by Jeanni Ritchie
January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month . Every year since 2010, the President has dedicated the month to raise awareness about human trafficking and to educate the public about how to identify and prevent this crime.
There are estimated to be more than 27.6 million people — adults and children — subjected to human trafficking around the world, including in the United States.
I thought it was just something out of a Lifetime movie, not real life, at least not here in America.
In fact, I was naive about a lot of things.
For some reason, I assumed that all wayward teenagers and self-described black sheep had a family waiting at home for them to get it together. I guess I never really thought about it. I just knew I had a “good” family waiting for me to get over my “bad” phase.
It wasn’t until my homeless ministry that I realized how fortunate I’d been. And also how foolish.
Most of the people on the streets had grown up in instability, with alcoholic or drug-addicted parents. Most had been on their own since they were very young. Many had been trafficked; some had even sold their own kids.
I met one woman whose father had sold her at 13 to his friend after the mother died. Another was sold on an hourly basis from the time she was 8. At 16, she was safer in a tent in the middle of the woods than she was in her own mother’s house.
With 24/7 news coverage and ripped from the headlines movies, we are now more aware than ever that human trafficking is real and in our own backyards. January’s presidential proclamation is a way to continue to bring awareness, to remind the public to stay vigilant and help protect some of the most vulnerable members of our population.
Awareness leads to action!
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Jeanni Ritchie is a contributing journalist from Central Louisiana. Read about her tales from the homeless ministry at tentstarpsandtears.
