I just saw “Taken” with Liam Neeson. I actually had no idea what it was about, just that this guy’s daughter gets kidnapped in Paris and he’s some like ninja secret agent that has to go kill a lot of people to get her back. But the plotline actually gives the reasoning for his daughter’s kidnapping. It’s not for money or fame or anything like that, which is typically the reason for movies like that. His daughter was kidnapped by human traffickers in order to sell her into prostitution and slavery. And as soon as I heard that, I was intrigued, fascinated, and completely and utterly hooked.
You see, this whole issue has come at supersonic speed into my direct consciousness. One of the interesting things about working at a non-profit that partners with other non-profits is seeing what the other organizations’ missions are and how they are going about accomplishing them.
Not For Sale is an organization we work with that is directly involved with ending the cycle of human trafficking and slavery. Call+Response is co-partnering with them on their project, and they produced a phenomenal rockumentary on the issue. It touched our staff so much that we created, from scratch, an entire event where artists could respond to the issue for an art exhibition. My Hands Have a Voice had over 81 artists participate and over 500 people attend, and we screened the rockumentary. Those people that attended either had no idea about the issue, or had only an inkling and wanted to do something about it. That may not seem like much, but that’s 500 people that are now aware of the horrors around human trafficking and slavery that may not have been before.
But going back to the movie – one thing that struck me was that this movie *SPOILER ALERT* had a happy ending. Liam Neeson saved his daughter from being sold to a creepy old sheikh and restored his relationship with her, and killed a lot of the bad guys along the way. What stuck with me though was all the other girls who weren’t so lucky. The girls who were handcuffed to a bed and given drugs so they would be indebted to their captors to keep them high. The girls who prostituted themselves on the street to make money for the pimp that gave them the drugs. The girls who were so dead inside they simply retreated inside themselves and couldn’t respond in any way to a kind human face, voice, word.
So yeah, the movie had a happy ending for the hero and heroine. It is Hollywood, after all. But the truth is that there are tens of hundreds of thousands of girls who won’t get that happy ending. There are girls who are going to die in this lifestyle, thinking that no one anywhere cares about them. There are girls who, even if they are rescued, will never be whole again. They will irrevocably be damaged, and that’s a hurt deeper than anyone can reach.
I’m writing this because it’s a burden and a passion that has really been put on my heart. I want to do something about it, and if that just means that I get one person to care and go look up more information on it, I have furthered awareness of an issue that I really care about. I know that not everyone will want to get involved in this cause – some people want to get more involved HIV awareness, or in raising awareness about illiteracy or obesity in America, or with cancer research – and that’s ok. My point is that nothing will ever be accomplished without people getting passionate and getting involved.
Make a difference.
Your difference can be going and getting more involved by volunteering, or by giving to the organizations who are directly involved, or simply by making more people aware.
Right now, my role in the human trafficking and slavery issue is to try and get more people to see what is going on. If I tell five people about human trafficking and slavery, and only one of those people really truly cares and gets involved, that’s ok. And if those other four people at least tell someone else about an interesting fact they learned but then push it to the back of their mind, awareness of the issue grows. That’s how change is made. And that’s how you can make a difference, in local or global issues.
So I challenge you to really think about what you’re passionate about. Look at non-profits in your area and find one that jumps out at you. Give of your resources – your time, your talents, your treasures. You won’t regret it, and I guarantee that it will change your life forever. And who knows, maybe it’ll change the lives of others too.
*UPDATE* I just read this blog that was really, really interesting. And a perfect example of someone really plugging into something that she was just casually interested in, and losing all apathy and investing herself in it. It’s great!!
