Do you have anything that weighs on you? Weighs on you in that year in and year out sort of way that makes your heart flicker with recognition every time the subject is brought up? And you feel desperate to just DO something but days pass and daily life creeps in and busyness takes hold and lethargy takes over and it falls by the wayside for another little while but the whole time it's sort of weighing on you in a back burner kind of way? I read this quote by Dale Carnegie today as I was researching for this post and he said:
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
For me the topic that continues to weigh on me is human sex trafficking. The idea that someone can take away the freedom, security, and safety of someone’s mind, body, and heart- often in the process making them feel as if it is their own fault- just boggles my safe little world. It wrecks me. There’s really nothing else to say; it seems as if this is something that could have happened hundreds of years ago that we should talk about with tears and shame and then discuss the joys of the people who abolished it.
But that’s not truth.
The truth is that San Diego is one of the FBI’s top 13 cities for sex trafficking in the country.
The truth is that sex trafficking is San Diego’s second largest underground economy.
The truth is it represents an estimated $810 million in annual revenue as of 2013.
The truth is that the average age that a teen enters the sex “slave“ trade in the US is between 12 and 14 years old for girls and 11 to 13 years old for boys.
This truth is brutal.
It's the kind of truth that makes my heart wrench and my stomach turn, the kind of truth that motivates. Of all the money that comes in to The Kinship Perspective 5% goes straight to organizations actively seeking to either directly rescue children from sex trafficking or to stop the demand and thus prevent it.
The first organization I currently donate to is Operation Underground Railroad which you can find at www.ourrescure.org. This organization is an actual task force of former CIA, Navy SEALs, and special opps operatives that work with local law-enforcement to extract victims of sex trafficking, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, and rehabilitate their victims.
The second organization I donate to is Fight the New Drug and you can find them at www.fightthenewdrug.org. This is an organization that uses education and awareness to fight against pornography, which lives in an increasingly symbiotic and sustaining relationship with sex trafficking. And I’m still researching new supporters in the fight against modern slavery and sex trafficking. (If you’re interested, I’m going to a community awareness meeting on March 7 and would love to have you join me).
This Friday is Lincoln's birthday and as a nod to man who stood against slavery and in a stance against our own modern-day slavery, I am raffling off this coffee mug to anyone who makes a donation of $5 or more to either of these organizations. Just leave me a comment below letting me know that you donated and I will hold the raffle next Wednesday the 21st- so get your donations in this week. You will get an extra raffle ticket if you share this post on your facebook page and raise awareness for human sex trafficking- who knows, maybe this is the same weight holding down another heart as well- but weights can be lifted with many hands.
So that you know I didn't just make all this up, here are my sources and a great place for information if you're interested:
https://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/services/sex-trafficking-awareness
Gorgeous paper flowers shot at a weekend Pigment Workshop taught by the lovely and gifted Sara at Handmade by Sara Kim
A fun and uplifting blog post about the delightful afternoon I spent with them coming very soon!
