Not For Sale

I finished reading this book a few weeks ago and I've been wanting to post on it ever since. If you have not heard about this book, it is definitely something you should read. The book is about the current state of the global slave trade. The author and his wife discovered that many of the people who worked at their favorite Indian restaurant were actually enslaved by the owner. The author was so shocked to find out this still occurred, that he spent time traveling the world and discovered how prevalent human trafficking really is today. Each chapter highlights a different country and one of the issues of slavery they are facing, whether sex/prostitution, bonded labor, child soldiers or another type. Each chapter also offers hope though, it includes a story of someone who has made it out of slavery there and profiles at least one organization in the country that is fighting that form of slavery.

It was a really difficult book to read, I cannot believe that these things are still going on in the world and even in the US. Shouldn't this have been eradicated somehow over the last several decades? It was so hard to read the stories of the survivors and what their families and friends suffered through, as well and how the law enforcement actually did more to help the traffickers that those enslaved in many cases. The stories of the abolitionists were really inspiring though, in the chapter on Cambodia, they featured the IJM office where my friend Lisa actually works. They also touched on the Invisible Children organization working with child soldiers in northern Uganda.

Our friend Sara, who is from Italy, was describing the other day about seeing eastern European women all over the streets in the bigger cities there and how they are selling their bodies to attempt to pay off the debts they owe to the person that brought them to Italy. There is a chapter in the book that focuses on Italy and it was really interesting to get a first person perspective on how true and prevalent this really is.

I heard from someone else that Atlanta vies with Las Vegas for the most trafficked individuals in the US, and I was really shocked at that statistic. The fact that I live in a city where a vast majority of trafficked persons enter the US and I really have no idea that it is going on, is very discouraging to me. There are several organizations in the city that some local churches have begun partnering with, so that is very exciting. Jamie and I are trying to figure out where to go from here, now that we are more aware of the return of the global slave trade.

Below is the link to the Not For Sale Campaign where you can find out more and get involved.

www.notforsalecampaign.org