Bringing Social Justice to my Closet --Part 4

At last!  I am getting the last post in my "Bringing Social Justice to My Closet" series!  Two weeks ago I started my fall semester of college at North Iowa Area Community College (you can read about my experiences as a non-traditional student here (Random Thoughts From the Road Less Traveled).  Getting back into school mode has taken up most of my time during the week, so my post is a little overdue, but better late than never!

For the final post in this series I wanted to take a look at different places to buy ethical fashion choices.  I still need work on filling in basic pieces for my French Five Piece Wardrobe and am also starting to look at the five new items for the fall/winter season.  The vendors I've highlighted here are just some of the many out there attempting to do business in an ethical way and I am enjoying the search.

First of all, I'd like to point that it is always a good idea to buy second hand.  When you buy something used, you are supporting the person selling it to you, it no longer benefits the original supply chain in any way.  If it's a private person at a garage sale, or a store like a consignment shop you are just supporting your local people and local economy.  Second hand stores, like the Salvation Army Stores, and Goodwill support their individual charities and are always great places to check out.

Sometimes, you can't find something secondhand, and then it's time to try and find ethical companies, and goodness knows that can be quite the task.  The supply chain involved in the clothing industry is very difficult to follow.  (As shown by the report from Made in a Free World that I posted on part 3 of this series)  I've done some research and I have found what appear to be some great ethical retailers with amazing clothing.  I would like to introduce a couple here as well as some awesome pieces I'll be adding to my wardrobe soon.  :)

The first company I'd like to talk about is Indigenous.  According to their website their clothing items are both organic and fair trade.  They work with fair trade artisans in the poorest regions of South America to help them preserve their cultural way of life and elevate them out of the poverty they have come from by paying a fair living wage.  One item that I love in particular from Indigenous is their EZ skirt, pictured here.

EZ Skirt from Indigenous

I love how flowing and soft it looks.  This is an item I can't wait to add to my wardrobe!

The next company I'd like to talk about is TOMS.  In 2006, the founder of TOMS, Blake Mycoskie, found that children he met in a village in Argentina did not have adequate shoes to protect their feet.  He started TOMS with a "One for One" program.  For every pair of shoes purchased, a pair is given to a child in need.  In 2011 they expanded their program to eyewear helping to restore sight to people in need.  Finally, this year TOMS Roasting Co was founded.  With every bag of coffee purchased, TOMS will provide one weeks worth of clean water to someone in need.  One pair of shoes I have my eye on to add to my wardrobe this fall is their Taupe Suede Women's Desert Wedges.  

Taupe Suede Desert Wedges

The next company on my list is UK based Annie Greenabelle.  In 2007 Annie Greenabelle was started as an ethical brand in which the use of organically grown fabrics would be combined with recycled and reclaimed fabrics.  They have many lovely clothes, but I especially love this Curved Block Dress.  

Curved Block Dress from Annie Greenabelle

Next up, Elegantees.  Elegantees is a New York based company that helps restore women who have been victims of violence or sex trafficking by providing sewing work for them to help them get back on their feet.  They state that by giving them a positive source of income they are able to help renew their confidence, independence, and a healthy self image.  I am seriously considering hosting one of their "trunk shows" (just like jewelry, or pampered chef, or Tupperware party) here locally.  You can also shop online.  I love how soft and flowing their clothes look and can't wait to order.  I felt they are also very reasonably priced.  I especially like this "Isabella" top.  (My six year old, Isabella really liked it also since she shares the name.)  

Elagantees Isabella top in Orchid

And the final company I'd like to put on my list for today is Nomads.  Based in the UK, Nomads has been a retailer of fair trade clothing since 1989.  They describe their selling policy on their website as, "bringing you clothing without compromise."  The founders of Nomads believe in a policy of "trade not aid" which means they believe that adhering to fair trade guidelines is what will maintain a sustainable and profitable living, both for the producers of the clothing, and for the company.  They have many beautiful pieces, but I fell in love with this embroidered top as soon as I saw it.  

Nomads Embroidered Top

I have had a lot of fun doing this series on clothing.  I hope that it has shown some ways that you can be more conscientious about your wardrobe choices in the light of shopping ethically.  

More about Me

I've started a new blog over at WordPress that is just about me and my random thoughts.  So, if you are interested in finding out more about who I am, you can check it out at thoughtsfromtheroadlesstraveled.wordpress.com

Bringing Social Justice to My Closet--Part 3

You may have been wondering during my last two posts, what me re-vamping my closet and wardrobe has to do with social justice and human trafficking.  Here is the post that connects my desire to change the way I dress with my drive to promote social justice.

