Why Did We Create Free to Shop?

Funding. This one word totally sums up the need. Abolitionist groups like Not for Sale, Free the Slaves, International Justice Mission and restoration organizations like Love 146 and Transitions Global, are constantly in need of funding to bring an end to human trafficking and modern day slavery.

Human trafficking is the transportation, harboring, selling or employment of a person through the means of force, fraud or coercion for the purposes of forced servitude. And right now, modern day slavery is not only alive and well, but also growing at a fast pace.

Children are often the victims and are found from war-torn Uganda where kids are kidnapped and forced to be in the military carrying semi-automatic weapons nearly as big as their young bodies to young girls in Thailand sold into brothels by parents so they are able to feed their other children. Small child slaves in India making rugs, searching for rocks with mica, or making bricks in kiln along side family members who are sentenced to generational debt bondage are also enslaved. And it happens in the United States like Chicago, New York, Portland, and Houston mainly in forced prostitution and domestic servitude.

According to Kevin Bales, with Free the Slaves, the amount of funding allocated to ending human trafficking in the United States is miniscule in comparison to funding allocated to other crimes like the war on drugs. Changemakers www.change.org, reports that the budget of the U.S. to fight human trafficking is about 0.1% of its budget to fight trafficking of drugs.

The funds allocated in the federal budget to fight human trafficking do not provide enough funding to deal with the 14,000 to 17,000 new trafficking victims being brought into the United States each year, let alone those hidden victims that are already here. In truth, we have no real numbers of people held in US captivity nor the amount of funding needed to free them.

The worst part is that the United States trafficking problem is a tiny fraction of the 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked internationally each year. While there are few actual numbers due to the surreptitious of the crime, it is estimated by the Department of State that human trafficking has an annual profit margin of $32 billion each year.

Now, can you see why the abolitionist organizations need financial help to bring an end to modern day slavery?

So the next question is “How can more funding be available to end this injustice?” One answer to the problem is buying social conscience gifts, made without slave labor, from sites like Free to Shop. By shopping at Free to Shop, your money goes to help end modern day slavery. Up to 50% of profits are donated to organizations mention above. Gifts you purchase for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, weddings and graduations can have added value and also change the lives of those enslaved. Each small step is a step towards freedom. And everyone should be free to shop!

< Prev		Next >