Modern Day Slavery
(originally posted December 2009)
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
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
No comments:
Post a Comment