{ As a mom of 5, I was horrified as I read about this subject. I realize this is not a usual blog post for my blog, but it is an important thing to know about. Please note that this subject is heavy and may not be suitable for children (though what is written is clean and factual). Not knowing what I could do, I joined one of my friends, Angie, in her fight against child sex slavery. On this Mother’s Day weekend, I hope you will join us in fighting this great evil. There is SO much that we can do. -kiki}
(This 3 year- old boy and his 4 year- old sister were rescued from sex traffickers by Operation Underground Railroad. Photo courtesy of ourrescue.org.)
I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I didn’t know I was about to read words that would change everything. I happened upon a news article while surfing Facebook. It was about an Ex-CIA officer, Tim Ballard, who put his crime-fighting skills to work by hunting down and busting up child sex rings. Sounded interesting.
I couldn’t read the article in one sitting. I don’t know if you’ve ever witnessed anything truly horrifying. Anything that cut you down and brought you low. An event you had to just get through second by second. That’s how I felt reading about what Ballard calls “the greatest plague on this earth today”- child sex trafficking.
How could I not know that there are an estimated 27 million enslaved human beings on the earth today? More than ever existed in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Two million of them are children. Some are sold for 10-15k per child. Some are rented for “parties” hosted by traffickers for wealthy sex tourists who will pay 2 or 3x’s as much for a child than for an adult prostitute.
I learned that in Haiti, just one of the many countries plagued by this, (including our own, by the way), there are 50,000 parentless children, many who are in un-licensed orphanages. They are sold off like cattle. Slavery did not end with Lincoln, my friends.
Have I lost you yet? Is it too much? Just another sad story we shake our heads at and feel helpless over? For once, it’s not hopeless. Trust me.
There are heroes. Real heroes that expend all of their energies to rescue. Men and women who steel themselves to go through the soul-scraping process of analyzing child pornography produced as advertisements for these little kids. They use specialized forensic software, intelligence training and undercover operations to hunt these monsters down and get these kids safe.
These are the “jump teams” of Operation Underground Railroad. And in their first year of operating this incredible non-profit, they have rescued over 250 children.
Their only mission is saving the children. In the photo above, that particular mission saved 28 children that were all for sale from one orphanage.
These missions cost money to execute. Very few of us have wads of cash to throw at this cause. But we all can do something. Once we know, we can’t turn away. Become an honest-to goodness abolitionist by visiting ourrescue.org. You can host your own fundraising effort, hop on and support someone else’s or donate directly to O.U.R.
In my area, I went from 17 friends, (we now call ourselves Abolitionist Moms) who wanted to help do a bake sale. In less than a month we grew to over 500 women who have brainstormed and conceived their own fund raising efforts. We have people who made and sold t-shirts, gathered and consigned children’s clothing, planned garden brunch auctions, organized yoga classes in the park, and donated all profits from jewelry parties etc. And the ball is still rolling! Abolitionist Moms chapters are cropping up in neighboring states, all women who could not look away once they knew.
In the days and sleepless nights after I read that article about Tim and O.U.R., my mind visited a talk by Dallin H. Oaks called Protect the Children. He reminds us,
“We are speaking of the children of God, and with His powerful help, we can do more to help them. In this plea I address not only Latter-day Saints but also all persons of religious faith and others who have a value system that causes them to subordinate their own needs to those of others, especially to the welfare of children…
We are all under the Savior’s command to love and care for each other and especially for the weak and defenseless.”
You guys, I know this isn’t easy to think about. Many of you will need time to even process that this level of evil exists. But process we must. Because not all kids have soccer practice tonight. Not all kids will watch Sponge Bob after school or ride their bikes in the street. Some kids are in the blackest abyss of abuse and horror. And I know we can do more to help them. The cause is not lost. We have true power against the darkness when we work together.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO:
As part of an organized group, Abolitionist Moms in Las Vegas, Angie and I are hosting an online auction to raise money for O.U.R. and we need your help! I have had so many questions from women who are not local and wanted to help, thus why we are doing this online. Here are 2 things you can do to help:
1-Do you know a shop or own a shop that would like to donate to our auction? We are looking for items that people will bid on. 100% of the proceeds will go to O.U.R. Even if you don’t have a shop, but would like to donate a favorite item from one of your favorite shops (you would be responsible to purchase and ship), that works too! Email me at kikicreates at gmail dot com for more information.
2- Our auction will be held ONLINE from May 25-29th. Come and bid on your favorite things. Again, 100% of all proceeds will go directly to O.U.R.
OTHER ACTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:
1-Visit O.U.R. and find a way YOU can help. Buy a shirt, start a fundraiser, donate some money, share their mission with others…just DO!
Thank you SO MUCH for your help! For any questions, email me at kikicreates at gmail dot com. With YOUR help, we can do SO MUCH.
