Imagine what it is to be thought of only as a product, a service.
It’s typical for young girls going through adolescence to feel worthless. Many girls spend days, weeks, even years in depression because they do not feel loved. Many of these young women have no reason to feel such sadness other than being victim to raging hormones. Others feel that way because of some sort of abuse or traumatic experience.
The young women and children who are put into the horrific life of prostitution feel that way for a terrible, but very real, reason. They feel worthless because they are told, everyday, that they can be bought.
Sometimes, they are told that 20 times a day. The money slipping through their fingers into the greedy hands of their pimps screams it at them, as they are sold into the complete control of their buyer, forced to smile and act happy to be with him, so that they might meet their quota for the night.
“They chose that life for themselves,” you may say.
Is that so?
Could someone honestly believe that any 12-year-old girl chooses to be used by foul-smelling men old enough to be her grandfather? Surely no one believes that a 24-year-old young woman chose to give up any chance of a career and nights on the town with the girls, to be instead lying in bed with a man who paid money to her pimp so that he could use her to fulfill his fantasies before beating her mercilessly and calling her names that no woman should ever be called.
“Well, maybe they didn’t choose that. But they could get out. They could go make something of themselves, get out of that life. They’re not bound by chains.”
Some are bound by chains. Some live in cages.
However, the young ladies that you probably picture when you think of a prostitute, indeed, are not bound by literal chains. Many, though, come from broken homes that they fear returning to after doing the things that they have. Others are deceived by their pimps, and brainwashed into believing that the men who have trafficked them into the most horrifying life imaginable actually love them dearly, and will show them a better life one day. Whatever the circumstance is, the chains, whether physically or mentally binding, are there all the same. And they need to be broken.
The Bible teaches us to have compassion on those who are hurting. "So that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." -1 Corinthians 12:25-26
Girls that are sold 15-20 times a day, as if they were objects, are hurting beyond our comprehension. And we, as people that have an opportunity to do something, should be beyond concerned. We should be taking action.
This is a subject on which I am extremely passionate, and writing about it to raise awareness is a way that I am taking action. Therefore, this is not the last you will read about the slaves of today, the girls who are being robbed of their dignity and innocence at this very moment, in every part of the world (and by every part, I do include the U.S. Atlanta, in fact, is the eastern hub of the U.S. for sex trafficking). I pray that you will not read these words without taking some kind of action yourself.
There is hope. "But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish."- Psalm 9:18. The atrocity that is human trafficking can be put to a screeching halt, if only we realize what’s happening and do something about it. God never leaves His loved ones behind; and I, for one, want to be used by Him to save the hurting.
If you want to know something you can do, email Christine Watson at 24thingsucando@gmail.com, and ask for the list of 24 Things You Can do to stop Human Trafficking. These 24 things are so simple, and by doing even one, you would change a life. You would have a part in allowing a girl the opportunity to wear a real smile again someday. I’m sure she would be grateful.
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