Human slavery is a terrible thing.
I write that mostly to remind myself. Sometimes I wonder, in my safe, comfortable suburban home, if I really appreciate the horrors of this pervasive crime we allow to exist in our communities.
Becky, Woody, and I recently attended Human Trafficking Awareness Day at the Colorado State Capitol. We talked to folks from a broad variety of organizations who engage this issue from many directions. I left the day with a single overwhelming conclusion.
Human slavery is abhorrent to everyone with a shred of decency, regardless of political affiliation, religious belief, socioeconomic status, or national origin. Use whatever terminology you choose–trafficking, slavery, bondage, they’re all slightly different shades of the same terrible crime. Unless you’re psychopathic or sociopathic, you know selling people is wrong.
And once you know it’s happening, right here in your city, you can’t un-know. You can choose to turn away, but you can’t say you didn’t know.
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A big part of our mission with the FREEDOM TOUR is “to raise funds and awareness to combat human trafficking and support the kids at Project Rescue’s Home of Hope.”
People occasionally ask why we choose to support one small Home of Hope. The problem of slavery and trafficking is so enormous–why target such a tiny effort in such a distant place?
Interesting question, and the simple answer is “it’s something we can do.”
The home serves about 25 kids who’ve been rescued from a life in the brothels of New Delhi. They would have existed under their mothers’ beds until they were old enough to be sold into their own life of sexual slavery. The Home of Hope offers these kids a safe place in which they receive aftercare, clothing, and education.
Some might wonder why we don’t focus on needs closer to home. I’d say there’s nothing wrong with doing that, but each of the kids at the Home of Hope is no more or less precious because they happened to be born in a New Delhi brothel.
You and I can’t fix the world. We’ll be a lot more contented when we understand that we can only do what we can, where we are, with what we have.
One of the things we can do is to make a difference in the lives of 25 kids.
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