When I started looking into the issue of human trafficking I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem.  It seems to pervade every area of life, hidden just under the surface.  Modern slavery lurks just far enough out of the way to make it easy for most people to turn their head and not see.  However, if you choose to open your eyes and look, you will find it, and it is indeed involved in the fashion industry.

Tracing the involvement of human trafficking through the supply chain of fashion retailers is an extremely complex undertaking.  The following information came from the Free2Work.org report on apparel trends from 2012.  Free2Work (a project of www.NotForSaleCampaign.org) assessed 50 companies that sell clothing and fashion items and rated them in regards to their social responsibility practices.  This is the link to the report.

Free2Work.org Apparel Trends 2012

I read through the report and for this post I am just going to highlight two of the areas it investigated regarding injustice in the clothing industry.

First, there is the issue of using children and/or forced labor (slavery) in the clothing industry.  Thanks in large part to increased awareness, the use of children as slaves in the clothing industry has declined over the past 2 decades.  There are still six countries that are known to use forced and/or child labor.  These countries are Argentina, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, China and India.  China and India are among the top 10 global exporters of clothing.

Secondly there is the issue of making a living wage.  A living wage is defined as a wage that is high enough to support a normal standard of living.  This is not talking about luxuries or frills.  Living wage is about being able to provide food, shelter, water, clothing, education, and transportation ect... In the 2012 report, only 2% of the companies assessed assured that the workers in the supply chain at the cut-make-trim level receive a living wage.  Not a single one of the companies assessed get their textiles and cotton supplies from suppliers that provide a living wage.

The first time that I looked into the issue of human trafficking in the fashion industry I was so frustrated by it that I just quit looking and turned the other way for a while, ignoring the intuitive feeling I had that something was not right.  That nagging sense of something being wrong stayed with me until I could no longer ignore it and realized that action was required of me.   It was time to stop going with the everyday flow of consumerism and take the time to really assess what I was supporting with my dollar every time I bought an article of clothing.

Clothing shopping has always been tough for me.  As I explained in my previous posts in this series I am "fashion challenged".  I have always found clothing shopping frustrating, so I tended to stick with what was easy.  I also have 4 kids, so added to the easy part, I was most likely to stick with things that were cheap.  I was always on the lookout for a good deal.  I never stopped to consider who was paying for my good deal.
You see, its true that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Someone has to pay.  It's just a question of who that someone is.

Gradually, as I became more aware of social justice issues it became clear who was paying the cost for my great deals on clothes.  Whether in the form of ridiculously low wages paid to workers in the garment industry or straight out slavery involved in making them, people along the supply chain were paying for my deal.

The following quote really hit home for me, I'd ask you to consider it for a moment:

The long and short of it for me, is that it is time to put my money where my sense of morality is.  Time to act justly in the matter of my clothing shopping.  For me, acting justly in this matter meant to look beyond the deal I was getting by buying inexpensive, easy to acquire clothing, and to consider the cost to others that go into providing me with the deal.

So, what can we do.  Here are a couple action steps you can start with:

1.  Contact retailers you shop from and let them know that you do not want lower cost if it means that those cost cuts are paid for with someone else's misfortune and misery.  

2.  Find retailers that share your values and support their business.  Let them know you appreciate the effort they are making to do business with social justice in mind.  It is not easy for retailers to keep watch on everything in their supply chains.  The supply chains are very complex and it takes great intentionality on the part of the retailer to provide ethically produced goods.  Support them with your money, and support them with a call or note of thanks that you appreciate the effort they are making.  

3.  Boycotting is not always effective for this problem.  From all the reading I have done on the issue it seems that boycotting most of the time hurts the workers at the bottom of the supply chain rather than hurting the industry owners and people who make the decisions.  There are also items that are almost impossible to find with fair trade and social justice in mind.  For those things there are still some things you can do to make a difference.  When you buy, let the store know that you would like to see them make efforts to promote social justice in their supply lines.  Then, buy less, and buy quality so that you are not having to constantly replace the items. 

 I love this image I found on Pinterest from thebeautifulthink.com.au (the link did not work when I clicked it from Pinterest, so I can't give you the original web link)  

My last post in this series will highlight retailers that I have found that offer ethical clothing choices.  I'll share with you my search for the perfect Little Black Dress to fill in my basic capsule pieces for the French Five Piece Wardrobe as well as my search for my 5 new pieces for Fall/Winter.  

