My birthday is Monday.
I will be 31.
I probably won't do anything of consequence that day.
I just found out that January 11th (my birthday) is also Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
I used to be a title abstractor. That meant that I traveled to courthouses and researched property for companies that were refinancing homes. Usually it was pretty easy, but if I had to research a farm or something difficult, where the title did not get out of family for generations, the search could easily stretch back into the 1800s. I remember that a co-worker once brought a copy of a deed into the office. He had found it in Lowndes County, Georgia while looking at a property. Included in the deed was a "negro woman" with here children. I was shocked. I was holding in my hands a copy of a legal document detailing the sale of human beings just as coldly as the land that was included.
This problem is just as real today.
Please don't be naive or turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the fact that humans are bought and sold every day in this world, and possibly much closer to home than you think. And this slavery often takes the form of sexual slavery, in which human beings (often VERY young girls) are abducted and then sold to brothels.
You can help.
You may have seen or heard about International Justice Mission on tv.
Please visit their website and see how you can help fight this injustice that plagues our world.
I can't think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than to fight for other's freedom.
