JESSIE, SWEETIE! I CAN’T HEAR YOU. WHAT IS WRONG? And the phone went dead.
I went into the other room to turn on the light and call the number from the call display back, I WAS STARTING TO PANIC. Before I could call the number, my phone rang again. It was the same 702 area code. I answered quickly and said, JESSIE, ARE YOU OK. But again, all could hear was what sounded like someone screaming. This time it was more desperate, but still not clear. I could not understand exactly what was being said, but it sounded like, “HELP . . . . ME . . . . AGGGGG . . . HELP . . .” I was seriously freaking out. I was starting to scream into the phone, JESSIE, WHAT IS WRONG? JESSIE HANG UP AND CALL THE POLICE. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. JESSIE, WHAT IS HAPPENING? And the call ended again.
I was freaking, my heart was pounding, I was starting to shake and cry. WHAT WAS HAPPENING? Was Peter beating her? I had received calls before when Jessie and Peter were fighting and I talked to both of them, I even tried many times to get Jessie to come home and to get Peter to send her home – but of course, back then, I had no way to know that Jessie was already the victim of modern-day sex slavery. She was already being beat and forced to work at an escort agency. Then the phone rang for a third time.
This time I was as panicked as I have EVER been in my entire life. I HEARD MY DAUGHTER SCREAMING FOR HER LIFE. I swear it. I still could not make out the words, but the shear panic and shrillness and the loudness of it all told me SOMETHING WAS VERY WRONG. I was screaming into the phone, JESSIE, STOP CALLING ME. CALL THE POLICE! WHERE ARE YOU? WHAT CAN I DO? CALL 9-1-1!!!!!!!!!!! Then the call ended again.
I tried to call Jessie’s cell phone from my cell phone at the same time as I tried to call the number on my call display from my home phone, but both phone just rang, and rang, and rang. I tried to call Peter’s cell phone and even Yvonne Hubrechtsen’s cell phone (hers was the only other number I had for anyone that Jessie knew in Las Vegas, because I ironically and prophetically said to Jessie when she was going to stay in Las Vegas for 2 weeks until her 21st birthday so she could celebrate there – “Jessie, you are not staying in another country unless you give me an contact number for SOMEONE there. I don’t know anyone or where you are and IF YOU GO MISSING, who will I call”. TEN MONTHS LATER MY DAUGHTER WENT MISSING) but all I got on everyone’s phone was voicemail. I left messages, but no one was calling me back. I did not know what to do, because, seriously, I was not even sure what I had just heard.
I called in to work and said I could not come in. I was a mess, there was no way I would be any use at work, and I would be just too worried. I was already worried out of my mind.
Then about 10AM my daughter Crystal called from a payphone when the Greyhound bus was at a stop . . . she was on her way home from up in Northern Alberta at the oil rig camp she was a cook at, to meet her sister Jessie in Kamloops so they could drive her car to Calgary for their stepsister’s wedding reception (Jessie’s proof of car insurance came in the mail to my house for 30 days . . . Jessie paid almost $200 for this, but she never showed up to use it). She was very upset. She said MOM, IT WAS ME. IT WAS ME CALLING NOT JESSIE. IT WAS ME CALLING FROM MY CO-WORKER’S CELL PHONE, SHE IS FROM LAS VEGAS!!!!
You see, Crystal had accidently washed her cell phone in her housecoat pocket before she left camp, so it was not working. She was on the Greyhound bus with her friend who was going to Edmonton to take a plane home to Las Vegas and she knew I would be up at 3:00AM, so she called me from a 7-0-2 area code phone number!!
Crystal told me she could hear me plain as day. She was saying over and over, “No, Mom, it is not Jessie, it is me!”, but all I heard was Jessie screaming for help.
Now, if you knew how close my daughters are to each other, and how close I am to my kids, then maybe somehow there is a way for Crystal to call me on a Las Vegas cell, just as something horrific is happening to Jessie – perhaps she was being beaten to death at that exact time and through the powers of whatever – through the heartstrings between my children and I and my children and each other, I somehow heard Jessie screaming out for me, for her Mommy as ‘someone’ snuffed out her beautiful life.
I know my heart has always told me Jessie is alive and to this day, through my tears as I type now, even with what I just told you, I can’t help it!
I just DO NOT FEEL, DEEP IN MY HEART, THAT MY CHILD IS DEAD, and whether that is the truth, and Jessie is alive and that night there were just 3 ‘bad’ connections from a Las Vegas cell area code at the exact same time Jessie sometimes called me OR, Jessie was murdered, and through the grace of the Lord, I was able to be there for he at the end, well, I just don’t know.
