Everyone needs someone, especially victims of human trafficking. What is human trafficking you may ask? In short, human trafficking is modern-day slavery. The Polaris Project defines human trafficking like this, “Human trafficking is the business of stealing freedom for profit. In some cases, traffickers trick, defraud or physically force victims into selling sex. In others, victims are lied to, assaulted, threatened or manipulated into working under inhumane, illegal or otherwise unacceptable conditions. It is a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 24.9 million people around the world.” 24.9 million people without a voice, unable to speak up or defend their freedom.
In 2019, Florida was ranked as the 3rd worst state for human trafficking. According to Polaris Project, they worked on 11, 500 situations in 2019 alone that were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Polaris learned those 11, 500 situations involved 22, 236 individual survivors, nearly 4, 384 traffickers, and 1,912 suspicious businesses. These numbers are staggering and sadly only scratch the surface of the business of human trafficking.
If you’re like me, you want to know how can I help, is there anything I can do to give a voice to the voiceless? The answer is yes, you can help by taking action through raising awareness, donating or fundraising. If you would like to know how to recognize a victim of human trafficking, the Polaris Project The Polaris Project has some helpful resources. There are many amazing organizations that are on the front lines fighting modern-day slavery like The Polaris Project. Be sure to check the END IT Movement, International Justice Mission (IJM), and Hope for Justice, just to name a few. January 11 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day and February 13 is Shine a Light on Slavery Day. Indifference is not an option. Let’s raise our voices for the voiceless and let’s be in it to end human trafficking!
Trafficking Hotline Widget for Blog post form the National Human Trafficking Hotline website on second page!
https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/