7 Ways Everyday People Can Help End Slavery
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We need committed frontline workers (particularly those who practice boundaries), but this work cannot be left to non-profits alone.
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Should I Volunteer with an Anti-Trafficking Program?
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Unfortunately, the capacity to care doesn’t translate to an ability to navigate the complexity of anti-trafficking work. This is especially the case when working directly with survivors emerging from exploitation. Yet, this is often the focal point for would-be volunteers. They want to meet survivors and hear their stories, lavish victims with gifts, walk through Red Light Districts, or participate in rescue operations.
Read MoreWhy Shock Isn’t an Effective Campaign Tactic
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Shedding light on human rights issues is necessary, but there are better ways to go about it. You can’t fight violence by using violent images. You can’t claim you’re exposing an injustice while creating another. You can’t expect effective, meaningful change by turning people into pawns in an emotionally manipulative game.
Read MoreTrue Justice Work Isn't Just Outrage
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Injustice should make us outraged, but it matters how we react to it. Responding by wishing AIDS on a person or punctuating a tweet with hashtags like #burn and #die hardly advances the work of justice. This kind of approach only fuels our “outrage economy” and turns the internet into an online battlefield, escalating already volatile issues and dividing people even further.
Read MoreWhat You Need to Know About Labour Conditions in China
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“We are ill-treated and work like slaves.”
“[We are treated worse than] horse cow goat pig dog. (sic)”
“We suffer torturement, beat and rude remark (sic). Nearly no payment.”
These are the hand-written pleas of workers in Chinese factories, tucked away into a purse bought from Walmart, a shopping bag from Saks and a box of Halloween decorations from K-Mart.
Read MoreDear Aspiring Overseas Volunteer
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As I learned the hard way, there’s far more to pre-departure preparation than just getting vaccinated against typhoid and yellow fever. I also needed to be inoculated with a good dose of reality so that I could start out my service with healthy boundaries and realistic expectations.
The truth is that international volunteers are bound for more than adventure and warm, fuzzy feelings.
Read MoreWho Gets to be an Anti-Trafficking Activist?
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Our limited definition of activism is problematic. It keeps some people out of engaging in important work because they don’t feel qualified enough—while keeping others imprisoned by it, demanding perfection and martyrdom of themselves and veering dangerously toward burnout and compassion fatigue.
Is there a place for celebrities and stay-at-home parents and business leaders and amateurs in the justice movement?
Read More6 Organizations Helping Immigrants
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The United States still spends about $2 million in detaining immigrants each year. Discrimination is rampant. Political policies are inauspicious. And with the legal and language barriers, social isolation and employment challenges that immigrants often face, many are also at risk of exploitation and human trafficking.
Read MoreThe Sexual Exploitation Crisis in the Philippines You Need to Know About
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A haven for pedophiles and porn users, the cybersex industry in the Philippines allows anonymous viewers to pay as little as $5 or $10 for a live-streamed “show” featuring a child—sometimes as young as 2 or 3 years old—who is then sexually abused according to the client’s specifications.
What’s even harder to digest is that many of these cybersex businesses are operated by families. Children are being victimized in their own home—sometimes by a parent or a sibling.
Read MoreA Generation that Cares
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About 7,500 km fill the distance between Vancouver, BC and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four friends from Alberta traveled that distance last summer … by bike. And it wasn’t for fame or glory, or a lost bet, but to raise awareness and funds for human trafficking interventions in Canada through Defend Dignity.
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