A little Weekend reading for you...
My thoughts on the global trafficking crisis, written from my 'mission field' (phnom penh, Cambodia).
AWARENESS...
I'm happy to see that a song called '27 Million' is climbing the UK charts this week. Because the more people who are aware of the global trafficking crisis-human's being bought and sold-the more people there are who may act upon their awareness and do something about the problem.
I keep seeing people write on Facebook "download 27 Million, stop trafficking". The money you give buying that awareness song will be a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the need that surrounds us all over the world. (Im not knocking the song-the people singing/promoting it are all friends of my family and are doing a great job, buy it, tell others about it-the higher it gets in the charts the more people will notice it and hear about trafficking). But i am concerned that it will be another well done awareness campaign that will have little effect in terms of changing the world.
Working in a slum area of Cambodia everyday, with men and women who have been victims of trafficking, I find it a little strange watching UK videos of teenagers jumping around excitedly to a pop song about trafficking: why are they not broken and in tears having heard about this atrocity? Why aren't they on their knees, crying out to God for transformation of the brokenness of this world, and each life effected by it?
If you actually want to stop trafficking it's going to take a lot of us, a lot of work, a lot of prayer, a lot of time, a lot of trouble, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of money.
I hope and pray there will be people who are more than just 'on the 27 million song bandwagon' because of this song. People who God calls to do radical things to fight trafficking.
We have to start somewhere-awareness is essential...
27 MILLION: The (estimated) number of modern day slaves trapped in enforced work right now-people bought and sold. Eg. Adult sex workers; Child sex workers as young as 3/4years old; debt bondage labor; Child soldiers; Babies/small children sold and used as a prop by beggars…
SO YOUR AWARE OF THE PROBLEM. (maybe you even bought the song) What next?...
Being aware doesn't actually change anything.
It's what you do with your awareness that counts...and if you actually want to see a decline in trafficking you will have to commit to something BIG!!!
THE NEEDS I see daily are many...
Working at 'Daughters of Cambodia' (website: www.daughtersofcambodia.org ) with victims of sex trafficking, I daily see/hear about the effects of trauma, the disfunctional families, the cultural acceptance of sex workers and trafficking.
The women and men need a way out, not just rehab but a sustainable alternative employment, if they are to leave sex work for good (often victims of sex trafficking don't have any education, and will fall back into sex work easily) they need to learn skills, how to budget money, work ethics.
They are deeply traumatised, they need counseling, they need to know they are of value, they need to know they have hope and a future.
This takes money and skilled workers. Daughters trains men and women who have left the sex industry, to make products, which are then sold in a Phnom Penh boutique and overseas. Daughters employs skilled workers, and volunteers, who provide victims with counceling, health care, child care, skills training, bible teaching, and love+care. Daughters' and other projects helping trafficking victims in Cambodia need more volunteers to commit to help us transform victims lives.
Western tourists visit Cambodia because they know they can sleep with underage girls, girls as young as 4 have been rescued from brothels.
In Cambodian culture it is acceptable to sleep with sex workers. In fact I have heard again and again that teenage men are taken to a prostitute as a 'coming of age'. It is normal for married Cambodian men to sleep with sex workers. There are many Cambodian and Vietnamese women trapped in brothels, and many women pimped out by their own family members. Unless we get to the root of this distorted view of women's value, every victim we help will be replaced with another. Whole communities here need to hear the gospel, to be transformed, to love women and children as God does. The people in the slum areas of Cambodia need a lot of people to bring the gospel to them, to live along side them, to love them, to disciple them and pray for them.
These are some of the global needs:
27 MILLION: The number of VICTIMS trapped in slavery, who need to be rescued or provided with a way out.
27 MILLION: The number of VICTIMS needing rehabilitation, counceling, vocational training, needing to know they are of value to the world, and have hope for their futures.
27 MILLION: The number of broken, dysfunctional, uneducated, poverty stricken FAMILIES/COMMUNITIES who resorted to selling women, babies and children.
27 MILLION: The number of times a TRAFFICKER has planned and arranged, with evil intent, to buy and sell each one of those trafficked humans, purely for his/her own gain.
