WHAT INDIVIDUALS CAN DO TO STOP SLAVERY AND TRAFFICKING

Be a 21st Century Abolitionist.  Get involved in the fight to stop modern-day slavery and trafficking in your neighborhood and around the world.  This list is a starting point for action.

PRAY

Commit yourself to regular prayer for trafficking issues in the United States and around the world. 

Organize your Sunday school class, bible study, or another group to pray regularly.

Please pray for every person that is currently a victim enslaved today that they will be freed from their captivity.  Also, please pray for trafficking survivors that they will be made whole again, physically, spiritually and emotionally.  Pray for their continued safety and possible reintegration back into their families and communities.

Pray for FAAST personnel who work tirelessly at the front lines of the fight against trafficking.  They protect and care for victims, educate communities and governments members about trafficking, and work to enforce laws against traffickers.  They work in dangerous situations every day, putting themselves in harms way to protect the vulnerable.  Please pray for their spiritual, psychological, and physical strength and safety. 

Pray that national leaders will rise up against slavery and trafficking in countries supplying and countries demanding victims of trafficking. 

Pray for the children, women and men in FAAST Partner projects and communities who are vulnerable to trafficking because of their poverty and lack of opportunities. 

Pray for traffickers and other facilitators of trafficking, that they would be convicted, repent, and stop their callous behavior.    

GET EDUCATED

Learn about Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery.  Visit the FAAST website at www.faastinternational.org. 

Download or request the latest Trafficking in Persons Report from the US Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking.  Go to www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/ or call 1(202) 312-9639.  

Sign up for the latest news and information about sexual trafficking from the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking (IAST) at www.iast.net; other forms of human trafficking at www.humantrafficking.org.

Find out what’s happening in your State.  Sign up for the U.S. Policy Alert Service through the Polaris Project at www.polarisproject.org/polarisproject/programs_p3/PolicyAlert_p3.htm and receive regular updates, maps, and alerts on legislative developments on trafficking in the United States.

Go on a study tour with a FAAST Partner organization.  

Read books:

Watch movies:  

EDUCATE OTHERS

Talk about human trafficking.  Tell your friends, share with your pastor, inform your family. 

Host an anti-trafficking event or presentation on slavery and trafficking at your church, school, Bible study, or other community forum.  Contact FAAST for speaker suggestions and availability.

Hang an anti-trafficking poster in your church, business, or office. Posters advertising the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) victim hotline are a valuable outreach tool to potential victims and those that may come into contact with victims.  Sample posters are available at www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/index.html or 1(888)3737-888.  Posters are available in English, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese, and Korean.

Provide anti-trafficking materials (books, pamphlets, flyers, dvds) at informational tables or booths.  Materials are available from FAAST or HHS.

Post signs, posters and other help information in public places.  Advertisements in train stations, airports, busses, libraries, rest stops, and gas stations with hotline and help information in multiple languages will help victims find their way to safety. 

Preach a sermon about slavery, what the Bible says about it, the urgency to abolish slavery and trafficking, and the need to reaffirm the inherent, God-given dignity of human beings.  Contact FAAST for a list of Bible references to slavery.

Introduce a book or movie on slavery and trafficking into your book club, Sunday school, or other gathering. 

Write articles and/or letters of opinion for local papers; church, denominational, or other publications.

Speak on a form of slavery (sex, labor, servitude, etc) in a class at your local middle school, high school or college.  Educating youth and young adults on these topics will not only curb demand through education, but will also raise up future abolitionists. 

ADVOCATE

Ask your state legislators what they’ve done to stop sex trafficking and labor trafficking in your state.  If they don’t know, offer to provide information on what they can do.  For more information, see the US Department of Justice webpage on slavery and trafficking at www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/tpwetf.htm, and the model state law on trafficking at www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/model_state_law.pdf. 

Find out if your state has an Anti-Trafficking Task Force.  If not, suggest that one be formed.  If so, find out how you can help.  More information on state action is available at www.polarisproject.org.

