Christians like John Wesley, Thomas Clarkson, and William Wilberforce were instrumental in the abolition of slavery in the UK and America. Just because slavery as it appears in textbooks seems to be defeated doesn’t mean that our job is finished. All over the world, both in developed nations and undeveloped nations, the enslavement of women and children continues.
Though many forms of slavery still exist, I am speaking specifically about sexual slavery of primarily women and young girls. Sex trafficking has made it’s way into the national consciousness, but only barely. In the next 12 months, 1-2 million children will be sold into prostitution. Often children who go to work to help support their families are tricked into crossing borders to get “good jobs”, once in a different country they lose whatever rights they may have had and become the property of the people they work for. And of course, the good jobs never existed in the first place. Sometimes, desperate parents are made an offer they can’t refuse. Children sold into prostitution will usually spend their whole lives as prostitutes until they die, or are murdered – few ever escape. More often now, salvation comes in the form of a police raid.
Nicholas D. Kristof joined former child-prostitute-turned-fearless-advocate, Somaly Mam, on one such raid in Cambodia, where they rescued a number of girls and women, one of which was a 12-year-old trafficked from Vietnam three months prior. He writes about that experience in his Sunday column, and then follows up in his Thursday column, with a devastating interview with a girl who managed to escape her captors, much like Somaly Mam had done herself.
Srey Pov had been sold into prostitution by her family at the age of 6. The brothel owner sold her virginity to a Westerner. She was stripped and tied spread-eagle to a bed so the foreigner could rape her. Because of her age she was in high demand, and would have as many as 20 “customers” a night. Twice her vagina had been stitched closed so the brothel owner could sell her again as a virgin, a common practice in Asian brothels. Srey Pov repeatedly tried to escape, but each failed attempt earned her punishment. She was beaten and shocked, and her brothel, like many, had a “punishment cell” to break the spirits of rebellious girls. Srey Pov remembers her longest stint in the “cell” – a barrel half-full of sewage, vermin and scorpions that stung her often – a week, a week that she also went without eating.
At 9 Srey Pov finally escaped and found her way to one of Somaly Mam’s shelters for trafficked girls and women. She is 19 now, and eventually imagines herself getting married, she says, “Before I didn’t like men because they hit me and raped me. But now I think that not all men are bad. If I find a good man, I can marry him.”
Somaly Mam and Srey Pov
By Kristof’s calculations 10 times as many women and girls are now trafficked into brothels annually than African slaves were transported to the New World at the height of the Atlantic slave trade. 200 years, ago people were outraged at the idea of slavery.
Shamefully, many Christians hid behind cultural norms and distorted scripture to justify the practice of slavery. Eventually, those people were proven wrong. With nothing left to hide behind, how can Christians remain silent and unaffected by stories like Srey Pov’s?
At the very least, we have an obligation to pray – to pray for the families and individuals devastated by this horrific practice, to pray that our country will be a leader in the fight against modern slavery, and to pray for the people, like Somaly Mam, who put themselves and their loved ones on the line every day to rescue people.
But how can we stop there? The first abolitionists were bold and outspoken, fearless and unmoved by public opinions. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, how can those of us with our human rights assured justify stopping at prayer when it’s so easy to be an advocate? As Christians it’s our responsibility to be a voice for those who have none, and a free and easy way to help combat modern slavery is to call your congressman. America has the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and it was allowed to expire at the end of September. Until it is renewed, all U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking are completely on hold. World Vision makes it easy to find and call your legislators with their call log system. They also provide a script for those who aren’t sure of what to say.
For anyone interested in doing more, World Vision offers a fund for women and girls in crisis. Donations go to protect women, offer vocational training, education, counseling, and even small business loans. There is also the Somaly Mam Foundation, which works around the world, “to end these atrocities through direct services to victims, advocacy and outreach.”
There is no reason for slavery to continue in any form in any part of the world, and there is no excuse for Christians to sit idly as it happens.
To stay up to date on trafficking news please see and support CNN’s Freedom Project, which gives a national platform to all issues related to human trafficking, and a megaphone to it’s victims.
For Those Who Can't Fight 