Bringing Social Justice to My Closet--Part Two

This is part 2 in my series on bringing social justice to my closet.  As I explained in part 1 of this series, I started off my clothing overhaul with a closet inventory and then purged out all the items that I honestly did not wear.  The next step was to decide what I really wanted in a wardrobe.  There were a couple things that I knew absolutely for sure:

1.  It has to meet the KISS standard.  That's right "Keep it Simple and Straightforward".  I'm getting ready to be a full time student added to my already full time Mom and full time wife, I don't have time to be a full time "fashionista".  :)

2.  I want to stick to classic staples, not trends that come and go.

3.  I want my clothes and the choices I make about them to be a visible "emblem/billboard" of my beliefs about social justice.

I was so completely lost on where to start "finding my style".  I took to Pinterest to find the answer.  I might be a little addicted to Pinterest, but I can quit anytime I want,... as soon as I scroll to the bottom of the page.... ;)  After a lot of searching through a lot of style boards (and a little bit of getting distracted on humor and book boards) I found a style concept that totally appeals to me and fits all my criteria:  The French Five Piece Wardrobe.

The French Five Piece Wardrobe is a concept where you build a basic capsule wardrobe of classic items, and then you only purchase 5 items that have more personality (or, for Wicked fans, are more swankified) each fashion season to augment the basics.  The whole idea is that instead of haphazardly buying random clothes, you are forced to carefully consider what you really want and then make intentional purchases.  Exactly what I was looking for!  There are five basic rules:

1.  Basics don't count and are always allowed (ie, if you need to replace your white t shirt because your five year old dumped a red Slushie on it and didn't tell you, you can replace it without counting it as one of your five items)

2.  Accessories don't count (Which gives me the freedom to continue my love affair with scarves)

3.  Shoes DO count

4.  Socks and Underwear don't count

5.  All the rest counts

 I totally fell love in love with everything about this wardrobe plan.  Especially considering I just purged out a closet full of items where nothing matched.  To start myself off, I needed to assess what I already had for basics, and what I needed to look for.  The basics list varies from source to source, so I made a compilation based on what works for me, and then added a few items that I felt necessary due to where I live.

The basics:

(Items I added for my individual lifestyle in italics)

Tops

Black, grey, and white t-shirts

Black, grey and white tank tops

White blouse

Little Black Dress

Blazer

Cardigan

Black, grey, and white long sleeve shirts 

(I added this because I live in Iowa and it gets cold here in the winter.)  

Black, grey, and white sweater 

(Again, IOWA.  Seriously, it gets cold here.  Like -60 with windchill cold, layers are vital)
3 Basic dresses
(For church)

Bottoms

Black Skinny Jeans

Boyfriend Jeans

Black pencil skirt

Black trousers

Leather trousers

A complete black suit

Outerwear

Leather Jacket

Trench Coat

Wool Coat

Once again due to my geographical location I added the following

Snow Pants

Heavy Winter Coat

Bear Suit

Shoes

Black Pumps
Nude Pumps
Summer Sandals
Mid-heeled ankle boots
Sneakers
SnowBoots
Warm Winter Boots

This wardrobe concept fits all my criteria! First of all, it gives me a great classic wardrobe of items that I can mix and match with no problem.  Secondly, because of the emphasis on buying quality items that comes from only purchasing 5 items I can be truly deliberate about what I buy and spend time researching to make sure the items are fair trade.  This whole plan greatly encourages shopping with a purpose.  

I have been so excited to get started on this.  I wish I had taken a before picture of my closet, but I did not.  Trust me when I say it was overflowing.  This is a shot of my basics now.  

 And here is a shot of my pared down scarf collection

Quick shot of some the extra clothes I kept (TaeKwonDo uniform, Red Cross vests, t-shirt for my daughters softball team and a couple "flashier" dresses and sweaters to start off with until I begin buying the 5 items for each season) 

And, finally, what I kept for shoes.

And that is everything in my closet!  It feels so great to have it be so organized and clean.  :)

Now I get to go on to the fun part of filling in the rest of the basics, and deciding what I want my five pieces of fall/winter clothing are going to be.  I have two posts to conclude this series in the works right now.  One will cover why this all matters and how slavery exists in the clothing industry.  The other will highlight some fair trade clothing stores I have found and the items I'm considering adding to the closet.  

Bringing Social Justice to My Closet--Part One

Trying to bring all areas of my life within a socially just arena has been an ongoing process.  I remember when I first started looking at the issue of human trafficking, it just seemed too big, too complicated to even begin to advocate for change, and trying to figure out how to begin change with me overwhelming to say the least.  Over the past year I've taken one step after another, and am now ready to take a huge lunge ahead by jumping headfirst into college life again and prepare to make social justice advocacy my full time occupation.