I do know this though. My best-friend Brenda was there for her 16-year-old (& 2 weeks – his birthday was just on July 22, 2002) son, James when he was hit by a speeding truck on August 5, 2002 . . . she held him as he died, and as tragic as that is, it is what has allowed her to go on. She KNOWS he did not suffer, she knows he went to heaven, and she was with her baby as he took his last breath. I hope, if Jessie is not alive, that I was ‘with her’ as she took her last breath. Thank you for your wonderful friendship Brenda; I don’t know what I would do without you being here for me all the time.
The next day, after Jessie never returned Crystal’s calls or my calls, her sister Katie told me she had been calling Jessie all day, and she never returned her call. I started leaving message after message and I filled up her voicemail-box. I emailed her and my emails were getting more and more frantic and pretty soon I was YELLING in them!! I went to work the next day and told one of my co-workers, I THINK MY DAUGHTER IS MISSING IN LAS VEGAS. He said, “What are you doing here then?” And I said, “I DON’T KNOW”. I left and never went back for a year and a half (then a year and a half after that, the business closed).
So, thank you ALL for letting me share this with you. I know it was probably very emotional to you, as it is to the few people I have told this to. Right now, besides the tears and snot I already mentioned, I am shaking and my head is throbbing. It is almost like I just went through that again. But you know, this time, I feel as if I got something out of telling it. Like when you go to the ‘shrink’ and pour your guts out and feel better! Or . . . when you pop that damn zit that hurts like hell . . . and when you do, the pressure comes off and the pain is relieved a bit. Eventually the zit will heal, and I pray that one day, so will my heart.
Friends, you mean so much to me. There are thousands of people who have followed Jessie’s case in the news and on the internet. Thousands of people who love Jessie like a daughter, sister & friend. The prayers for Jessie are constant – every day from everywhere around this world.
AGAIN, THANK YOU ALL . . . Sincerely, not just Jessie’s mom, but also Crystal, Katie & Jennee’s mom, and Maddie, JJ & Ili’s grandma, Glendene Grant.
source:http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/note.php?note_id=448714839592
Take Action to End Slavery in Corporate Supply Chains
Millions of men, women, and children are enslaved around the world, producing the raw materials that create products we use every day. Slaves pick the cotton that ends up in our t-shirts, mine the tungsten that makes our laptops run, and harvest the cocoa we find so delicious. But two pieces of pending legislation in California could help end the use of slavery in major corporations’ supply chains. Will you help make them law?
The proposed legislation would be California state law, but if it passes, the effects will be felt all over the country and all over the world by reducing the market for slave-made goods. The California Supply Chain Transparency Act of 2010 (SB 657) would require retailers and manufacturers doing business in California and having more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts to publicly disclose some basic things about what they’re doing to end slavery in their supply chains. That includes whether or not the company uses verification to evaluate and address human trafficking risks in product supply chains including if they used 3rd party verification, conducts audits of suppliers and whether audits are independent and unannounced, direct supplier certification and what they do to train and maintain internal accountability for employees and contractors failing to meet company standards on slavery and trafficking.With this information, consumers across the country will have better tools to help them make ethical decisions about what they purchase.
Because California is such a large economy, this new law would affect major corporations all over the world, including those who produce some of the biggest supply chain slavery offenders, like consumer electronics, clothing, and food products. Of course, that means the big business interests who would be affected are fighting hard to keep the law from actually requiring them to simply tell us what they do, if anything, to keep slavery out of the products they sell us. Right now, they’re hiding behind the skirts of big business association like California Manufacturers and Technology Association and a mountain of cash, but they are fighting. And that’s why we need you, wherever you live, to let California know the world is watching their decision.
source:http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/take_action_to_end_slavery_in_corporate_supply_chains
Donald Trump Sues Charity Project Over Copyrights
Gagillionaire Donald Trump apparently doesn’t have enough money already. The wealthy mogul is suing a Lithuanian beauty pageant which was created, in part, to fight human trafficking in the country. The “Mrs. Universe” pageant’s platform project is “Beauty Against Human Trafficking,” but Trump thinks their pageant title is too similar to the one he owns. Will Trump’s lawsuit actually take money away from charities who support abused and trafficked women?
According to their website, the Mrs. Universe Pageant, held in Lithuania each year, is a platform to help unite women around the world against violence and human trafficking. This year’s theme of “Beauty Against Human Trafficking” even included the development of suggestions for how beauty pageants could be used to educate women about the dangers of human trafficking and raise awareness of the crime in Lithuania. The week of events surrounding the pageant was used to launch round table discussions in Lithuania on how to improve human trafficking policy. It also included a charity gala to support local educational and art programs for orphaned children. An event that supports preventing violence against women and giving orphans an education sounds pretty hard to attack, right?
Not for Donald Trump and NBC Universal, who own the Miss Universe Organization. They filed suit in court this week against the Mrs. Universe pageant for copyright infringement. Trump and NBC claim the names of the pageants are too similar, and that Mrs. Universe violates their copyright. The Lithuanians claim the word “universe” is about as generic as it gets, so they have every right to call their pageant that. Substantively, the only difference between the two pageants is that in Trump’s contestants must be unmarried and in the Lithuanian pageant they must be married. And of course, the Lithuanian pageant created substantive strategies to tackle one of the most significant human rights issues in the world while Trump’s asked women how they feel about the Internet.
Borderland: A Human Trafficking Comic Book
If you’re looking for a hot new summer read that plugs into your passion for ending human trafficking, check out the new comic book Borderland. Borderland uses graphic art to tell the story of seven different human trafficking victims in a fresh, unique way. And you can help get copies of Borderland into the hands of teens at-risk for human trafficking.
Borderland is the first comic book based on multiple human trafficking story lines intended to edu-tain teens and young people about the dangers of human trafficking and how to protect themselves. It was created as a joint project by Olga Trusova, a Fulbright Fellow from Stanford University and Dan Archer, a comic artists/journalist. Trusova spent her fellowship researching human trafficking and collecting victims’ stories in Eastern Europe. Borderland is the result of their combined talents.
The International Organization for Migration recently announced they would fund the distribution of Borderland to 136 schools in the Ukraine. But Trusova and Archer want to be able to distribute it here in the U.S. as well. If you’d like to help get Borderland to American teens, you can contribute to the Kickstart campaign (which, incidentally, also has a great video explaining the process of making the book). They need $8,000 by Sept. 28 in order to make their goal, and anyone pledging at least $5 will get a free PDF copy of the comic.
Slavery in Our Time
For the first time, the U.S. government acknowledges modern-day slavery in the United States.
One-hundred-and-fifty years after the abolition of slavery, the State Department has acknowledged that people in the United States continue to be bought and sold as property.
The department’s 2010 “Trafficking in Persons” (TIP) report, a global review of human trafficking and civic and legal responses to it, lists the United States for the first time among the nations that harbor modern-day slavery.
The report was a long time in coming. In 2001, when Washington was rolling out landmark anti-trafficking legislation, Maria, a Mexican woman, testified before the House Committee on International Relations on her experience with sex slavery in Florida. “If any of the girls refused to be with a customer, we were beaten. If we adamantly refused, the bosses would show us a lesson by raping us brutally. We worked six days a week, twelve hours a day. Our bodies were sore and swollen. If anyone became pregnant we were forced to have abortions. The cost of the abortion was added to the smuggling debt,” she said.
The report gives the United States high marks for its efforts to combat trafficking, but victims remain scattered throughout the workforce, hidden from view: the captive migrant tomato picker, the prostitute bonded by a smuggling debt, the domestic servant working without pay.
The media often focus on stories of young girls lured into prostitution rings. But government data suggest that “more foreign victims are found in labor trafficking than sex trafficking,” particularly in “above ground” sectors like hotel work and home healthcare. Estimates vary, but the number of victims worldwide could be more than 12 million children and adults.
Today’s slave trade capitalizes on vast inequalities, sharpened by economic globalization, that spur migration across national borders. Many governments have instituted anti-trafficking policies, but with uneven success. The TIP report states that 23 countries got an “upgrade” in the ranking of their anti-trafficking programs. But 19 countries were “downgraded” due to “sparse victim protections, desultory implementation, or inadequate legal structures.”
Despite the country’s relative wealth and sophisticated legal system, slavery trickles into the United States through deep cracks in labor and immigration laws.
Victims often remain hidden because they depend on their bosses not only for their livelihoods but for protection from immigration authorities. Even for documented workers, legal status is not a safeguard, and precarious temporary worker visas may even facilitate trafficking.
Stephanie Richard, director of policy with the Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), told In These Times: “We’re actually seeing an increase in the number of cases of people coming in on lawful visas, and then ending up in human trafficking … because people are using those visas as one of the forms of coercion for keeping people working for them against their will.”
