The A21 Campaign

Hi Friends,

Wow, it has been a week since I last posted something! Well, apart from not feeling the best this week, life has kept me busy as usual. But I wanted to drop a short line before the week is actually over and write about a campaign that really moves my heart.

Since discovering the A21 Campaign I often wonder how I can contribute in ways that don’t always involve money. So I thought I would use this blog as a platform to advocate for them.

The purpose of A21 Campaign is to, ‘To abolish injustice in the 21^st century.’ It focuses on global human trafficking and their goals include to prevent, protect and prosecute.

“Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings, mainly for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour. As the world’s fastest growing criminal industry, it affects every nation across the globe. Every thirty seconds, someone is forced into this type of bondage—modern slavery.” A21

The website states that there is an estimated 27 million people globally - forced into manual or sexual  labour. I guess sometimes when I see numbers and stats like ‘27 million,’ I lose sight that the number, is not only representing people but each of the 27 million, is a precious soul. And of the 27 million there is a SHE that could be you or I: a daughter, a mother, perhaps a wife or girlfriend, a sister or a friend.

SHE is a beautiful daughter of Jesus, SHE is the apple of HIS eyes, though SHE does not know it for the enemy has perverted the minds of many people and used them to cause his evil desires. SHE now lies chained to bed, lonely, abused and despaired. SHE has no family to comfort her when she is crying, no warm embrace to hold her and say ‘I love you,’ SHE has no friend to lean on to whisper, ‘it will be ok I’ll pray for you.’ SHE is scared of the constant strangers who come to her. SHE has pain, physical pain but no medication to help soothe it. SHE gets cold, but doesn’t have clothes and blankets to keep warm or the luxury to go out and buy some. SHE is exhausted but rest never comes her way.

Maybe SHE’S looking out her barred window longing for death to take her from her torment. Maybe SHE escapes the torment briefly by creating an imaginative world, one that most females long for where she has a husband and children. SHE imagines cooking for them, playing with them, cuddling them. Or maybe her heart has hardened from the constant abuse and torture that SHE has lost all hope in people and a life she never got.

Tragically, only 1-2 percent of victims are rescued. A21

“After a trafficking journey that typically involves deception, rape, beatings, and constant threats, victims are often forced to live in confining and unsanitary conditions. Once formally put to work, human trafficking victims can be forced to service from 40 to 110 customers in one day. Malnutrition, sleep deprivation, as well as emotional and physical abuse become part of the day-to-day routine.”A21

I guess my purpose in writing this is to bring awareness of this dark world and to inspire you to whisper a prayer for them (I have downloaded a prayer guide from the A21 website.)

 

 “There are 27 million people in slavery today but there are 7 billion people in the world! The more who hear this message the more we can do to stop this injustice!” A21

There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.

Corrie Ten Boom (Holocaust Survivor)

Anita x