Can you imagine your own child being kidnapped and sold into a child-slavery ring halfway around the world? Or maybe worse, you as a parent selling one of your own children so you can pay for food for the rest of the family? As unbelievable as it sounds, it is real life for lots of people. Slavery or “human trafficking” is still going on today. It is not legal anywhere, but is practiced everywhere. Slavery could mean anything from a whole family forced to pound huge rocks into gravel, to a little girl being sold to a brothel. The facts about slavery today are alarming. My own experience traveling to West Africa was eye opening. On the hopeful side, many people are working to put a stop to slavery by informing the public, because one of the biggest problems is that not many people know the truth about modern day slavery.
There is much disturbing information about slavery practiced today. Currently there are 27 million slaves in the world. Who? Men, Woman, and Children, Half of them are women and children, working for someone for free. How is slavery still going on if it is not legal anywhere? Most of the time, someone will come to a family and ask if they wanted a job in the city, or some other country. When they get there, the owner takes all their legal documents, and says that they will hold them and keep them safe. Then pay them a little or say you will get payment the next payday, and they never do. They are locked inside a area, or threaten that if they leave, they will be called illegal immigrants. Slavery is mostly in India and Africa, but there are slaves everywhere. Every 36 minuets, a person is trafficked into America!!!! Roughly that is 17,500 a year in our own country, most of them women and children. They work in restaurants, hotels, cleaning business, homes, and many other things. The slave keepers tell the slaves that if they tell anyone about their enslavement, they will die, or be turned into the government. The truth is that our government would help them.
The living conditions of a slave are not any better then how they are treated. Most live on a cold, hard, dirt floor, with little or no pillow, and maybe a small mat. Most slaves are fed a small portion of watery rice and most are malnutrition. They live in a light cramped room, and get little sleep, they are awaken to the stern shout of their slave masters, then they rush to eat a small amount of food, then to work. This process is repeated everyday, until they die, or are freed.
I was awakened to the fact that slavery still exists when I was nine years old. For a school project I was researching the "Transatlantic Slave Trade"(1600-1800s), when I came across information about modern day slavery. In England, in 2006, I visited "Anti-Slavery International", an organization started by William Wilberforce in the late 1800's focusing on human trafficking today. Then when I was in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, I saw firsthand the effects of modern day slavery. According to a local ministry, there are close to half a million street/slave children in Dakar. They are given to the local mosques by their parents for special favor from the Islamic leaders. The children are promised a good home, to be taught in the ways of Islam, and might even become a Imam, instead they become street beggars to make money for the mosque. They are slaves, forced to work, beg, and fend for them selves. They all sleep on the dirt floor, locked up in a room, fed poorly and never paid. This is what opened my eyes to the reality that not everyone lives like me. I knew that I had to do something about it, that I couldn't just sit around and let this continue. That is when I came across other teens and organizations that have my same heart.
There are many organizations that are working to end modern day slavery; "Exodus Cry" "Not For Sale", "International Justice Mission", "Lose Change to Loosen Chains", "Free the Slaves", "Anti-Slavery International" and many more. I am one of many other young people who want to change what we have seen. Zach Hunter is another modern day abolitionist. Zach was learning about slavery in America during the Civil War in school, and his mom said, "Did you know that slavery still exists today?" Zach was startled, and he knew that he had to do something about it. This is what launched Lose Change to Loosen Chains (lc2lc) campaign. Soon International Justice Mission (IJM) took it up, hoping that schools, churches, families, business, and individuals will take up the cause and help end slavery. At the age of 15, Zach wrote a book called, Be the Change, then he wrote, Generation Change, and his most recent book is, Loose your Cool. Zach went beyond just learning about slavery, and praying for the victims to be free. He and many others set about helping to free them, and informing other about the horrors of modern day human trafficking.
Slavery comes in many different ways. There are many organizations that are working to stop the trade of human beings. According to one modern day abolitionist organization, it cost only about 1,000 dollars to set a family free from slavery, give them tools to survive, and put their children in school. Human trafficking can be abolished in just a few years if we all work together. You can help by donating your spare change and in turn, help free victims of abuse and slavery. Now that you know some of the facts, you can help, and together we can make a difference. The efforts to stop the modern day slave trade will go on till we end it. Help us be a voice to those who don't have one!
