Modern Slavery

The evil of human nature never fails to shock me. But then the goodness of human nature always shines through the darkness. Today, there are more than 12 million people held in slavery (according to the ILO). Other estimates put the figure from between 4 million to 27 million. Through force and deception, these men, women and children are forced against their will into bonded labor, sexual servitude, and to kill as child soldiers. Girls dreaming a better life are tricked by men who charm them about a job as a waitress or a model in the United States. But when they arrive, they are raped 4-8 times each night as men buy their bodies again and again. Men are excited at the chance to provide for their families, but realize they have been decieved when they realize they have been tricked into exploitative labor from which there seems no escape.
The trafficking of human beings into slavery is a global crime which generates billions in US dollars annually. While the slaves see nothing or just a trickle of the money they are bought for, the traffickers live comfortably off their earnings but their greed for more human beings to sell is hardly ever saturated.
Slavery is still well and alive today, but it has taken a very different form from what we know of it historically. It is hidden, as many of the victims are without their legal documents and so do not speak up for fear of deportation. They may be found in massage parlors, inside houses as servants, they may be the person at the back of your favorite restaurant's kitchen. They are everywhere, but today's slavery trade is hidden, but whether there are 4 million slaves or 27 million slaves, one slave is one too many.
As human beings we are born free, and we should remain that way. We are not a piece of cloth that can be sold to the highest bidder and then be sold again and again and again until we die from exhaustion and/or illness.
But despite the tragedy and deception of modern slavery, there is a tremendous hope amongst those trapped. While some resign themselves to fate, some continue to believe that this isn't forever, that there isn't a way out. It is the time to rescue these survivors before the light in their eyes disappears forever, so that they have a life to look forward to.