End the Injustice

Human Trafficking is an organized criminal industry that affects every nation. Whilst the statistics can seem overwhelming, it is important to remember that every number represents the life of a victim. The A21 Campaign has recognized a significant need in the region of Eastern Europe, and is committed to combating this injustice through rescuing one life at a time.

There are many ways to fight the injustice of human trafficking, and when we link arms and pool our resources, we greatly multiply our efforts. This is not a battle meant for one person to fight alone, but as many individuals around the world coming together as ONE, we can join our forces and stand for justice. Together we can make a difference.

Read more at http://www.thea21campaign.org

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1: 27

Did you know…

The most recent estimate is that there are approximately 145 million orphans in the world (UNICEF 2008). For this number, an orphan is defined as a child who has lost one or both parents.

• More than 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, over 11.6 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In 2007 67.5 million Children in South Asia and East Asia had lost one or both parents due to all causes.
• The UNICEF orphan numbers DON’T include abandonment (millions of children) as well as sold and/or trafficked children.
• In the US there are approximately 500,000 children in foster care (Based on data submitted by states as of January 16, 2008)
• 130,000 of those children in foster care are waiting and available for adoption. Children waiting to be adopted include children with a goal of adoption and/or whose parental rights have been terminated.
• Approximately 51,000 children are adopted from the foster system each year
• That leaves 79,000 children annually in the US needing an adoptive family.

(statistics courtesy of The Abba Fund Blog)

Do these statistics frustrate you? Do they overwhelm you? Or do they make you feel like there is nothing you can do?

Know that there is hope! GOD has called us all to care for the orphan. As Steven Curtis Chapman said, “If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. If everybody would be willing to simply do something to care for one of these precious treasures, I think we would be amazed by just how much we could change the world. We can each do something, whether it is donating, adopting, fostering, mentoring, visiting orphans or supporting families that have taken in orphans.”

Read more at http://the127call.org

Child Trafficking is the recruitment, smuggling, transporting, harboring, buying or selling of a child through force, threats, fraud, deception, or coercion for the purposes of exploitation, prostitution, pornography, migrant work, sweat shops, domestic servitude, forced labor, bondage, peonage or involuntary servitude.

Trafficking children into the sex industry is done because there is a demand. Predators seek out vulnerable victims and lure them under false pretenses into situations they cannot escape from. No matter the reason, children have become sexual commodities to be bought and sold for the pleasure of exploiters. These children are scarred for life and need help – our help.

Take action by visiting Stop Child Trafficking Now.

If you know of Human Trafficking Crimes in Your Area:
For questions, referrals, resources or to report a tip in your area, please contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or email us at NHTRC@PolarisProject.org.

Statistics:

• 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk every year for commercial sexual exploitation. -U.S. Department of Justice
• 600,000 – 800,000 people are bought and sold across international borders each year; 50% are children, most are female. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade. – U.S. Department of State, 2004, Trafficking in Persons Report, Washington, D.C.
• An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year. The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry. – U.S Department of Justice Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons
• An estimated 2.5 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry – UNICEF
• The average age of an underage sex worker is 14 years old, but the FBI states children as young as 9 have been rescued. In the U.S., the average age of entry into sexual exploitation is 12 years old

Benson barely had time to grieve his mother’s death when he realized the task of caring for two brothers had fallen on his young shoulders.

In less than five years, the 14-year-old boy had lost both parents to AIDS-related illnesses. And as the conflict in war-torn northern Uganda continued to escalate, the boys were increasingly vulnerable to abduction and forced conscription into the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group known for its brutality and traumatizing tactics.

To make matters worse, community members believed the children were also HIV-positive and refused to offer shelter or care. Benson had to carry this burden alone.

With an estimated 2.2 million orphans, Uganda has more parentless children than any other nation on the continent except South Africa, according to the United Nations. Plagued by poverty, poor health, abandonment, malnourishment, and the loss of family support systems, UNICEF estimates that another 5.4 million children can be classified as highly vulnerable. In all, at least 7.6 million of Uganda’s boys and girls face a daily struggle to survive.

Read more about this story at Samaritan’s Purse

A new report from the U.N. confirms what we at Cross have been noticing for some time: a widespread hike in the cost of food in developing nations.

As one U.N. official put it, “The food crisis is not over. We have an anomaly happening where on global, big markets, the prices are down, but for 80 percent of commodities in the developing world, prices are higher today than they were a year ago, and the prices a year ago were double what they were the year before that.”
By U.N. estimates, this translates into 1.2 billion “urgently hungry” people – the highest number ever.

Cross International, is routinely hearing from their ministry partners, whether in Africa or the Caribbean, that food is just too expensive. The rising costs, combined with a struggling global economy, have made them more dependent than ever on our help. How can they pay more for food when they are actually earning less?

Take action by shipping containers of food to malnourished children and their families around the world. We can’t wait until tomorrow to feed a hungry family that is starving today, and that is why the call is so urgent.

Right now, Cross is working through churches, schools, and orphanages to provide daily nutritious meals in Christ’s name to the poorest of the poor, and you can be a part of it! Click here to find out how.