*Sources and more info:
www.exoduscry.com
www.notforsale.com
www.ijm.com
www.freetheslaves.net
www.antislavery.org
www.zachhunter.me
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Post Abortion Syndrome
According to current research, most women who have abortions deal with guilt, depression, regret, sleep disturbance and shame. "Studies within the first few weeks after the abortion have found that between 40 and 60 percent of women who were questioned, reported having negative reactions. Within 8 weeks after their abortions, 55% expressed guilt, 44% complained of nervous disorders, 36% had experienced sleep disturbances, 31% had regrets about their decision, and 11% had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor."- (AbortionFacts.com) Abortions can have a devastating effect on women.
If you are pro-abortion you might have some different opinions. You may say, "It is not a baby; it's just a fetus. It has no feelings. It is part of it's mother. Abortion won't hurt it." But the Bible would say differently. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” (Jeremiah 1:5) "A fetus is an individual as soon as it is conceived, and it has it's own immune system. At three weeks from conception, a baby's heart begins to beat; at 6 weeks, brainwaves are measurable, both before most of the earliest abortions." (abort73.com)
If you are pro-choice, you might believe that abortion doesn't physically hurt the mother- that it is just an "inconvenience". But research shows that it has a devastating effect on woman and their physical health. "...I couldn't save [my child] because I was too scared and too confused to open my mouth. And then I felt a suction and the worst pain I have ever felt in my life came with it and I swear I felt a tear in my body, a rip and I was emptied ... I screamed. I finally opened my mouth when it was too late and I screamed "NO" like it would make a difference. I kept screaming it over and over and over while they ignored me."* Abortion does hurt woman, physically and emotionally.
There are also negative emotional health effects in a post-abortion woman. Depression often hits hard after a woman has an abortion. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't regret my abortion. There would be times when I would just cry for hours. I became depressed and suicidal."* "In one study of 500 women who had abortions, researchers found that 50 percent expressed negative feelings, and up to 10 percent were classified as having developed "serious psychiatric complications." (AbortionFacts.com) Sixty-percent of the woman were feeling negative feelings about it, and they will always live with the guilt of "how could I kill a living baby?", until they let Jesus come in and heal their wounds, they forgive themselves, understanding that Yeshua already forgave them. I have read testimony after testimony about women having abortions, and the emotional ride they have had since then. Most have not gone a day of their life, since they've aborted their babies, that they not have regretted their decision, and cried over their loss. Every time they see a friend, family, or another woman who is pregnant, or has a baby, the heartache can be worse.
They are also more likely to have miscarriages after they have an abortion- here is one woman's story: "...Now I have two children, but both of them were premature babies... I could not have a normal pregnancy due to the abortion I had 13 years ago. It is hard to know that I had an abortion. I feel like a monster. How could I have caused such horrible deaths to my other children?..."* After an abortion, a woman is 30-40% more likely to have an miscarriage. "Of a group of 52 women who had induced abortions 10-15 years previously and who were followed very closely during that length of time, it was found that one-half (27) had no problem with subsequent pregnancies. There was one ectopic pregnancy, eight subsequent — but long-delayed — conceptions, and three women with permanently blocked tubes. Of the remaining 11 women, there were 33 pregnancies with 14 early and 3 midtrimester losses, 6 premature deliveries, and only 10 full-term births."(AbortionFacts.com)
Abortion has affected women for years, as they have had to deal with their emotion privately and not let others know how they feel. These women need to go to a post-abortion help center and start their journey towards healing and forgiveness, as many still have the hurt inside of them for killing an innocent child. What should be the safest place in the world- a mother's womb, is now the most dangerous. A baby should be protected, come to full gestation, and live a life that God has set up for them. If the 50 million legally aborted children and their children were alive to vote, abortion would be illegalized by the popular vote. God had a destiny for each and everyone of those aborted children. He had a life plan for them that will never come to pass. There may be that many more people here today, being Jesus Freaks! "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." (Psalms 139:13)
* Testimonies are from www.abort73.com
If you are pro-abortion you might have some different opinions. You may say, "It is not a baby; it's just a fetus. It has no feelings. It is part of it's mother. Abortion won't hurt it." But the Bible would say differently. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” (Jeremiah 1:5) "A fetus is an individual as soon as it is conceived, and it has it's own immune system. At three weeks from conception, a baby's heart begins to beat; at 6 weeks, brainwaves are measurable, both before most of the earliest abortions." (abort73.com)
If you are pro-choice, you might believe that abortion doesn't physically hurt the mother- that it is just an "inconvenience". But research shows that it has a devastating effect on woman and their physical health. "...I couldn't save [my child] because I was too scared and too confused to open my mouth. And then I felt a suction and the worst pain I have ever felt in my life came with it and I swear I felt a tear in my body, a rip and I was emptied ... I screamed. I finally opened my mouth when it was too late and I screamed "NO" like it would make a difference. I kept screaming it over and over and over while they ignored me."* Abortion does hurt woman, physically and emotionally.
