A girl who lives on the outskirts of Rajkot, India. Her lifestyle is poor, where she was born into an "untouchable" family. As young and beautiful as she is, powder and lipstick are put on her face as she is offered as a child prostitute in the local Hindu Temple.
Stanely, Rosa and Das. These three children were sold into slavery by their parents. They now work and live in a small shack making bangles in the poorest slum in Mumbai, India. Individually they made less then $200 a year, not enough for school, let alone food."
Rosa, 12 years old, Bangle Shop worker. Sri Lanka Slum, India
*Photos and words above are from Charlotte Mccollum.* Adults and children come to be trapped in trafficking situations in different ways. Some are sold by their families and some are tricked by promises of a better job elsewhere and new opportunity. They are told that all of their paperwork will be taken care of including passports, and travel arrangements. But once they reach their destination they are informed that they now have a debt and are required to pay it off by prostituting themselves or laboring in horrible unsanitary conditions. Many are charged room and board, making it next to impossible to ever pay off their debt. Many will die first. Some have children, and once the child is able, they will carry on the debt of their parent. Women and children who are forced into prostitution are at risk everyday for numerous STDs including AIDS. They are beaten by the owners and by the customers.
Human trafficking is a very lucrative business for their captors because, unlike materials goods, people can be bought over and over again. It is estimated that from 800,000 to 1,000,000 people are trafficked every year. That does not include the many that are already trapped in this modern day slavery. Weak criminal justice systems do little help. Many are paid to look the other way.
Even if a victim is able to break free, they are even more vulnerable to becoming trapped again, especially if they have been a slave for many years. They come out uneducated and with no life skills. Many times they are rejected from the communities and families that they came from. There are projects all over the world fighting trafficking.
So instead of buying your birthday and Christmas gifts in a department store, come here first and take a look around. Every item is made with Fair Trade standards. Buying Fair Trade is a way of making a statement with your dollar. You can know that it isn't made with trafficked, forced or child labor. It helps create a better economic situation for the artisans, making them less susceptible to being trafficked. In some cases, the item is made by a survivor of trafficking, helping them to regain a life they once thought they had lost. One with dignity.
More good resources are:
2009 TIP Report
madebysurvivors.com
Project Rescue
International Justice Mission
ECPAT Network
Shared Interest