- Do you have any plans for Independance Day on July 4th? How about incorporating Free the Slaves' idea of declaring your independence from slavery this 4th of July? Free the Slaves encourages two actions this July 4th: take a picture creatively showing the word "free" (you can see examples on the page that describes this event) and raising money during your BBQs and parties to free a slave. Regardless of whether or not you join in this event, why don't you talk to your friends and family about the people around the world who do not have freedom?
- Not for Sale is putting together a campaign called "Stop Them from Scoring" focused on raising awareness of the issue of slavery (especially child s_x slavery) in South Africa during the World Cup. This page describes the campaign. You can also see a video of part of their campaign, one to a video advertisement (I highly recommend watching this one - it's only a minute long). And here are the red cards they are handing out. Cards that say things like: "Last year, slave traders made R260 billion. That's more than Nike, Adidas and Puma combined." and "Enslaved children outnumber pro footballers. Makes you wonder what our favorite pastime really is."
- So what's the big deal about the World Cup you ask? Good question. And one that this article answers fairly well. Notice this encouraging bit near the end of the article: "Stronger law enforcement has been proven to help. International Justice Mission views it as indispensable. In Cebu, Philippines, after two years of collaborative casework led by IJM, we saw a 70 percent reduction in the victimization of children in the commercial sex trade." Yay!
- International Justice Mission also has a campaign: Five Weeks for Freedom. Fifteen bikers will be riding the 1800 mile long Underground Railroad route to campaign for justice for the 27 million slaves around the world who can't speak up. See if there is an event in your town - there are events in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and New York.
In the midst of these exciting happenings, we mustn't forget what is going on. Here is a blog post/article and video that, as the title says, puts faces to the statistics and focuses on child s_x trafficking in Atlanta. And, here is the newly released 2010 Trafficking in Persons report from the U.S. Department of State. This (very long) report defines trafficking, tells stories of human trafficking victims and survivors, gives details of each country's approach to trafficking as well as assigning each country a "tier" based on what they are doing in response to trafficking (this is the first year the US has included itself in this ranking).
One more thing: if you have any suggestions, questions, comments or tips, please let me know. You can comment below or email me. Thank you for reading and for your concern over the tragedy of slavery!
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