There are also negative emotional health effects in a post-abortion woman. Depression often hits hard after a woman has an abortion. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't regret my abortion. There would be times when I would just cry for hours. I became depressed and suicidal."* "In one study of 500 women who had abortions, researchers found that 50 percent expressed negative feelings, and up to 10 percent were classified as having developed "serious psychiatric complications." (AbortionFacts.com) Sixty-percent of the woman were feeling negative feelings about it, and they will always live with the guilt of "how could I kill a living baby?", until they let Jesus come in and heal their wounds, they forgive themselves, understanding that Yeshua already forgave them. I have read testimony after testimony about women having abortions, and the emotional ride they have had since then. Most have not gone a day of their life, since they've aborted their babies, that they not have regretted their decision, and cried over their loss. Every time they see a friend, family, or another woman who is pregnant, or has a baby, the heartache can be worse.
They are also more likely to have miscarriages after they have an abortion- here is one woman's story: "...Now I have two children, but both of them were premature babies... I could not have a normal pregnancy due to the abortion I had 13 years ago. It is hard to know that I had an abortion. I feel like a monster. How could I have caused such horrible deaths to my other children?..."* After an abortion, a woman is 30-40% more likely to have an miscarriage. "Of a group of 52 women who had induced abortions 10-15 years previously and who were followed very closely during that length of time, it was found that one-half (27) had no problem with subsequent pregnancies. There was one ectopic pregnancy, eight subsequent — but long-delayed — conceptions, and three women with permanently blocked tubes. Of the remaining 11 women, there were 33 pregnancies with 14 early and 3 midtrimester losses, 6 premature deliveries, and only 10 full-term births."(AbortionFacts.com)
Abortion has affected women for years, as they have had to deal with their emotion privately and not let others know how they feel. These women need to go to a post-abortion help center and start their journey towards healing and forgiveness, as many still have the hurt inside of them for killing an innocent child. What should be the safest place in the world- a mother's womb, is now the most dangerous. A baby should be protected, come to full gestation, and live a life that God has set up for them. If the 50 million legally aborted children and their children were alive to vote, abortion would be illegalized by the popular vote. God had a destiny for each and everyone of those aborted children. He had a life plan for them that will never come to pass. There may be that many more people here today, being Jesus Freaks! "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." (Psalms 139:13)
* Testimonies are from www.abort73.com
What is this?
So, I have been thinking about starting another blog- but the focus on justice. Justice issues have really been on my heart for a few years. Here are two of the main ones:
Abortion- the shedding of innocent blood
Slavery- There are over 27 million slaves in the world today, around 20,000 are trafficked into the USA each year.
If you have something to contribute to these two subjects, or other issues, email me and we can talk about it. (joyfullart7@gmail.com)
Enjoy the site-
Anna
Abortion- the shedding of innocent blood
Slavery- There are over 27 million slaves in the world today, around 20,000 are trafficked into the USA each year.
If you have something to contribute to these two subjects, or other issues, email me and we can talk about it. (joyfullart7@gmail.com)
Enjoy the site-
Anna
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)