Children raped for profit!

Author, Connie McLeod

Does this headline make you angry…it should. And if you are righteously angry about children being raped over and over, night after night, for a profit of 9.5 billion a year, making human trafficking the third most lucrative illegal trade in the world…What will you do about it?

Each year, more than 1,000,000 children are enslaved, adding to the numbers already captured…lured away from rural homes under the promise of education and a better life in the big city. In places like Pattaya, Thailand, (AKA the Sodom and Gomorrah of the East), children, some as young as 4 years old are used again and again and again by perverted beings who do the unthinkable to those who cannot protect themselves.

Bordellos thrive in plain sight while officials paid to protect often share in the profit. Children are tortured, traumatized and come to believe their captors are their protectors. They fear leaving, yet most contract AIDS and die before they reach the age of 16, making rescue and prosecution incredibly difficult and dangerous.

Human trafficking happens in war-torn, poverty-stricken countries AND IT HAPPENS IN AMERICA! Here in Central Florida our booming tourist industry provides perfect cover for mobile brothels to set up and disappear through weekly vacation rentals. Young educated women from Europe are promised work and a better life in the US. Yet upon arriving, passports are confiscated, threats to execute family back home thwarts escape, brutality and forced prostitution are their reality and most never see home again.

The faces and stories of these children have long fallen on deaf ears, but for one Orlando journalist turned activist, they seared an image too heinous to simply walk away shaking her head saying "Oh that’s too bad, someone should do something." It began in the mid 1990s when Dianna Scimone found herself weeping deeply for the aids infected children of Uganda, then in 2000 sickened at the sight of young teens being prostituted in Thailand. She asked "Lord, what can I do about this?"

Praying fervently for a "big picture" answer, God gave her His heart for these children and then provided a way to make a difference. It's called www.Born2Fly.org  This is an all out war, one we pray will be tipped in the children's favor upon the silent battlefield of the pages of a wordless story book. Now known as the "Born to Fly Project," Dianna designed it to create awareness about child trafficking, with the ultimate goal of ending it!

The story follows Blossom, a caterpillar who was born to fly and learns what is safe and what is not safe. No matter what the language or country, the story is universal and has the potential to reach and educate millions of at risk children and their parents. Wherever kids receive awareness training, the rate of child sex trafficking plummets. Unfortunately there are not enough materials available to those at risk. Blossom's story could change all that.

Additionally Scimone and Born2Fly are teaming with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking to enlighten residents. Statistically, trafficking goes up at mega events like the Super Bowl scheduled in Tampa on February 1st. If fliers distributed there can prevent just one child or young person from becoming the next statistic, it's worth every effort.

According to the United States Justice Department, 200,000 American children are at risk for commercial exploitation. Who do you know that is at risk? Could sharing this story save them from a life of slavery?

Darkness hates the light and by illuminating the trade, we can make a difference! Choose to open your eyes and see the affliction of these little ones, get righteously angry, then do something to liberate them from this abomination. Join Dianna Scimone and Born2Fly in the fight against human trafficking.

Connect ~ "Get Involved at Born2Fly" or "Donate" to stop human trafficking through Born 2 Fly.
 

For more info: www.Born2Fly.org  If your eyes need to see and your ears need to hear to believe, please view New York Times writer, Nicholas Kristof's story on Long Pross or Katia's Story from MSN.  These brave young women bear the scars of slavery and are willing to relive their nightmare so we would do something to end the misery.