The latest estimates on modern slavery by the ILO, Walk Free Foundation and IRC paint a bleak picture.
At any given moment the combined populations of Los Angeles and Houston are being trafficked for sex.
While we sip our morning coffee, join zoom calls for work, and plod along in the daily grind, 6.3 million human beings all around the world are being forced into sexual exploitation.
More devastating still,
Instead of playing tag around the neighborhood or retelling the newest knock knock joke they learned at school, young children are experiencing horrific abuse – all for someone else’s profit.
Trafficking hasn’t decreased at all in the past five years. In fact, it’s spiked by 22%.
Pandemic, protracted war, extreme poverty, and climate change have all played a part in getting us to this place – a world where 50 million people are exploited and abused, stripped of dignity and the freedoms we all deserve.
What do we do in the face of such terrible, overwhelming news?
There are three things you can do right now to make a difference in the lives of real people and to change the course of history:
Read the report. Know the data. Hear the stories of survivors. Information is a powerful weapon in the fight against trafficking – and once you know, you can never look away.
Take action. Know the signs of trafficking and learn what it looks like where you live. Trafficking knows no geographic boundaries and no country or region of the world is immune. Wherever there are vulnerable and marginalized people, trafficking thrives. Start where you are keeping kids and communities safe.
Donate Support EverFree. If the ILO report made one thing clear, it’s that we have an uphill battle before us. But together, we are a growing force that can create the world we dream of – a world free of exploitation, where all people thrive.
Together we can free communities of human trafficking and empower survivors everywhere to flourish in freedom.
Amie Gosselin is head of Brand & Marketing for EverFree
