So today the #ENDITmovement went viral on social media with it's campaign to wear a red cross on your hand to show your support for 'Shine a Light on Slavery Day' and I joined in!
For me, human trafficking and modern day slavery, particularly sex trafficking, is just the most hateful crime against another human being! It takes away all freedom, choice and dignity and violates and abuses a person in the most intimate way.. totally dehumanising them and turning them into a commodity to be bought and sold over and over and OVER again.. day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until finally, their body is so broken and diseased that they are simply left to die... some before they even reach the age of 10...
This is a vile and abhorrent crime against humanity; but it is an injustice that YOU and I can put an end to in our lifetime! The sex trade, as with all other industries, is one of supply and demand.. so let's stop the demand and put an end to it!
You may not even realise that you are contributing to the demand, but every pornographic image or piece of footage that you watch, may in fact be of someone who has been sold or beaten into that situation, often by their own family, as opposed to a paid 'actress' or 'model'. Every time you watch something like this, every time you solicit sex from a prostitute, you are defiling someone's sister, mother, daughter.. a girl or woman who has most likely been forced into that role and has no choice or way out...
Every time you buy cheap clothing - or often even expensive designer clothing! - you may be keeping or forcing a child into a sweatshop. Every time you eat chocolate or drink coffee that isn't Fairtrade, you may unwittingly be depriving a child of their childhood and freedom in favour of working to farm the cocoa and coffee beans for you to enjoy...
So exercise your freedom to save theirs! Ignorance is NOT an excuse! Educate yourself! Read up on it! Find out where the things that you watch, or eat, or wear come from and MAKE BETTER, EDUCATED, ETHICAL CHOICES! Because you have the freedom to choose and each choice you make, every item you purchase, every thing you download in that freedom, is voting for you, whether you want it to or not, and is dictating more and more the moral compass of the industries that it feeds back to.
Be free. Enjoy it. Live it to the full! But remember, the choices you make in your freedom, will either enslave or set free those who have been born into less fortunate circumstances than you...
So stand strong and join ENDIT and The A21 Campaign for the #ENDITmovement Shine A Light On Slavery Day (27th February) - wear a red cross on your hand and share it online to show your support and exercise your right to freedom to fight for the 27+ million people who aren't able to fight for themselves.
Blessings!
Ronell x
"to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?"
{Isaiah 58:6}
