Everyone has those benchmarks in their lives where they say, that was a turning point or that was where it all began for me. There are those times in history when most of us can look back on and remember where we were when it happened. We remember where we were when JFK was shot, the Challenger exploded, and when the Twin Towers came down. I remember when it all came home to me that trafficking was a real problem and how far reaching the crime extends.
Before the event, I had heard of trafficking. I had listened to news reports about men arrested for human trafficking and the fate of many who were reported missing. I had been aware of the crisis of human trafficking from a distance but never linking much of what we know today together. The human rights violation of human trafficking was not humanized until I was in a small village in Southern Peru near the Bolivian border. A couple of community leaders accompanied me into the village to promote a youth event that was to take place that weekend. The evening was to be filled with music, activities, socializing, and the local pastor sharing a message of hope. As we are making our way through the village of approximately 3,000 people we encountered a group of high school girls and we invited them to the weekend event. As we are sharing with the students one of the mothers comes running out of her home telling the children they should run away because I was a bad man and I had intentions of kidnapping and selling them.
In a remote village in Southern Peru high in the Andes mountains these people had experienced the presence of human traffickers. The people are very poor and most illiterate. #seemypreviousblog
As I looked into the mother's fearful eyes I could see the heartache, fury, frustration, and anger against me. As I saw the face of the teenagers present I knew that they understood her warnings. The men I was with try to console the mother and inform her of our intentions, but she would have none of it.
This was my first personal encounter of what trafficking brings to families. I am reminded of the terror in that mother's eyes each time I hear of a trafficking story and I am reminded of why I do what I do. On January 28, 1986, when the Challenger exploded on national television, I was at Fort Stewart Georgia serving a three year tour with the US Army. On September 11, 2001, I was in Cartersville, Georgia. The day the crisis of human trafficking became real to me was on a June afternoon in Lampa, Peru outside the gymnasium as we were inviting teens to a weekend event. Trafficking devastates families, ruins lives, rots the soul, drags humanity into a pit of vileness.
What event or point in time can you say, that is where it started for me? Maybe, you have not had that moment in time and trafficking has not been humanized for you. If that is you, go to our website-www.globalreliefassociation.com or check out our Facebook site: Global Relief Association for Crises & Emergencies and check out the photos. Look at the faces of the children and families. Allow the problem of trafficking to become real for you. When it does become real to you, take action. Sexual exploitation affects society as a whole and there are victims in prostitution. To think otherwise is to contribute to the existing problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment