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Breaking the chains
Group targets human trafficking; official calls it ‘a sin against God’
Missionaries and ministries are working to help victims of human trafficking.
YOUNGSTOWN — If you think slavery doesn’t exist in the modern world, think again.
The U.S. Department of State estimates that human traffickers move about 800,000 people across international borders annually, while millions of others are forcibly transported within their own countries. There are some 20,000 victims in the United States. Human trafficking involves sexual exploitation and/or forced labor.
This crime has gotten the attention of the American Baptist Women’s Ministries, a national umbrella for state and regional groups.
The national organization has made “Break the Chains, Slavery in the 21st Century,” a three-year project and set a fund-raising goal of $250,000. So far, about $70,000 has been raised in the effort scheduled to run through 2009.
Judy Douglas, state coordinator for missions and services in Ohio for ABWM, spoke to Trumbull Baptist Association, which includes 16 area churches, at a dinner meeting Tuesday at West Side Baptist Church, 304 Matta Ave. The event was attended by about 85.
The Ohio ABWM has committed to a year on the project and the monetary goal is $17,000.
ABWM learned about the human trafficking issue through its 90-some missionaries, who are stationed around the world. “They aren’t only ministers ... but doctors, nurses, teachers and agricultural experts,” Douglas said. “They’re aware of what goes on in people’s lives.”
Douglas did say this is a problem that doesn’t attract much press. But she pointed out the April 6 edition of Parade magazine, which is offered by The Vindicator, that featured an article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s efforts to combat what she called “the slave trade of the modern world.”
In the article, Rice pointed out victims are lured into involuntary servitude, prostitution and becoming child soldiers.
Douglas said the three fastest-growing crimes are drugs, arms dealing and sex trade. “Drugs and weapons may be sold once; bodies can be sold daily. Surely God weeps when he sees this,” Douglas said.
Douglas told the churchwomen that she was pleasantly surprised at their response to Break the Chains. “They’re gung-ho about the project. I think it’s because the victims are so young ... girls as young as 10 ... 13 ... are sold,” Douglas said. “This has touched the hearts of women.”
One woman told Douglas that she had “lived a sheltered life” and was horrified at this information and didn’t want to think about it. Douglas said to her “just because you don’t want to talk about it won’t make it go away.”
Douglas said that ABWM projects usually have a “face” of a missionary who the group works to help support. This situation is “faceless” in that the victims are kept apart from mainstream society. “And exactly how many women and children are victims of human trafficking is not known,” she said.
“I think the women are shocked that young girls are involved,” Douglas said, and that has sparked their action. “This is a sin against God and a blight in society.”
Churches in the Trumbull Baptist Association sold paper links (like the old-fashioned Christmas decoration) to raise money. Individual links were sold for $1 each. At the meeting, the members held up the paper chains to symbolize the victims. The money, which is still being collected, will go toward Ohio’s goal, and then into the national project’s coffers. The paper links collected from the Trumbull group will go the state meeting in mid-May in Cincinnati to be joined with other links.
Funds from Break the Chains will benefit six ministries worldwide to provide education and rehabilitation for girls and women who are victims of sexual abuse, labor exploitation and human trafficking.
Douglas also told the group that as shocking as it may seem, some poverty-stricken families sell their daughters as a way of getting money to help the family. “Some are tricked into thinking the girls will work as maids or in restaurants. Some know what will happen,” she said. “Many victims are helpless children exploited as objects of sex.”
Douglas asked the ABWM members and others to pray at 11 a.m. daily for the victims of human trafficking and “for an end to this crime against humanity.”
linonis@vindy.com