January is human trafficking awareness month

LA County's Newest Safe House

ZOE International is now nearing completion of a small comprehensive residential facility in northern LA County for children rescued from Human Traffickers. ZOE is a Christian anti-human trafficking organization with the mission to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ and demonstrate God's compassion through rescuing and caring for orphans and children from human trafficking. ZOE began its work in Thailand in 2002. Our Social Justice Team has made donations toward their local effort. If you’d like to find out more about ZOE, here is the link:  https://gozoe.org/


Local Rescue Story On December 8, 2020 officers from the LA County Sheriff Department raided a vacant home in Palmdale, after a tip-off of an underground rave party. Over 150 people were arrested and a 17-year-old human trafficked victim was rescued.

 

Pray With Us!

The California-Pacific Conference Abolition Task Force encourages all churches to pray for those who are enslaved, and for those who are helping to bring about justice and freedom. Available for our Cal-Pac Churches to use is a Prayer Calendar put together by the Sisters of St. Joseph in Orange. Please consider downloading using this link: www.calpacumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-HT-Prayer-Calendar-and-Flyer.pdf?utm_source=ALL+DATABASE&utm_campaign=088507543c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_09_10_26_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7248078e6c-088507543c-111547606


*For more information about human trafficking, see below.

HELP END HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Call National Hotline # 1-888-3737-888 for help

traffickingresourcecenter.org

Contact church office to end trafficking in the AV 661.947.3103

What is Trafficking?


"The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime


Human Trafficking = Modern Day Slavery


The U.S. State Department defines human trafficking as persons subject to (1) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such acts is under age 18 or (2) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Trafficking occurs for a number of purposes, including commercial sex (prostitution, stripping, pornography and live-sex shows) and labor exploitation (domestic servitude, sweatshop factories, or migrant agricultural work). Human trafficking is not the same as people smuggling. People smuggling means that someone is attempting, for a fee, to bring people illegally into another country. Although this is dangerous, it does not (necessarily) lead to slavery. Human trafficking always leads to conditions of slavery.


[1] In June 2009 Interpol rescued 54 children aged 11 to 16 working as slaves on cocoa and palm plantations in the Ivory Coast. 


[2] Through Oasis campaigns from Oasis and other NGOs, consumers have influenced corporations such as Hershey, Mars and Nestle to make commitments at least to work on providing chocolate that is guaranteed to be free of child and slave labor. We still have a long way to go, but progress is being made!


                                                                                                                                



Us State Department Figures

There are an estimated 27 million people in some form of modern slavery


Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year; around 80% are women and girls, and up to half are minors


An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the US from overseas and enslaved every year. This does not include the many children, women and men trafficked within the country such as the estimated 100,000 American children in prostitution. This does not include the many children, women and men of US nationality who are also trafficked within the country.


About the same number are murdered in the US every year; but the national success rate for solving murders is about 70% (11,000); in comparison, in 2006, only 111 were charged and only 98 were convicted, which is less than 1% of total trafficking cases in the US.


In Western Africa, one of the problems with trafficking centers around farming of cocoa beans used by Western companies to make chocolate. 43% of the chocolate consumed in the world is made from cocoa beans harvested in the Ivory Coast. There are an estimated 12,000 trafficked children working on farms in that country.


INTERNET SAFETY for Kids and Teens

Our children are our world's most valuable asset. The same advances in computer and telecommunication technology that allow them to reach out to new sources of knowledge and cultural experiences are also leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and harm by computer-sex offenders. Here are some great resources to help protect our children and teens. 


The FBI's Parent Guide to Internet Safety highlights safety strategies to keep children and youth safe with cyber-based media. Click Here for the FBI's Parent Guide to Internet Safety.


Are you familiar with these? 

YikYak, Google Hang Out, Kik Messenger, Tango, Facebook, WhatsApp, Camfrog, Online Gaming, Cyberbullying, Sextortion?


...Sometimes adults feel like they don't know quite as much as their children do about the Internet. NetSmartz411 is a parent's and guardian' online resource for answering questions you might have about Internet safety, computers and the Web. Click Here for NetSmartz411


The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website offers many resources for parents, kids, teens, and educators. Their NetSmart Kids Website has fun games, videos, comics and quizzes. Click here for the NetSmart Kids Website.


For further information, please contact your local FBI office or Click here for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

You can also call them at 1-800-843-5678.