About three years ago, I began to get a firm grasp of the extent of human trafficking across the globe. As I've dug into this issue, I've found that stories like Angie's in the video above are hardly uncommon. At first I believed that forced prostitution was a "third-world problem". It's in those countries that extreme poverty and political unrest make a trade in human lives possible. But human trafficking touches every corner of the map. Thousands of young girls in this country are being forcibly used by men for pleasure and profit.
One part of Angie's story that particularly struck me was, "There's also lot of girls out there. And a lot of them look like they're half our age." Angie herself hardly looks to be more than a child, and yet that parking lot that night had "a lot" of potentially 8 or 9 year old girls being callously used and tossed by grown men.
Girls are forced into prostitution at an average age of 14 years old. Statistics compiled by the website www.prostitutionresearch.com show that violence against prostitutes is at epidemic levels. Studies have shown that conservatively 62% of women were raped in prostitution, 83% report being assaulted with a weapon. One Canadian study found the mortality rate of prostitutes to be 40 times higher than the national average. When asked if they would leave prostitution, 92% of women answered they wanted to immediately if that was possible.
The scale and depravity of this issue make it difficult for us to process. We've been conditioned by culture to believe that women choose this lifestyle. That they are the perpetrators, but too often in real life that simply is not the case. These girls have their worth and innocence stolen from them by abuse, violence, coercion, and society.
However, there are ways to act against sexual slavery. And that's where my beard comes in. DecemBeard is an awareness and fundraising initiative started by Lincoln, NE based I've Got A Name (IGAN). Men are encouraged to take a stand against the evils of human trafficking by growing a beard through the month of December and take pledges to meet a chosen fundraising goal.
This year a group of 5 Jefferson County pastors have banded under the "Fairbury Area Pastors Group" to lead the charge against human trafficking. They have agreed to take the DecemBeard Challenge together to raise a community-wide fundraising goal for the Fairbury area. Pastors Joel Hahn of First Baptist, Ken Hart of Faith Lutheran, and Brian Julin-McCleary of American Lutheran are all growing beards and Pastors Karl Lent of Peace United Methodist and Deb Valentine of Zion United Church of Christ are wearing DefendHer pins. The DefendHer pins are another means for supporters of IGAN to show they are taking a stand to protect these exploited girls.
Myself and few other members of the community are growing our beards out as well to support our pastors and their cause, but we can't do this without you. The exploitation of women and children often occurs through a loose network of abusers, traffickers, pimps, and johns. Only by rallying together can God's people hope to combat this widespread evil.
There are a number of ways that you can get involved in this fight:
LEARN - Several organizations on the internet are taking proactive stances in the battle against human trafficking. There is a myriad of resources available to learn about modern slavery, foreign and domestic, sexual and labor oriented. A few of them are as follows:
I've Got A Name - Their website will connect you to more information about DecemBeard and DefendHer initiatives and how you can take the challenge or pledge to be a sponsor.
Prostitution Research and Education - This above mentioned website is a good resource concerning prostitution and the violence inherent in that industry.
Tiny Hands International - This is another Lincoln-based organization that fights trafficking predominantly in Nepal. They have homes and learning centers for rescued women and operate several monitoring stations on the Nepali/Indian border where around 15,000 young women annually are trafficked into brothels.
The Polaris Project - This organization operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-3737-888. This is a great resource to learn about all types of slavery in the U.S. and what is being done about it.
End Slavery Now - This website has compiled a great resource center for learning about trafficking. It also points towards organizational and government responses.
GIVE - You can also stand with those who fight human trafficking through your resources. The "Fairbury Area Pastors Group" is hoping to find sponsors that will help them smash the $2000 fundraising goal for December. You can go to I've Got A Name right here and click to sign up as a sponsor to the "Fairbury Area Pastors Group" and donate to this cause.
It's also possible to give of your time to aid this struggle. IGAN host an annual rally in Lincoln every spring. Several of the above organizations hold similar rallies or marches in various locales across the nation. Stay connected to them to learn about volunteer possibilities in your area.
PRAY - This is a spiritual issue. Its roots are deep in cultural perspectives on the values of women and human life, both globally and as a nation. Mere human efforts are doomed to fail in this arena. We need to ask the Light of God to shine in these dark corners of culture. When these evils are revealed, we can be encouraged to stand against them. Only the Spirit of God can bring healing to the lives of women who have been so coarsely exploited and even to those men who have used them.
Lately, I've leaned heavily on Isaiah 61:1 to encourage me to keep up the good fight against this injustice:
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners."
At the start of Jesus' ministry, He read from this passage in the synagogue and stated that "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." His time on Earth was spent in binding the brokenhearted and freeing prisoners until ultimately He did so for all humanity in paying our price from bondage to sin and death. I ask you, can we who claim His Name do any less than strive to continue His work?
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