Modern Day Slavery

After months of reaching out via phone and email to various women’s non-profits for volunteer opportunities, I was excited to receive a call on Thursday afternoon from a very special organization, the Somaly Mam Foundation, to learn more about how I can become involved in their efforts.

The mission of the Somaly Mam Foundation is to end modern day slavery in North America and around the globe, specifically Southeast Asia, by freeing victims and rehabilitating them to become strong, contributing members of society who live fulfilling lives.

As a little background, modern day slavery, also known as “human trafficking,” is a term used to describe the activities involved when one person holds another person – usually a woman or a girl – in “compelled service.” Often it is the result of poverty; a destitute family may be told by a “job agent” that their child will be given a good job in another country. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, other methods of trafficking include a false marriage proposal, being sold into the sex industry by family or boyfriends and husbands, kidnapping or being told that you owe a trafficker money and must submit yourself to service in order to repay the debt.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children being trafficked every year. Other sources say that every year over two million children and women are sold into sexual slavery. Either way, the numbers are staggering:

• 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world; 56 percent of these victims are women and girls
• $32 billion annual trade for the traffickers
• Prevalence of trafficking victims in the world: 1.8 per 1,000 inhabitants (in Asia and the Pacific: 3 per 1,000)

(2010 Trafficking in Persons Report)

But the stories of the women themselves are what truly pains me. I covered sexual trafficking very briefly in my first entry, Fill My Heart with Half the Sky, but its magnitude is such that it deserves more attention. Somaly Mam thought so, dedicating her life to this cause. The full and incredible story is on the Foundation’s website, but in brief, Somaly Mam was born into an impoverished family in Cambodia and sold into sexual slavery by a stranger posing to be her grandfather. Tortured and raped daily in a brothel, Somaly courageously escaped after watching her best friend brutally murdered. She has dedicated her life since then to rescuing and rehabilitating other victims of the sex trade and plays a prominent role in the global anti-trafficking fight. When asked why she continues to persevere in the face of personal threats to herself and her family, she says, "I don't want to go without leaving a trace," words which I find profoundly beautiful if not haunting.

Because neither do I. Neither do many of us, I think.

I hope to become more involved in this organization and document my experiences helping to raise funds and awareness around this cause. In the meantime though, here is one thing that I have already done and encourage anyone who cares about this cause to do the same. Please SIGN THIS PETITION urging the US and Canadian governments to take action to protect and provide care for children and youth who are either victims of sex trafficking or who are at risk of being trafficked.

After you add your voice to this important effort, if you have another moment, visit the Voices for Change section of the Somaly Mam Foundation website to read about a powerful program that aims to transform survivors of trafficking into agents of justice and leaders in the anti-trafficking movement. Meet the survivors themselves.

In addition, here is one of the videos on the Somaly Mam website. It’s an Anderson Cooper 360 segment (2007) and provides an overview of the slave trade in one area of Cambodia.

Click here to view.

Finally, if you want a further introduction to human trafficking, then please pick up the book Half the Sky if you have not already done so.

Once you hear about the horrors of the sex trade industry, it’s nearly impossible to remain quiet.