Oct

15

Human Trafficking - Blog Action Day Awareness

Filed Under Resources 

Born to fly thailand

As you guys know I don’t write on this blog much, but this is a subject that physically makes me so sick I have to turn away. Not read the information, close my eyes.  HUMAN TRAFFICKING?  Of CHILDREN?Yes I am shouting. I am angry, disturbed and sometimes ashamed of the human race.  And I have decided to stand up, be counted and open my eyes, as it will hurt me less than those in slavery, force my personal growth and maybe, just maybe, make a small difference in the world.

And so I turn the podium over to

Diana Scimone, From Born To Fly:

Thank you, Michelle, for inviting me to guest blog on your site for Blog Action Day. Mid-Life Mommy is one of 9,000 blogs around the world participating in bad08. That’s a whopping 9 million readers!

The world’s bloggers are all posting about the same issue on the same day. This year’s topic is poverty, and we’re writing about how poverty relates to the focus of our blog.

I’m a journalist who’s been to more than 40 countries writing about human rights. In the process, I’ve seen lots of kids. Kids who could use some love, a pair of shoes (or at least a pair that matches), and an hour in a bubble bath. Five years ago, I decided to do something to help them and launched a non-profit organization called Born to Fly International.

Now keep in mind I wasn’t a mom, didn’t have kids, and had never done any kind of children’s work in my life. If you’ve hung around Michelle’s blogs for any length of time, you know none of those reasons were red lights for me.

Our focus at B2F is to help stop child trafficking. Each year more than 1 million kids are trafficked for sex. That’s in addition to the kids already enslaved. Some of these children are just 5 years old.

Poverty is one of the biggest contributing factors to trafficking. When children are poor, it doesn’t take much to lure them. Someone offers a job as a model or waitress, and they’re gone. Parents who want a better life for their children fall prey to the lies of traffickers who promise education opportunities in the big city. “Just sign here,” they say, and moms never see their daughters again.

It’s a horrible situation—but there is something we can do about it. Kids get taken because they don’t know anything about trafficking. They really think they’re going to be waitresses. If we could educate them ahead of time—and their parents and teachers—we can put a huge dent in the number of kids getting trafficked each year.

That’s what The Born to Fly Project is designed to do. It’s a strategic 4-stage plan to educate kids, parents, and teachers about the dangers of child trafficking—with the ultimate goal of ending it. It has the potential to change the lives of millions of children as we teach them, “You were born to fly—don’t settle for less.”

If you’re moved by this post, I ask you to do two things:

  • After you’ve watched the riveting video that opens the website, forward the link to others.
  • Be part of $10×10K—10,000 people giving just $10 each to help get the job done.

Thanks for letting me be a guest at Mid-Life Mommy. (I’m posting something for Blog Action Day on my own blog, but since I’m actually writing this one first, Michelle is probably getting all the good stuff.)

Diana Scimone
President
Born to Fly International
www.dianascimone.com
www.born2fly.org
Twitter: @BornToFly

A Few other posts inspired by Blog Action Day:

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