I've chosen to double majoring in Political Science and Philosophy.  It's been a very exciting process of getting back into the groove of being a student.  During all the hustle of signing up for classes, and financial aid, and buying books, etc...One deficiency I have in particular has stood out glaringly,... I need new clothes.

I've been a stay-at-home Mom for almost 8 years.  It has been all too easy hang out in sweat pants and t-shirts (some days totally in PJ's to be honest).  Even before that, I have never been able to find a style that really fit me.  I have a closet full of clothes where I can never find anything that goes together.  My fashion sense is is something that I have yet to find.  Clothes shopping is something that has always seemed to be a maze patterns and fabrics and trends that I just don't know how to navigate.  I do know one thing,  I want my entire life to be a statement of what I believe about social justice.  That means being intentional in every area of life.  My clothing should reflect that intentionality as well.

So, where do I  begin to find a style that reflects social justice?  I had to start somewhere, and it seemed to make sense to start with what I already had.   My overflowing closet is full of items that  I do not wear, I need to pass things along to someone who will use them.

So, my first step was to do a complete clothing inventory and closet purge.  I ended up with three bags full of clothing that I honestly never wear.  We took them to the local Salvation Army store and donated them.

Now on to the process of replacing things with clothes that I will wear.  I will chronicle that part of my clothing journey in my next post.

Use today!

Right now, we have an opportunity to use today and do something that will matter.  H.R. 2283, the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act is headed to the house floor for a vote this week.  Call your representative and ask them to vote yes on this legislation.

What does H.R. 2283 do?  Here is a brief summary:

It will change the name of the TIP (Trafficking in Persons) office to Bureau, and it will change the title of the person who heads it from "Ambassador-at-Large" to "Assistant Secretary of State".

Why is this important?

The reason it is important is that by elevating the TIP office within the State Department it will allow the head of the office, Ambassador Lou CdeBaca, the opportunity to contribute into decisions that are made that affect the fight against human trafficking.  As it stands now, Ambassador CdeBaca is left out of the discussion when key decisions are being made concerning U.S. Diplomacy in countries where human trafficking exists.

It only takes a few minutes to pick up your phone and call your representative and ask them to vote yes.  You can find a script to use along with more information on the bill at this link

The Freedom Commons--IJM

Use your voice today to help those whose voices are all too often unheard.

Getting the Blog up Again

Blogging regularly, like any other habit, I suppose, has been a difficult discipline for me.  I have so many ideas floating around, but actually sitting down and typing them out is something that has been all to easy to get away from.  So, after nearly four months away from my blog, I am back and hoping to make a regular habit of it.

If you wonder what I've been up to in the meantime,I have been keeping pretty busy.  I have been training with the Red Cross as a Disaster Action Team volunteer.  And I have enrolled in 2 college classes (Cultural Anthropology and Microeconomics)  for the summer session to get me back in the groove of being a student for this fall.  I had an amazing meeting with the Midwest Coordinator of Volunteer Advocacy from International Justice Mission today and I am looking forward to sharing more about that in another blog post.

In any case, while I have taken time off from the blog, life has moved swiftly onward.  I just need to take the time to remember to pause and chronicle it.  :)

Where Water and Justice Meet

There are many things in life I take for granted.  Water is one of the most prevalent.  With a flip of my wrist the faucet turns and clean, safe water flows into my home.  It is as natural to me as breathing, as steady and reliable as my heartbeat, and it is every bit as vital to my life.  I drink it, cook with it, and clean with it.

Take a moment to consider just how reliant you are on water.  How would your life change if suddenly our modern water systems were taken from us?

What if water was not brought into your home through modern plumbing, but rather you would have to go get it.  It can happen even in developed nations in times of an emergency.  When a disaster strikes the first place most of us would go to get water is the grocery store, but, what if there were no supermarkets with bottled water filling their shelves.  What if you had to walk outside and hand pump water from a well?  That would make you quite inconvenienced in a developed country, but still very privileged in the third world.  What if there was no well close to you.  What if you had to walk to a natural water source, and you were not even sure if the water was safe.  Or maybe you know the water is unsafe, but it's all you have, so you have to risk the water borne illnesses to survive.  Think of water for a moment, think of how much your life depends on it.  What if that was your everyday?   It is the everyday reality for millions of people in our world.

