Empowered, Not Disheartened

Saturday night saw us learning about and discussing the topic of human trafficking. This is a subject that most of us know very little about and, due to its dark and depressing nature, we tend to shield ourselves from thinking about it. Andrea gave a great presentation about what human trafficking is and how we can actually do something about it. Afterward, we had a great group discussion about how we can go about addressing this issue and in what ways we can help. The consensus was that education about this issue is of the utmost importance, since few people know much about it. We also talked about how it is necessary to lobby our politicians so that human trafficking is at least as severely punished as drug trafficking. We also talked about how prayer is a very important aspect. Shirley suggested that each of us should pray for the victims of human trafficking and the sex trade whenever we come across an advertisement for pornography, since many of the women involved in the porn industry have not chosen to be a part of it, but have been coerced. Finally, we acknowledged that poverty is one of the causes of this problem, since it is usually poor women who are exploited. Since poverty is one of the root causes, by focusing on eliminating poverty, we will also help save men, women and children from becoming victims of human trafficking.

Overall, the discussion left us feeling empowered, not disheartened, about what we as individuals can do about this issue. Like William Wilberforce, the man who convinced the British government to abolish the slave trade, we should not forget about what is going on around us and we should remain committed to helping these exploited individuals receive justice.

Thanks to Roxanne for the recap.