Provide information to your legislators on how demand increases supply in your state.  For more information, contact FAAST.  For information on how the sex industry (strip clubs, prostitution rings, pornography) increases demand for victims in your state, contact the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking (IAST) at www.iast.net or call (703) 159-5896.

Teach youth and young adults about the link between the sex industry and the sex trade.  Stop the demand before it starts.  Order the six-session curriculum for youth in grades 7, 8, and 9 from Adults Saving Kids and organize a viewing with church youth groups, scouts, etc.  It creates awareness of the dangers of commercial sexual exploitation.  Contact ahartman@adultssavingkids.org or call (612) 872-0684.

SERVE

Contact FAAST for current volunteer opportunities in the US or abroad. FAAST welcomes volunteers to do research, writing, graphic design, law review, organize events, staff information booths at events, and more.

Organize an anti-trafficking group in your school or church committed to getting educated, educating others, and supporting organizations that work on trafficking issues.

Host an evening at your home to show your friends one of the films listed above.  Talk about how the issue of human trafficking impacts you.  Provide this list for further action. 

Create and distribute t-shirts or stickers with anti-trafficking slogans.

Work with existing social service agencies to help survivors of trafficking.  Survivors are often in desperate need of food, clothing, shelter, translators, medical attention, transportation, crisis counseling and other services.

Represent a client.  Many victims of trafficking in the US need pro bono legal services to be certified as a victim of trafficking and apply for T-visas.  Contact social service agencies in your area to see how you can help.    

Collect items for care packages for survivors.  Collaborate with existing service providers to find out what they need.  Based on cultural and climate conditions, the types of goods collected for care packages may vary, so be sure to discuss with program directors before sending items.

Combat Demand for victims of sex trafficking.  Work in your community to seek the arrest of buyers of commercial sex, develop deterrent sex offender programs, encourage victim-centered law enforcement to punish perpetrators and protect victims. 

REPORT CASES OF SLAVERY OR TRAFFICKING

Learn how to identify victims of trafficking.  Look for signs of trafficking.  Listen for indications of trafficking.  Victims are often hidden in plain view. 

If you have information or suspect that slavery or trafficking is happening near you, REPORT it to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1(888)3737-888, or the U.S. Department of Justice Trafficking in Persons Complaint Line at 1(888)428-7581, or contact the FBI field office nearest you.  Your call could save lives. 

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS

Demand “slave-free” goods.  Buy rugs carrying the Rugmark symbol; fair trade coffee, tea and cocoa; shop at “fair trade” stores such as Ten Thousand Villages; look for the Fairtrade label (see www.fairtrade.net); ask stores to stock fairly traded items. 

Ask hard questions about your investments.  Are you assured that your investments are not linked to slave labor?  If not, move your money to an ethical fund that does not profit from slave labor.  Visit researching ethical investment companies at the Open Directory Project at  http://dmoz.org/Business/Investing/Socially_Responsible/Financial_and_Investment_Advisors/.

Ask your church missions directors if they are supporting anti-trafficking programs or organizations.  If not, encourage resources to be used for anti-trafficking efforts.

Encourage your church or other gathering place to buy fair-trade coffee instead of cheaper coffee of unknown origin for their fellowship time.  Learn about church-based coffee campaigns at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/hunger/coffee.cfm.

Give.  The US gave over $260 billion to charities last year (75% from individual donors), but less than 2.5% of those funds were designated for international development, including overseas anti-trafficking efforts.

Support FAAST. Send your tax deductible gift to FAAST by writing a check to World Hope International (the fiscal agent for FAAST) and sending it to:

Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST)
625 Slaters Lane, Suite 100
Alexandria, VA 22314 USA

_____________________

Special thanks to Lisa Thompson and the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking, Kristin Wiebe of World Hope International, Bonnie Pritchard of FAAST, Kevin Bales of Anti-Slavery International, the US Dept of Health and Human Services, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the US Department of Justice, and Heidi Metcalf for many of the ideas in this document.

 

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