Break slavery’s silence

All across the world – from a brothel in India to a home in California, from brick factories in Pakistan to charcoal production in Brazil, from the cocoa fields in the Ivory Coast to your own neighborhood, wherever that may be – about 27 million people are enslaved.

Slavery does not discriminate. Whether one is five years old or 90, male or female, of whatever ethnicity – all are susceptible to traffickers and a life of forced servitude. Slavery is not an issue for developing nations alone; about 17,000 men, women and children are sold into the free world from all over the globe every year, forced to perform sexual acts or hard labor with no pay while enduring horrific and traumatic physical and emotional abuse.

The sex slave industry is arguably the most profitable branch of human trafficking, and it is estimated that 2 million children as young as age four are currently enslaved. Bonded labor farms the cocoa that makes the chocolate we eat and produces the shoes we wear. The stories of ex-slaves tell us how impoverished families chose to sell a child in order to feed another, or how they were promised a job but were ultimately indebted to their trafficker.

Unmitigated civil wars within countries such as Uganda and Sierra Leone enable rebel forces to kidnap children and force them to kill their families, ultimately robbing them of their childhood and their lives.

Human trafficking is now the second-largest and fastest-growing criminal industry, and the low cost of acquiring slaves combines with the high profit they bring in to create a $10 billion industry. The presence of slavery in our world is astonishing, disgusting and tragic.

Fortunately, the impact individuals can have in our domestic and global society is unlimited, and our freedoms and privileges bestow on us an inescapable duty to help those who have neither. Being a responsible citizen means that our actions must reflect our intentions to help the greater good. The power to end slavery is in our hands, so long as we open our eyes to this truth.

Many run from the cost of liberating and empowering slaves, as reaching this goal includes addressing such issues as corruption in law enforcement and government, poverty, racism and sexism. However, if every free individual gave only a few dollars to grassroots abolitionist groups and a few minutes to rally governments and corporations to join the fight against slavery, liberated slaves would benefit our global market in ways they cannot when they are in bondage.

Yes, it will take collective action, but when people open their eyes to the horror of slavery, none can deny that it is one of the greatest moral callings of our time. This is a call to action – a call to break the silence.