People all over the world are victims of human trafficking. It has been happening since the early years of the world. “No country is immune from human trafficking. Each year, an estimated 600,800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders (some international and non-governmental organizations place the number far higher), and the trade is growing. This figure is in addition to a far larger yet indeterminate number of people trafficked within countries. Victims are forced into prostitution, or to work in quarries and sweatshops, on farms, as domestics, as child soldiers, and in many forms of involuntary servitude.” (The HOME Foundation) The problem is growing in India, where human trafficking is an illegal modern-day form of slavery in which commercial sex acts are forced upon the victim. The victims are men, women and children, but nearly eighty percent are women and girls, and up to fifty percent are children. Seventy percent of these females are forced into sexual labor.

These injustices are wrong. “Traffickers use a variety of methods to “condition” their victims including starvation, confinement, beatings, physical abuse, rape, gang rape, threats of violence to the victims and the victims’ families, forced drug use and the threat of shaming their victims by revealing their activities to their family and their families’ friends.” (The HOME Foundation) The HOME Foundation has stories of victims on their website. They have helped many victims of human trafficking, including a girl named Asha. Asha was only nine when her father sold her to a trafficker in a Bombay brothel. She was told she would have new clothes, and that she would be working for a nice family who lived in a big house. However, she was taken to a strange place and was locked in a small, damp room. A man came in, and Asha was told she would have to do sexual favors for him. She didn’t want to, so she fought. She was beaten with a belt and was given no food. This continued for several days until she gave in. That small room was her home for the next seven years until she was rescued. She was moved into a "Home of Hope," where she began a new life. Some victims of trafficking are taken to brothels where they live in windowless rooms that are dirty, dark, and cramped. There is usually only enough room to sleep, which is almost pointless. Because clients arrive at all hours, the victim is not able to sleep through the night or day. Food is provided enough to keep hem alive, but it is given irregularly and eating habits are at best unhealthy.

Victims are lured into human trafficking by promises of a good job in another country, false marriage proposals turned into a bondage situation, being sold into the sex trade by their families. Parents may sell children to traffickers in order to pay off debts or gain income. Some parents think that slavery is the only way to ensure the child’s survival. However, not all children are sold into trafficking. Many are kidnapped. “Katya, with a two-year-old daughter and a failing marriage in the Czech Republic, followed the advice of a “friend” that she could make good money as a waitress in the Netherlands. A Czech trafficker drove her along with four other young women to Amsterdam where, joined by a Dutch trafficker, Katya was taken to a brothel. After saying “I will not do this,” she was told, “Yes you will if you want your daughter back in the Czech Republic to live.” After years of threats and forced prostitution, Katya was rescued by a friendly cab driver. Katya is now working at a hospital and studying for a degree in social work.” (The HOME Foundation) Even though traffickers can be sentenced to as many as 30 years in prison, human trafficking is still a growing problem.

The impact is huge. Worldwide, there are between 20-27 million people who are trafficked and held in slavery. This is not just in India. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that 30,000 children were trafficked into the United States—into our own neighborhoods and towns. The United Nations have ranked the United States as being one of the top three countries to which people are trafficked. Human trafficking involves the often violent transfer of victims across borders against their will. These victims are not "illegal" immigrants by choice. The industry of human trafficking nets approximately eight to ten billion a year worldwide, and transfers more than 700,000 victims across international borders every year. In 2003 alone, between 18,000 and 20,000 people were estimated to have been trafficked into the United States. This is an estimate, however, because only a small fraction of cases are discovered and reported.

Not enough is being done. More people need to donate to causes that are helping the victims of human trafficking. The HOME Foundation needs money to educate communities, build shelters and orphanages, and provide medical equipment to those ministering to the victims of trafficking. “The Home Foundation is a non-profit charitable foundation dedicated to the eradication of human trafficking both domestically and abroad. Through advocacy, education and relief efforts, the Home Foundation is committed to end the suffering of women and children sold into sexual slavery.” (The HOME Foundation) The Home Foundation was founded in 2005 by singer/songwriter Natalie Grant, after she went to Mumbai, India, where she saw a little girl being kept in a cage right on the street as a sex slave on display. Some children who are victims of human trafficking are kept in cages and forced to perform sexual acts 50 to 60 times a day. These children need to be rescued, and The HOME Foundation is committed to helping them. Natalie Grant has one-hundred percent control of where the money goes. This year, all of it went to the Bombay Teen Challenge and to build a medical facility for The Village at Ashagram. Bombay Teen Challenge provides food, shelter and educational assistance for the children of commercial sex workers. It will provide medication and care to children once involved in the sex trade. This is much needed, because 85 percent of prostitutes and sex slaves rescued from the streets carry the AIDS virus.

We can all help. One way to help is to sponsor a child through organizations like World Vision or Compassion International. Sponsored children and their families are less likely to be exploited by human traffickers. The second way to help is to pray for the victims and relief workers. We can also share information about human trafficking to raise awareness in people. The third way to help is to raise money to donate money to organizations who help human trafficking victims, like The HOME Foundation. Every little bit of money helps. Even if it helps the life of only one child, it is worth raising and giving.

Won't you help?

If you want to get involved or donate, visit the Home Foundation's web site.


Your help could change a child's life forever.