END IT Movement: Wear a Red Cross

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}

{image: www.facebook.com/pages/The-A21-Campaign/} 

Urgent Petition to End Child Slavery in India

I received this message from the Walk Free team today and wanted to share it on here. Please read it and sign- children's lives are hanging in the balance here!

Blessings!

Ronell x

***URGENT*** Time is running out. The Indian Parliament is going to adjourn on Friday so we are in Delhi and planning to deliver the petition TOMORROW calling on the Indian Parliament to abolish child slavery in India by passing the "Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill”.

 Click to take action before 8pm on Wednesday so we can add your signature before we head to the printer!

Every day, millions of children in India wake up to long hours of backbreaking labour, working everywhere from stone quarries to carpet factories to rice mills. These children—some as young as 5 years-old—are kept from school and forced to work 7 days a week for up to 18 hours a day in hazardous situations that leave them permanently injured or crippled by heavy loads and dangerous equipment. 

Because these children are often left illiterate and plagued with health problems, they are—in a cruel twist of fate—less likely to find employment once they reach adulthood. This continued enslavement of children traps generations of Indians in a vicious cycle of slavery, illiteracy and poverty.

Thankfully, Indian politicians are considering legislation called the "Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill," which: 1) prohibits employment of children under 14 years of age, 2) outlines harsh sentences for violators, and 3) provides for monitoring of suspected cases of child slavery. This legislation would put an end to the enslavement of children in India, but it risks not passing without a demonstration of mass public support. That is why we are personally delivering 1,010,917 signatures on the 29^thof August to the Parliament of India, calling on them to immediately pass the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill.

TAKE ACTION. Add your name to the petition calling on the Indian Parliament to abolish child slavery in India.  

Days from now, the Parliament of India will close the doors on its Monsoon Session. They need to know that any further delay in the passage of this historic law banning child labour in their country is simply unacceptable.

For every day that this bill is delayed, millions of children in India will continue to be trapped in the nightmare of modern slavery. While leaders in India remain inactive, an entire generation remains at risk of being bought and sold to work in unimaginable conditions of sex slavery, bonded labour and domestic servitude.

By keeping this crucial bill off the agenda, the Indian Parliament is allowing modern slavery to continue to rob children of the chance to be healthy, educated and free to build a bright future for themselves and for their country.

Tell Indian politicians to pass the "Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill" NOW.

We can end child slavery in India.

After you take action, will you take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family to make sure that as many people as possible join us in pressuring the Indian Parliament to protect millions of children from modern slavery? Thank you in advance for your help.

In solidarity,

Debra, Nick, Jessica, Kate, Mich, Amy and the Walk Free Team