Some Quick World Water Facts

783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.  That is 1 in 9 and 1 in 3 people in the world respectively. (UN figures)

6 to 8 million people die annually from the consequences of disasters and water related diseases.  (UN figures)

More than 1,600 children under age 5 die every day from diarrhea caused by unsafe water--that's more than AIDS and malaria combined.  (World Vision)

My blog focuses on social justice, so you may ask, what does water have to do with justice?  It has plenty to do with it.  Lack of clean safe water sources are major contributors to poverty, disease, and violence, all of which create ripe breeding grounds for the injustice of human trafficking.  Traffickers seek out people who are caught up in desperate situations, and allowing people to live without access to clean safe water makes them vulnerable to those traffickers.  We must break the cycles that keep people locked in destitute poverty to protect them from those who would take advantage of their desperation, and providing water is a great place to start.

It is estimated by the United Nations that in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, that 40 billion hours are taken up every year in the collection of water.  To put that in perspective, 40 billion hours is the same as one year's worth of labor by the entire workforce of France.  Those lost hours are precious time that could have been spent in gaining education, or in wage earning, or in much needed rest.  Women and children carry the majority of the burden of fetching water for their households.  Take a moment and imagine all the things you would have to miss out on if you had to take 3 hours out of your day just to go get and bring back water.

The problem is not only in Africa.  Consider the mountainous, war ravaged country of Afghanistan.  Estimates from the World Health Organization report that more than 133 children in Afghanistan die every DAY due to complications from diarrhea caused by unsafe water.  That multiplies out to more than 48,000 children every year.  Compare that to the number of Afghan deaths caused by the war conflict in the country.  In 2011 the number of war related Afghan deaths was just above 3000 people.  Look at those numbers!  16 times as many children are dying from a common and preventable medical condition than the whole amount of men, women, and children that are killed due to the war.

So much suffering exists in this world and thinking on it can be overwhelming.  However, the encouraging fact about the problem of inadequate water supply, is that we can actually do something about it.  We cannot always prevent wars, or disasters, or acts of violence, but we CAN provide clean safe water and sanitation for people that do not have it.

The benefits of providing safe water are numerous.  Instead of being expected to collect unsafe water all day children can get back to the business of gaining an education in school.  There schooling would no longer be interrupted by bouts of sickness from water borne illnesses.  Parents will be able to have more time to provide care from their families and earn wages.  Sustainable agriculture becomes a possibility for the communities where safe water solutions are in place.  This has been shown in economic terms by the WHO in that for every dollar invested in clean water and sanitation solutions, a potential economic return of between $3 and $34 exists!

So, where do we start being part of the solution to the water problem.

First of all, spread awareness! Let others know about the sufferings of people in our world without access to clean safe water, and that there is something we can do about it!  UNICEF has an amazing amount of resources to educate others and advocate for those without safe water.
UNICEF Water Facts

Check out this blog post from Adam Jeske who works for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship about why he working to help provide clean water.  Spread the word about him and the people he's helping.  Join him in being part of the solution.
Mom is Drinking From a Mud Puddle

Partner with existing organizations to help fund clean water projects.  The Salvation Army is currently working in Papua New Guinea.  You can find more information at this link

Salvation Army--Water Sanitation Projects

Another organization that works continually to provide clean water is Blood:Water Mission.  They are working to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the water crisis in our lifetime.  You can get more information on them here:

Blood:Water.org

For my parting thought, I offer this quote from Cal Newport.

We CAN be part of the solution to the water crisis.  Use today.  

 Please leave any questions on comments below.
Follow me on twitter @andiebeth76

Awarded Camo Belts

Another step up in our training.  :)

Mountains of Ice to Melt

The view out my front window grants me a look at Iowa's winter landscape.  A think blanket of snow covers the ground.  The trees stand stark and barren in their slumber.  Nature lies 'resting in the arms of Morpheus' all around me.  Winter is a quiet season for me as a gardener.  It's a time for me to rest and plan for the coming springs' labor of sowing and tending as I work towards the harvest.  Today, as I gaze outside, I find this landscape to be reminiscent of another wintry presence that surrounds me, but with several distinct differences.  The slumbering ice cover of winter outside is natural and necessary.  The other frosty aspect is entirely unnatural and in direct hindrance to what is needed.  Another contrast between the two types of bitter cold, is that while I can be assured that winter will pass, spring will come and the yearly cycle of seasons will continue, this other coldness can stretch on indefinitely.  As for my response to the two, I embrace the winter outside as a season of rest.  The other coldness, the incapacitating frigidity of apathy I reject outright.

 It allows someone to close their eyes to the gnawing 

emptiness that fills the 870 MILLION people who
will go to sleep hungry tonight.  

It persuades a person to pay no mind to the fact that 6.6 MILLION children under the age of five will die this year, many of completely preventable causes.  

It lulls a conscious to sleep as they are told that

 some 27 MILLION people suffer under the yoke of 

slavery in our world today.