To its credit, the State Department’s report stresses that anti-trafficking measures should not just emphasize cracking down on trafficking crimes, and that a comprehensive “victim-centered” approach should “focus on all victims, offering them the opportunity to access shelter, comprehensive services, and in certain cases, immigration relief.”
To qualify for special immigration relief-the T visa-trafficking survivors must cooperate with law enforcement investigations—a process advocates say can be humiliating and traumatic. That may be why the number of T visas granted each year is far smaller than the estimated number of survivors. And despite pressure to bring survivors into the criminal process, the Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit reported only 47 convictions in 43 human trafficking prosecutions in fiscal year 2009.
This year’s report glosses over the systemic failures that fuel the thirst for cheap labor—or even free labor. Sienna Baskin, an attorney with the Sex Workers Project—which campaigns for legislation to protect the rights of trafficked sex workers in New York—sees a correlation between the trafficking epidemic and immigration and law enforcement policies that criminalize victims. Baskin told In These Times, “The growing problem of labor exploitation could be lessened by comprehensive immigration reform that provides visas and fair wages to all workers.”
The Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers merges anti-trafficking, immigration reform and labor activism in its campaigns for farm workers’ rights. The group was recently honored by the White House for its Campaign for Fair Food, which has successfully pressured corporations to adjust their labor policies across the supply chain, from the tomato farms all the way up to restaurants like Taco Bell.
At the D.C. event announcing the new TIP report, Laura Germino, coordinator of the Coalition’s Anti-Slavery Campaign, said that 20 years ago the United States refused to acknowledge “that the unbroken threat of slavery that has so tragically woven through our history … was a constant.” She added, “But here’s the good part. There was nowhere to go but up.”
source: http://inthesetimes.com/article/6192/slavery_in_our_time
The New Hotbed of Human Trafficking Is … Ohio
Those of you who thought Ohio was all about rock n’ roll, amazing chili, and a seriously unhealthy football obsession may want to think again. A new report conducted by the Trafficking in Persons Study Commission found that 1800 people are trafficked in Ohio every year. This includes 800 immigrants who are exploited in commercial sex and factory work, as well as about 1000 American-born children who are forced into prostitution. Who would have thought that Ohio would be such a hotebed of human trafficking?
But why Ohio, whose largest city, Columbus, is dwarfed by neighboring Chicago? How can a place that sounds and appears so wholesome be responsible for forcing a thousand children into sexual slavery each year? The report cites weak laws on human trafficking, a growing demand for cheap labor, and Ohio’s proximity to the Canadian border as the key reasons modern-day slavery thrives in the state. I’m going to take a metaphorical highlighter to that word “demand,” because that is the key to the human trafficking crisis.
Like many other places in the U.S., Ohio has a growing immigrant population, including those who have migrated legally, illegally but voluntarily, and involuntarily. Undocumented migrants are at increased risk for trafficking and exploitation, and in Ohio about 800 of them were found exploited in factories, agriculture, constriction sites, and brothels. Often, migrants are trafficked by high organized criminal networks who transport the victims into and around the U.S. They are the criminals, but it’s the demand for cheap goods and food and for commercial sex that create an industry for trafficked immigrant workers.
Red Light Special: Send a Message With Slavery Sucks Postcards
Are you sick of wasting your money on useless plastic crap made in overseas sweatshops? Do you want to use your money to vote for something you actually support — a hopeful future for former slaves? Then check out Change.org’s weekly Red Light Special. Once a week, I’ll be bringing you a product that heals rather than hurts, because the proceeds go to help victims of human trafficking. Shop Red Light Specials to be part of the solution, instead of part of the useless crap problem.
This Week’s Red Light Special … Slavery Sucks Postcards
Sometimes, the simplest message is the best one. In the case of modern-day slavery, that message is pretty clear: slavery sucks. This set of twelve postcards lets you send that message loud and clear to everyone you know. They’re a great way to start a conversation about human trafficking and modern slavery or to simply send a note to a fellow abolitionist. Plus, your purchase goes to support Free the Slaves’ work fighting slavery around the world. Now that’s a message you want to send in every way you can.
You can buy this item here.
Let’s face it, you don’t need any more stuff in your life, but human trafficking survivors sure need a future. And you can give it to them with just a click of the mouse and a swipe of the credit card. So what are you waiting for?
If you know of an organization or business which you’d like to see financially rewarded for helping trafficking victims, let me know!
Photo credit: Free the Slaves
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