Touchdowns and Trafficking

February is known for many things: Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, the beginning of Mardi Gras, and even Groundhog Day. But, maybe one of the most iconic “holidays” in February has become Super Bowl Sunday. Football fans everywhere look forward to this celebration of a true American game, finger foods, and the best commercials we see all year.

There are many misconceptions around the increase of human trafficking with this particular event in our nation. Regardless of whether or not human trafficking actually increases around the Super Bowl, this event is a rare opportunity for abolitionists everywhere to take a stand against sexual exploitation.

This year, the Super Bowl will be held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The state as a whole received a D on their Shared Hope Protected Innocence Report Card in 2015. However, California has also begun implementing significant laws to combat trafficking and will continue to do so this year.

In San Diego County alone, there are up to 11,700 women and girls trafficked each year, with fewer than 25 beds available for survivors. WAR, Int’l is pleased to partner with a safehouse in San Diego which is making a difference through long-term housing and a holistic restoration program for women coming out of a trafficking situation. This safehouse will be expanding its capacity over the next few years to be able to provide hope and healing to even more survivors.

As Super Bowl 50 nears, we encourage you to speak out against trafficking in your own community. The S.O.A.P. Project, a partner of WAR, Int’l, will be at the Super Bowl, monitoring an online website where sex is sold and reaching out to hotels with bars of soap labeled with the human trafficking hotline. Please pray for the team. This kind of outreach is not easy, and we would love to see our country rally around them in prayer during this time.

As we look to the Super Bowl in anticipation, hoping our favorite team shows up to play well, we hope you’ll take the time to pray for those who may be in trafficking situations. There’s no doubt that traffickers loom at large events – there are plenty of statistics, news stories and personal testimonies to prove that. Whether the number of trafficking victims increases drastically or minimally during the Super Bowl is almost completely irrelevant. The point is that many different events, especially large events like the Super Bowl, attract predatory men and women seeking financial gain from the coercion and enslavement of another human being.

While the Super Bowl is a fun event, it also serves as a reminder of the grim reality of human trafficking. With knowledge comes responsibility and a duty to educate both ourselves and others. We hope you’ll use this event and this month to shine a light on trafficking.

If you would like information on how to help survivors and fight trafficking through WAR, Int’l, click here.

National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

For the last few years, January has been named National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In fact, the President released a statement earlier this month, calling upon, “Businesses, national and community organizations, families, and all Americans to recognize the vital role we can play in ending all forms of slavery and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.”

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Here at WAR, Int’l, we observe National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month every month. You see, trafficking doesn’t sleep. Oppression reigns around the world, where the innocence of another is stolen every 30 seconds. For 10 years, we’ve been asking ourselves this question: How many is too many? We believe that answer is one.

This month, more than ever, we deeply desire our communities to rise up against injustice. We’re asking you to come out of your comfort zone to bring hope to the hopeless; to be a voice to the voiceless.

We want to give you a few suggestions on how to join the movement this January:

  1. Give up your weekly Starbucks. Many of us absolutely love our coffee. But, have you ever considered giving what you would have spent on coffee to an organization fighting human trafficking? The reality is that children as young as five years old are harvesting coffee beans on plantations all around the world for little to no pay. This is what we call labor trafficking. We invite you to give up coffee for the rest of January and donate your savings to Women At Risk, Int’l. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please click here.
  2. Pledge to tell five of your friends about the dangers of human trafficking. In any of its forms, trafficking easily engrains itself into our communities. Share this issue with those closest to you to raise awareness!
  3. Pray. We know that sounds so simple, but prayer is the only way we will end human trafficking. Think about it: We can fundraise and we can build safehouses, but if there’s no heart-change, we’ve done very little to break the cycle.

If you are interested in sounding a battle cry with us this month to rescue those trapped in the bondage of slavery, we invite you to visit our Get Involved page here. We have practical tools to help you take your first (or next) steps in ending human trafficking.

Please join us in this fight, and know that while one month may bring light to this tragedy, at-risk women all over the world suffer, sometimes for years, before rescue. What can you give up this month to bless a woman in need? Through your time, talent and treasure, we can fight exploitation together.
While it breaks our hearts that we even need a month here in the United States to recognize that trafficking exists, we understand the importance of raising awareness, and we applaud our government for declaring this month one for reflection and justice.

Join us today and spread the word this month!