Apathy is a prime weapon of the Enemy against the human soul.  It is the most formidable armament that I have come across in the fight for justice.   Wielded skillfully it can drive a person's natural compassion into a catatonic state, rendering them inactive towards lifting their fellow humans out of whichever misery plagues them.  Statements such as the following haunt me as I fight to gain a foothold in the climbing of the mountain of injustice before me....

"It's not my problem..."

"Someone else will take care of it...."

"I have my own concerns to worry about..."

How can I fight this. How can I begin to melt the apathy of winter around me to see a springtime awakening of interest take its place. Once interest has sprouted from the thawed soil of the heart it can grow through the summer of empathy. And empathy can be cultivated and tended and take us to reaping a crop of action for the harvest. But how do we begin, how do we melt the ice of apathy covering the hearts of those around us? The same way we melt any ice... we melt it with heat, with passionate fiery heat. Ice cannot stand against fire. Consider this quote from social reformer William Lloyd Garrison:

"I have need to be all on fire, for I have 

mountains of ice about me to melt."

--William Lloyd Garrison

Mountains of ice about us to melt.  What an image!  Now the question:  How do we wield that fire and ignite the world around us to thaw those icy peaks...  

A couple ways to start:  

1. Begin where you are.

I knew for a very long time that I was called to advocate for social justice, and I wasted so many years trying to get to a starting place. I blinded myself to the fact that I was, in fact, already at the starting point and I needed to just go, to begin, to take the first step out on the journey. I have used this quote before in this blog, and it is one that particularly speaks to me....

“You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing.You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.” --Tom Hiddleston

I've taken a great many steps since I first saw this quote on Pinterest back in December.  It served as quite a launching pad for me to get active, and I encourage you, reader, start taking steps from where you are at, don't worry about where you will end up.  Just go.  Reminds me of a conversation between Sam and Frodo in "Lord of the Rings"  

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."  

Take the steps.  Keep stepping.  This life should be an adventurous journey anyway, might as well make it count.  

2. Educate yourself

Head over to the resource page from International Justice Mission and start learning. Then share what you learn. Awareness is the bridge from apathy to empathy. No one is going to care until they are first aware.

IJM Resources

3. We must feed our fire.

Networking with others is vital to our own flame. Fires naturally burn themselves out if they are not fed. Join with others in your area who share the same passion and help each other keep your flames burning. A great place to start is the International Justice Mission Freedom Commons. You can join up, log in and find already existing groups in your state. If there is no group near you, they have tools and resources for starting one. Click on this link and check it out.

Freedom Commons


And Finally, consider this quote from Benjamin Franklin

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected 

are as outraged as those who are.”

— Benjamin Franklin


If you are in need of more information or have questions, please comment or send me a message. You can follow me on twitter @andiebeth76

REJECT APATHY--JOIN THE FIGHT

Moving along

It has been a few weeks since I have written a blog post.  Life has been moving at a fast pace and I have been swept right along with it.  Some of it has been the normal business that comes with this time of the year, and some has been exciting forward movement in my journey to become more involved with International Justice Mission.  I was able to talk with the Midwest Coordinator of Volunteer Advocacy for IJM last week and we have developed a plan for starting to grow the IJM network here in Iowa.  I have also been able to meet with several other people in the area that are interested in working with a group to advance the cause of justice.  These have been tremendously exciting "first steps" for me.


I do have several posts for the blog in the works, and will hopefully get them published this week.  :)

Is It Not An Emergency?

This post is regarding modern slavery and children.  It is one of the most difficult aspects of human trafficking for me that children are involved.  The reprehensible fact that they are bought and sold with no regard to their inherent humanity is appalling.  They are treated as mere property with no respect for their innocence, their potential, or their right to become what they will.  This problem is massive.  It is impossible to pin down exact numbers due to the illicit and nebulous nature of human trafficking, but of the estimated 30 million people in slavery in the world today, around 13 million are children. There are currently more children in slavery than there has been at any other point in history.

This post is specifically about the troubling facts regarding children exploited in the commercial sex industry.

Here are just a few disturbing facts on children being exploited by the commercial sex industry from Rescue Her.     ( http://www.rescueher.org/get-the-facts)

* Commercial sexual exploitation of children occurs when individuals buy, trade, or sell sexual acts with a child. It is estimated that there are currently nearly 2.5 million children worldwide exploited in the commercial sex industry.

*The US Department of Justice has reported that the average age of entry into pornography and prostitution in the United States is 12.

* An estimated 14,500-17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the US each year.  The trafficking of citizens within the country is much larger with about 100,000 US children trafficked and exploited in the commercial sex industry yearly.

