By Randy Bishop

Every day an estimated 27 million men, women, and children wake up victims of modern slavery. If you’re reading this, you’re not one of them. Be thankful.

Menaka was one of them . . .

Tired of the filth of the refugee camp, teenaged Menaka left her parents (without their knowledge) and escaped with an older friend who’d promised a job in Kolkata, India. For a girl who’d never been to a big city, Kolkata was a strange, bewildering place. Instead of helping Menaka find the expected job as a housemaid, her unscrupulous “friend” sold her to a brothel for 1,000 rupees, or about $20.

The first customer paid a premium for her virginity. He locked the door and gave her a soda. Menaka began to feel groggy, and realizing she’d been drugged, tried to escape, but she couldn’t reach the lock. At the age of just 13, frightened and alone, she was raped by a stranger.

Fast-forward 30 years. Menaka’s life has changed dramatically. She still lives in the same area but is now employed by Freeset, a fair trade business where she sews high-quality jute totes. Freeset offers holistic services to women leaving the sex trade, including a living wage, day care, and education. (Watch a great video about Freeset and the issues in Kolkata.)

To increase sales, sustainably expand their work, and ultimately rescue more women from the sex trade, Freeset partners with US businesses (and others) that offer wider marketing and distribution, such as WorldCrafts. So, for example, when consumers purchase items from WorldCrafts, the demand creates more employment opportunities at Freeset. Menaka is now a joyful ambassador for freedom as she shares her story with others and offers tangible hope as job openings become available.

But there’s still so much more to do. Millions more need help.

Human trafficking is a modern, worldwide scourge in which criminals use force, fraud, or coercion to exploit people for profit. The majority of victims worldwide (and, specifically, in the US) are trafficked for sex. This would include millions of people, women primarily, involved in the commercial sex industry—massage parlors, strip bars, prostitution, and pornography. In 2000 the International Labour Organization estimated that, worldwide, there were 1.8 million children alone victimized in prostitution or pornography.

The second major group of trafficking victims is exploited for their labor. For instance, a person from Asia receives passage to another country and is forced to work off a “debt” without salary in a restaurant or garment factory, often subject to physical or psychological violence and manipulation. Child soldiering and traditional chattel slavery are other examples.

And this is not just an issue in India, or Thailand, or Russia. Approximately 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States annually, whether for sex or labor, and the number of US citizens trafficked within our borders is certainly higher. An estimated 100,000 children in the US are caught up into the sex trade each year, according to the Polaris Project.

Overwhelmed? Who wouldn’t be? But don’t let your concern end with this article.

You can get involved in many ways. Form an abolitionist group that raises awareness about modern slavery. Is your Sunday school class, small group, women’s ministry, or local church aware of the scope of this problem? How can you mobilize others where you live, work, and go to church?

Here are some steps you can take right now:

  • Pray. Can you pray for victims and victimizers? Can you pray for those on the frontlines of the battle trying to rescue these men, women, and children? Can you pray God’s desire for justice in these situations? Can you encourage others to pray too? As you learn more, God will show you how to pray.
  • Read and learn. There are a number of great resources out there, including Not in My Town by Dillon Burroughs and Charles Powell. This book comes with a full-length DVD as well. The authors’ gripping journey may shock you, but will also motivate and equip you to join the new generation of abolitionists who share a common call to stop injustice. The Release and Restore CD is another helpful resource packed with information on the larger topic of human exploitation.
  • Find out about your state and local initiatives related to human trafficking. Find out about federal laws and programs. Become involved in the political process, be an advocate for victims, and, again, pray. The Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 (US State Department) is a useful free resource that includes victims’ stories.
  • Get involved by writing letters to local publications or billboard companies that advertise places of exploitation (like spas that front for illegal sexual activity). Ask real estate companies not to sell or rent their space to such businesses.
  • Buy products from fair-trade businesses, which do not use forced labor. Operating under Fair Trade Federation standards, WorldCrafts and its local partners develop fair-trade businesses that provide sustainable income and offer eternal hope for impoverished people throughout the word. In 2009, WorldCrafts launched its Set1Free campaign to highlight more than a dozen of its artisan groups who are working with women freed from sexual exploitation or women at risk of human trafficking.
  • Host your own WorldCrafts Freedom party to pray, raise awareness, and offer WorldCrafts items for purchase. A prayer guide and everything you need to begin are available under the Parties page at http://www.worldcrafts.org/.
  • Host a Wilberforce event at your home. William Wilberforce was the nineteenth-century reformer who pushed through the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Watch the compelling 2006 movie about his life, Amazing Grace. Then follow up with a group study of Not in My Town (book and accompanying DVD; study questions for the DVD included in book). As many as 27 million people today bound in some form of slavery is well more than the number of victims who were transported during the entire transatlantic slave trade, by some estimates. How can we not act?
  • Be aware of suspicious activity even in your own neighborhood. Prayerwalk. Befriend people you see every day in industries where trafficking is sometimes a problem, such as nail salons, restaurants, migrant farming, panhandling, and the sex industry. Learn to recognize the signs of possible trafficking, go to http://actioncenter.polarisproject.org/learn/recognizing-trafficking. The national hotline number is 1-888-373-7888.

These are just a few suggestions. The resources linked in this article and others on NewHopeDigital.com provide many more. Human exploitation—specifically human trafficking, whether for sex, labor, or war— is a tragedy we cannot be silent about.

Randy Bishop is the managing editor of NewHopeDigital.com.