27 MILLION+: The number of MEN worldwide who have visited a trafficked sex slave in the past few days.
27 MILLION+: The number of young women/children all over the world in danger of being THE NEXT VICTIMS of human trafficking.
27 MILLION+: The number of us who need to DO SOMETHING BIG ABOUT TRAFFICKING if we want to see a decline in this disgusting trade…
WHAT CAN YOU DO on your 'mission field'?
This crisis is HUGE!!!
The needs are HUGE.
This mission field is HUGE=wherever you live right now-your on it.
Many towns/cities in the UK and Worldwide have trafficked women and children trapped in brothels right now.
We need to make others aware of this global crisis.
We need to provide victims worldwide with a way out of slavery.
We need to help rehabilitate victims: counceling, life skills, vocational training, sustainable lifestyles.
We need to help families who think selling a child is the only choice, provide them with skills/resources so they have other ways of making money.
We need to arrest and prosecute traffickers, we need to get to the root of this problem. Also to prevent traffickers from being able to move humans across borders between countries.
We need to find ways to discourage/prevent men from visiting trafficked sex workers.
We need to go and educate and help all communities/cultures around the world where trafficking is considered 'normal'.
We need to pray
for radical transformation in all these lives, not just for the victims, but the traffickers, for the men who pay for sex, for the communities and families who sell their own people, and for those who are helping fight already.
Pray that you will be shown how YOU CAN HELP MAKE A CHANGE.
THE GOOD NEWS
is that we can all do something. If we all focus on what we can do, AND actually go and do it, then I believe we will see a decline in the number of victims of trafficking.
When we pray at Daughters we see change, God hates trafficking, HE is in the business of transforming lives, renewing souls, loving the lost and broken, healing wounds, and giving hope to the hopeless.
Now that is the bandwagon I do want to be on!!
Thank you Emma. I just returned from Thailand where I went with Women At Risk to learn and udnerstand more about trafficking. We'd hoped to do some outreach too, but someone let off a bomb in the area and we were forced to turn around. I visited four safe houses and heard presentations from four others. One of them was Ruth from Daugthers. I was really impressed by what you guys are doing there. Every safe house is filling a need, but for someone reason Ruth touched my heart. I'm praying for her daily. I also realized after I returned, that the Quinns are there. They are from my home church. I'm praying now for what God wants me to do with all this information. I've signed up to attend speaker training at WAR, Int'l so that I may go out and speak more on the topic, but beyond that, I'm just not sure. I feel like I don't have many skills to offer (I'm not a counselor, I'm terrible at crafts or anything resembling sewing or jewelry making, etc., I'm not a techie either and can only operate Word and Facebook). I write full-time for an organization called Winning At Home in Zeeland, Michigan. I keep wondering if I can use my gift of writing for this cause. Winning At Home also has a counseling center and I talked to one of the counselors yesterday who has a heart for this cause and I jokingly said, Cambodia 2013!
ReplyDeleteI'm learning since I've been back and have shared my trip with others that people get glazed over hearing about what's happening in another country. My biggest take away was a better understanding of the culture and how the culture plays into the whole sex industry but it's hard from Americans to grasp. I'm no expert,but I understand it so much better.
I'm not sure how this will all play out but I appreciate and understand completely what you are saying and will continue to pray for God's direction and guidance about what I can do. I hope it comes soon b/c I don't like to do nothing.
Another take away was just my amazement at the mjissionaries around the world who sacrifice so much for the cause of others. I will pray for you Emma.
God Bless,
Sue Lewis
Dear Sue,
DeleteSo good to hear that God has put the need to do something about this terrible problem on your heart. Every person you tell, is another person made aware of the need, we just have to keep praying that they will not 'glaze over' but use that awareness, and be burdened with a need to do whatever they can to help.
I know that all the gifts God has blessed us with, can be and will be used for his good work if we give them back to him, and ask him to show us his plans for us- I am SURE he will use your writing talents-I will pray that he shows you how/where/when. Real life stories always stick with me more than facts, and perhaps telling the real life stories of some of the people around the world who have been involved with trafficking in different ways would get peoples attention???
Hopefully meet you out in Cambodia some day ;-)
Love
Emma