Consumed

When people ask me “What can I do?” after hearing me talk for a while about human trafficking, my first response is always “Educate yourself.”

I’ve actually had people become annoyed with me for saying that. They want something concrete, they want me to dictate to them exact steps they can take in order to battle this abhorrent phenomenon, but that is something I simply cannot do. It’s like asking another person “Who should I marry?” or “What career should I pursue?”. It’s a question whose answer varies person to person. But the initial steps are similar in most, if not all cases. Want to know who you should marry? Get to know someone who you think might make a good potential mate. Want to know what career you should pursue? Sign up for a few classes that deal with topics of interest to you, or talk to someone whose career you admire. Want to know how to combat human trafficking? Teach yourself as much as you can about human trafficking, and see where that takes you. Perhaps you’ll wind up pursuing a career in law enforcement, working to make it impossible for pimps to carry out their business. Perhaps you’ll go into social work, making sure that victims have the very best resources for recovery available to them. Perhaps you’ll earn your Masters of Business Administration so that you have the skill set to set up a major, international operation that seeks to end the modern slave trade. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

I find it frustrating that some people seem to want three simple steps to becoming an activist. This is not a simple problem, so why would it have a simple solution? Human trafficking consumes people’s lives, either for good or ill. It consumes the lives of those who perpetrate it. It consumes the lives of those who are victims of it. It also consumes the lives of those who are determined to combat it.

Let it consume you, too.

Pick up the Child.

It’s so hard not to feel overwhelmed by this all. A couple weekends ago, I sat through a training seminar that dealt specifically with human trafficking in the United States, ways to identify it, and how to respond to it. By the time everything wrapped up, I felt a bit dizzy by the intensity of the information that had just been delivered to me. Did you know that if you seriously suspect that you’ve discovered a case of human trafficking, you can call not only your local police, but also the FBI? How crazy is that? Crazy awesome…

Anyway, I was chatting with Stephanie a week or so ago, and we began talking about the story behind this picture:

In 1993 a young photographer named Kevin Carter was in Sudan, documenting famine and genocide, when he came across this young, starving girl. She was struggling to make her way to a food bank while a vulture lurked in the background, watching her expectantly. But more horrifying than this picture is the fact that Kevin snapped his photo and moved on, never stopping to pick up the child.

That picture won a Pulitzer Prize the following year. Ten weeks after the news that his photo had snagged one of the most coveted awards in the world, Kevin James killed himself. The note he left behind mentioned that he could not forget the things he had witnessed in Africa–the starvation, the genocide–it still haunted him.

I think that story is one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard, and working in this office, doing what I do, I hear sad stories almost every day. The reason it breaks my heart is because, while I in no way think that one thirty-something photographer could have single handedly brought peace and healing to a broke nation–ending genocide, famine, and preventable disease–he could have picked up that child. I’m not saying that one simple act such as that could have undone the pain of everthing he had witnessed, but who knows what long term ramifications it could have had?

I think that that’s one of the main things we have to communicate when talking about human trafficking. We may not be able to break down the door of every brothel in the world, we may not be able to prosecute all the traffickers from here to the far east, we may not be able to liberate every slave in every nation, but what we can do is pick up the child in front of us. There’s no way one person can fathom the depth and magnatude of this crime–all the people it affects and all the lives and families it destroys–but we can take that next step that is before us. It might be something as small as talking about modern slavery with someone who had no idea that it still exists in the world today, or it could be holding an event to raise money and awareness, or it could literally be helping a child right in front of you whom no one else will protect.

Please, just pick up the child.

The Topics at Hand

OK, up until now I’ve been writing in the third person, but that’s just weird. So no more of that nonsense. I’m Abby, and you can read more about how I got involved with Rapha House under the “Who We Are” section. Unless otherwise noted, I will be your tour guide from here on out.

When trying to talk to someone about human trafficking – and sex trafficking specifically – it’s pretty easy for me to start feeling overwhelmed by the amount of very serious information there is to communicate. So many issues feed into this epidemic, and sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin. Which is why I was thrilled to come across this awesome documentary.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this topic laid out in such a clear, concise and interesting manner. I love the fact that it deals with all the major facets of this multidimensional problem, and does so in a way that is engaging. I cannot recommend it enough. I recommend the full 45 minute version, though I will forewarn you (as they do on the website as well) that, due to the nature of the topic and the fact that they deal with it where it takes place, there is some graphic material, nudity, and sexual content. It’s nothing explicit, but I would hesitate before showing it in a church service. If you’re not up for watching that, there’s a condensed, 16 minute version that leaves out the more graphic material.