The scope and scale of this industry is difficult to fathom and it is personally overwhelming to me.  Fed by greed it brings in BILLIONS of dollars every year.  Consider this shocking quote:

“It’s all about the money. Human trafficking is insanely profitable. If you really think about it, you can sell a kilo of Heroin once; you can sell a 13-year-old girl 20 times a night, 365 days a year.” And you should feel a little outraged about this. You should feel upset about this. And that’s great – but it’s not good enough.” ~ Tony Talbott

Whenever I think about what these children go through I am filled with dismay.  There are no easy answers that would quickly solve this issue. Abolishing the abuse of child in the commercial sex industry will require a strong multifaceted approach as there is no single silver bullet that can take down the evil perpetrating it.  It will take a large movement of passionate people to fight for justice for these children.  What will it take to awaken the majority of people and motivate them to move on this issue?  I recently came across this quote from Francis Chan addressing just that:

      "My wife and I recently decided to give all of the royalties from my previous book, Crazy Love, to a fund called the Isaiah 58 Fund. All of the money goes to the needy in the world—the starving, sick, impoverished, and to those in the sex slave trade.... I was a bit shocked and discouraged by some of the responses we received.
      People told us that we were being foolish and irresponsible with the gifts that God gave us. They said we should have at least put some away in case of an emergency.  My response back was,
“Is it not an emergency that children in Cambodia and Thailand and even the U.S. are being raped every single day of their lives?  Why is that not an emergency?” I think the church often inadvertently teaches that this is not an emergency. And this, I believe is sin. Is an emergency only an emergency if it affects me and my immediate family?"

When will this become an emergency to us?  How close do we have to come to it before it is an emergency?  When it is a child that lives in our area?  When it is a child that our kids go to school with?  When it is a child in our neighborhood?  When it is a child in our own family?...

 How close does it have to get before it becomes so real in our minds that we can no longer close our eyes and pretend it doesn't exist?
 How close until we feel a so compelled to do something that we are unable to go on living our daily lives as though the children being brutalized don't exist?
 How close does it have to get until we are impassioned enough to shake off the shackles of apathy and we go no holds barred to end this scourge?

The time for action is now.  The enslaved children cannot wait for someday to happen.  They need us to respond to their emergency today.

With an issue so dark, and so massive it is easy to become overwhelmed by it.  If we allow ourselves to think of the millions currently exploited, it can be a paralyzing thought.  It seems hopeless.  But we must not let our inability to save everyone at once stop us from doing what we can to start.  A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and ending the blight of children exploited in the commercial sex trade has to begin where we are at.  Here are some "first steps" to take:

1.  Become aware, and then spread awareness.  Bring this shadowy evil into the light.

2.  Know the signs to watch for so that you can recognize a victim if you see them.  Here is a link to list of signs

http://www.rescueher.org/indicators-of-trafficking

3.  Partner with existing organizations working towards rescuing children in slavery and protecting children who are at risk for trafficking.  Here is a link to Destiny Rescue's 26 second challenge, one of the many organizations out there fighting for justice.  

http://www.destinyrescue.org/us/get-involved/programs/26-second-challenge/

Once you begin, don't let it end with first steps. There will always be more to learn and more awareness to spread.  Remember when you are taking the time to decide what you will do with what you have learned that you have the freedom to choose your course of action, the victims of slavery are given no such liberty.  Then steel yourself for the long haul for abolishing the modern slave trade is a colossal mountain to conquer.

"The victims of injustice in our world do not need our spasms of passion;

 they need our long obedience in the same direction - 

our legs and lungs of endurance; and we need sturdy stores of joy."

- Gary Haugen, IJM

Follow me on Twitter

Awareness is the First Step

The month of January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and today, January 11, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.  I wanted to write a quick blog post with some basic facts on trafficking for today, and then explore each point more in depth over the rest of the month.

What is Human Trafficking?  Human Trafficking is the trade in humans, modern slavery.  The purposes are most commonly for sexual slavery and exploitation, forced labor, or extraction of organs and tissues.  The people oppressed by the slave trade are completely controlled by another person. The control is maintained by using violence or threatening violence, the enslaved person is exploited and is unable to walk away from the situation.

Where does this happen?  Slavery is not legal anywhere, but it happens everywhere.  It is most rampant in India and Africa. This is not a problem restricted to third world countries.   It DOES happens here in the United States.  The US Justice Department estimates that 17,500 people are trafficking into the United States every year.  That number could be much higher due to the large number of undocumented immigrants.  As well as people being trafficking into the country, the issue of Americans being exploited in the domestic sex trade is massive.  According to Shared Hope International (sharedhope.org) at least 100,000 American children alone are being exploited through pornography or prostitution every year.

