Resources for Human Trafficking Awareness day 1-11-11

Are  you looking for resources for Human Trafficking Awareness day? If so, you're in the right place. While te month of January is designated to raising awareness one day in particular has been set aside as an awareness day. Join us all today, January 11 as we speak out about this issue.

If you believe that slavery is over you are wrong. Human trafficking is modern day slavery. Every year millions of women, children and men are sold into the sex industry or as laborers. Victims show up on farms, in homes as child care providers and in brothels.

The Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking in Knoxville is making it easy for us to become abolitionists in this new era. To raise awareness they simply ask that you be a "light in the darkness". All you have to do is wearing white on 1.11.11. Most of us have a white shirt, jacket or blouse that we can wear. If not, it's easy to fold a ribbon or make a white armband. It couldn't be easier to speak out against human trafficking.

Churches and faith based communities can get teach their congregations to look beneath the surface. By using resources for human trafficking awareness it's possible to educate and inform groups. Every one person that understands is one person who can potentially help another.

Churches looking for resources for Human Trafficking Awareness Day or month may be interested in the following links:

• Evangelical Covenant Church has worship resources, songs and even a six-week study. 
• UrbanMinistry.org has links to YouTube videos, stats, books and more.
• Human Trafficking Becomes Ecumenical Target is an article by the United Methodist New Service that puts faces and stories behind the statistics. 
• The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church has Facts and Faith cards available. These are helpful for raising awareness and for Bible study.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is 1.888.3737.888

Knoxville resources on human trafficking

We welcomed Christi Wigle from Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking in Knoxville to our Voices of Hope internet radio show yesterday. If you don't know about our show on Blog Talk Radio you should click the Voices of Hope link above to listen. What you hear may surprise you.

As we talked we learned that over 300,000 children in the U.S. are in danger of trafficking each year. If you think that this doesn't happen here think again. 

The Polaris Project places the volunteer state just behind the "dirty dozen" of U.S. states. In fact, the Knoxville News Sentinel ran an article about a prostitution delivery service. My Fox Memphis is ran an article about a human trafficking case there in August 2010.

The good news is that there are success stories. Some of these are linked from the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking. No doubt, we will be hearing about more success stories in the future.

Christi Wigle urged that the public "should never approach" the captor but instead call 911. 

Help for human trafficking victims in Knoxville is available from local law enforcement, the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Cry for Justice.

Human trafficking victims across the U.S. can call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at 1.888.3737.888 for help 24 hour a day.

Point your browser to Voices of Hope to download this and all segments. 

Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking on Voices of Hope, Aug 31

The Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking will appear on Voices of Hope on Tuesday, August 31. This is a Knoxville based nonprofit that fights against trafficking in persons in our area and throughout Tennessee. Read more about the valuable work they do on their website.

Be sure to tune in for this very special segment. Listeners can point their browser to Voices of Hope internet radio show online. The comment/listen line is 718.506.1545.

Voices of Hope internet radio show on human trafficking airs:
Click: Voices of Hope
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Time: 12:00 noon (EDT)
Duration: 1 Hour

Be sure to tweet the link out for the show and tell your friends. This is an important show segment. You won't want to miss hearing it live.

Another human trafficking expert is Lisa Michels. She had this to say about trafficking and her work with Project Meridian.

Our staff attended a human trafficking seminar in Knoxville

Our volunteer staff attended a human trafficking seminar in Knoxville today. Here are a few things that they learned.

Internationally, human trafficking is exploding. Locally, there are concerns that the victims that we see rescued are only the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to today's training law enforcement and nonprofit organizations have new sets of tools to use.

WATE reported on a recent human trafficking bust that happened right here in Knoxville. A common perception is that victims are undocumented illegal aliens but that isn't always the case.  This news piece from KGW news reveals how average kids can be targeted and lured or forced into the sex trade.

No one knows for sure how many people are victims of human trafficking each year. Some estimates put the worldwide number at 12 million annually. Number indicate that over 200,000 children in the U.S. each year are at high risk for human trafficking each year. 

A toll-free national hotline has been set up to help. 1.888.3737.888 is operated by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. 

The following PSA is one of the outreach tools offered by HHS Rescue and Restore. It is worth watching.

Does Knoxville Have Human Trafficking Issues?

Does Knoxville have human trafficking issues. Yesterday's post got us to thinking. After our experience with a trafficking victim and after yesterdays article, I decided to do some digging. What I found surprised me. In several cases the perpetrators were caught and the arrests made the newspapers. Some of the articles are 2 years old. It makes me wonder two things: how many cases are in the area and how will ever know for sure?

The links to some of the news articles that I found are listed below:

WBIR: Woman Held in Human Trafficking Case to Be Deported
WATE: Possible Human Trafficking Case in Chattanooga
Volunteer TV: Memphis Man Arrested in Lexington
WBIR Middle Tennessee Sees Rise in Human Trafficking
MyFox Chattanooga: NC Police Act on "Good Tip" in Missing Girl Case

Share

January 11 is Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Human Trafficking Awareness Day is January 11, 2010. For those who thought slavery had been abolished think again. According to the National Council of Churches the trafficking of humans is the "fastest growing criminal activity in the world." And it isn’t just a global problem. In this country, the subject is broached in criminal justice degree online programs and at police departments nationwide.

We would like to think that human trafficking doesn't happen here but only 2 years ago we helped a trafficking victim in Knoxville. This is only one out of the who knows how many that are here. Most cannot leave to get help. Some are under 24/7 watch.

Another girl came to use a few times for pantry food boxes. Her "boyfriend" was always in the car outside. She would look in our thrift shop but never had money to buy anything and she was always coughing. His initials were tattooed onto her neck.

Now I realize that she too may have been a victim of human trafficking.

Links for more information:

National Human Trafficking Resource Center 1-888-3737-888
Change.Org National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
Symptoms of Human Trafficking
Approaches to Trafficking in Persons

Share