Do yourself a favor, check it out.

Letter from Stephanie

This is a letter from Stephanie Freed, USA Director and Founder of Rapha House, explaining how this whole ministry began. This was actually written a while ago, but it still offers a great overview of our story.

Welcome to Rapha House! My name is Stephanie, and I’m the Rapha House USA Director. I became involved with this ministry in 2001, when I first heard of girls in Cambodia being sold into sexual slavery. My father, Joe Garman, had traveled to Cambodia, and while he was there he was able to teach at a Christian leadership seminar. While he was teaching, some men came in the back and tried to force a young girl who was there to leave with them. Naturally, this created quite a bit of commotion, and he was forced to stop teaching and ask what was going on. The translator informed him that the girl’s parents were angry that she had become a Christian, and so had sold her to these men. They were there to collect what was, in their eyes, rightfully theirs—a girl whose parents had exchanged her freedom for a fistful of money. After that experience person after person began to tell my father of similar stories. In villages all over Cambodia, girls were being taken and forced into slavery. They were being trafficked.

When I first heard that story I found it difficult to believe. Surely the villagers had been exaggerating, because there was no way that so many people were having their lives stripped away from them. I could not let the issue lie, and so I began to do my own research. What I discovered changed my life.

Human trafficking is the third largest criminal industry in the world and is growing rapidly. It is a multi-billion dollar a year business, and the majority of its victims are women and children. People are sold for labor, sex, and even their body organs. It is estimated that millions of girls live as sex slaves, most of whom live as prisoners in brothels where they have no chance of escape without outside help.

In October 2002, I made a research trip to Cambodia to try and figure out a way in which I could become involved with the solution to this horrifying problem. It was on that trip that I was able to witness a slave retrieval, and I felt as though God was clearly showing me that He wanted me to be directly involved with helping these girls. While on the same trip I was able to encounter a group of Cambodians who were also passionate about seeing this terrible industry come to an end, but lacked critical training. Upon my return home, I sent out a mass appeal letter to anyone I thought might be interested in joining in helping these girls. The response I received showed that Christians were ready to help in any way that they could. And so Rapha House was born.

Today Rapha House runs a safe home in Cambodia where girls who have been rescued can come to live. At our facility they receive an education and the chance for healing. The home is run by an entirely Cambodian staff, and the USA branch exists to support them in any way that we can, including fund raising and educating people on the issues of human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Thank you for your interest in our ministry. Millions of girls are still waiting to be freed, and it is the involvement of people like you that can help make their freedom a reality.

–Stephanie Freed

Just A Fad?

Today there was a round table discussion during lunch at Ozark Christian College, talking about Christians and the issue of human trafficking. Some great issues were raised – thanks to everyone who came! It’s always great to hear the questions people have, as well as have the chance to engage in earnest conversation about issues we consider incredibly important.

One of the things that we talked about was the fact that human trafficking has become something of a “trendy” issue. Of course we love the fact that more people are now aware of the fact that not only does slavery still exist, but that the industry is thriving. But in the back of our minds is this lingering fear that soon people will move on to the next hot topic discussed on Oprah.

Or is human trafficking and sex slavery the type of issue that sticks around for the long haul? We can’t help but wonder, as more and more people come to know about it, will it move beyond a social issue to become political as well? Will it be something that future senators and presidents include in their election campaigns? And will that ultimately do more good, or more harm?

For us, human trafficking was an issue that changed our lives. Once we discovered how deeply this evil runs, we could not go back to living in ignorance. Either we had to shut our eyes and hope that it went away, or we had to act.

We chose to act, and even if at this time tomorrow public interest fades away, we will still be here fighting for the children who cannot fight for themselves. We can only hope and pray that what right now could be considered a fad in public opinion will take deep roots and change lives–that more people will be changed by what they learn and join us for the long-haul.

Getting Started

Well, we figured it was about time that we made our presence known on the internet. So here we are. We’re hoping to use this blog as a way to keep people up to date with the work we’re doing, as well as a chance to talk about the issues that we deal with on a daily basis.

For those of you who don’t know what Rapha House is, we run a safe home in Cambodia for girls who have been rescued out of human trafficking and sexual slavery. The girls ages range from 5-18. Our USA office is in Joplin, Missouri. For more information on our staff and how we got started, be sure to check out the “Who We Are” tab.

More coming soon!