How big of a problem is this?  There are more people currently in slavery in the world than there were throughout the entire run of the Transatlantic slave trade.  Estimages range from 27-29 million people worldwide living in slavery.  There are an estimated 2 million children currently being exploited in the global sex trade.

The trafficking industry generates $32 billion a year.  It is all about money.  Wherever the demand exists there are people who take advantage and gain the supply to fill that demand and feed their own greed.  Consider this shocking quote from Tony Talbott...

“It’s all about the money. Human trafficking is insanely profitable. If you really think about it, you can sell a kilo of Heroin once; you can sell a 13-year-old girl 20 times a night, 365 days a year.” And you should feel a little outraged about this. You should feel upset about this. And that’s great – but it’s not good enough.” ~ Tony Talbott

Awareness is just the first step.  Awareness by itself does not solve the problem, but it is essential to propel people to action.

So what can YOU do about it?

1.  Make yourself aware of the facts about human slavery including how to recognize it. This link to the Polaris Projects page on recognizing the signs of trafficking is a great start.
      http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/recognizing-the-signs

2.  Spread that knowledge, among your family, your friends, you community.  Use social networking tools like Twitter or Facebook for spreading awareness.

3.  Use the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) tip line to report your suspicions if you see signs of human trafficking  1-888-373-7888.  You can also fill out this online form  http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/national-human-trafficking-hotline/report-a-tip

4.  Join up with other people in your area interested in putting an end to this injustice.  You can sign up with IJM Freedom Commons to find other people in your area and ideas of what you can do to join in the fight.  http://freedomcommons.ijm.org/

5.  Partner with existing organizations that are working to end modern slavery.  Here are just three you can look into:
International Justice Mission  http://www.ijm.org/
Polaris Project  http://www.polarisproject.org/
Shared Hope International  http://sharedhope.org/

For the Triumph of Evil...

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"  Edmund Burke

I recently watched "Schindler's List" for the first time.  I had to remind myself while watching it, that it is not just a movie, the events depicted, and thousands more like them, actually occurred.  I watched it play out on the screen and wondered, how could something so atrocious have been allowed to happen?  How could people be so profoundly immoral that they inflict such horror onto other people.  Beyond wondering about the evil people, I wonder how could moral people stand to the side and allow such heinous acts to take place and then escalate.  It was profoundly difficult to watch the portrayal of these events.  However, even in the darkness of such brutality, there are beacons of light working to displace it.  In the event of the holocaust, not all people stepped aside and let it happen; some made a stand.  This movie depicts how the selfless acts of one man changed the tide for thousands.  He made a choice to not turn away, as he could have, but instead held his ground and resisted the evil.  He stood as a bastion of protection for the people in his factory, and instead of continuing its advance, the evil was forced to halt.

The entire movie was brilliantly moving.  A scene near the end spoke to me most intensely.  It was where Oskar starts to see his possessions as people that he could have saved.  "Why did I keep the car, that's ten people".  He lamented that if he had made more money he could have saved more people.  If he had wasted less money on things, he could have saved more people. This man singlehandedly saved the lives of hundreds of people within his sphere of influence. He sacrificed his own comfort and safety to the utmost to help others, and yet, at the end, he wished he go back and do more.

 I watched Liam Neeson's character crumble to the ground in grief over thoughts of what more he could have done, and I wondered if that could be me someday. I wonder if later in my life, as I look back at the choices I have made, the things I have done, the things I neglected to do, will I regret not doing more.  There are people all around the world that are dying preventable deaths.  People are are suffering under the weight of injustices such as slavery, extreme poverty, and violence.  Because of our modern era, they are within my sphere of influence, it IS within my power to do something to relieve their suffering.  Do I really wrestle with the question of where to balance my resources between what I do for myself and my family and what I do for others?  Or do I just accept things as they are given to me and go with the flow of life?  

 I look at past evils like the Holocaust, and I am aghast that it was allowed to happen.  I find the fault not just in the people who committed the crimes, but of the thousands of people who stood by and watched as it happened.  The modern slave trade is just one of the evils of our time.  We have the choice now to turn our eyes and allow it to happen, or take up arms and join in the battle against this evil.  Someday, down the road, when my Grandchildren are learning about the modern day slave trade as I have learned about the holocaust and other past evils, I don't want them to think that I stood by and watched and let it be.  I want them to know I stood against injustice.  Not just that I did not commit injustice, but that I fought it in every sphere of my influence.

"The victims of injustice in our world do not need our spasms of passion, they need our long obedience in the same direction."--Gary Haugen