Poverty and Human Trafficking

Southeast Asia is a hub for human trafficking.  So often, young girls are lured by traffickers through promises of well paying jobs in the cities.  If you have read Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl Wudunn, you will already be aware of the horrors endured by women and girls caught in the web of modern day slavery, and if you don't know, read the book.  It's easy to read but hard to handle.

I write for a woman that runs a non-profit in Northeastern India.  The work I have done for her has changed me.  It's overwhelming to realize that such brutality and twisted sexuality exists in the world.  On the other hand, it is an impetus to keep working and making a difference in the world.  

Poverty is the primary factor in human trafficking.  Most girls are not outright kidnapped, at least not in the sense that they are taken from their homes in the dead of night.  They are often promised a  modeling job or simply selling vegetables to provide for their families, then locked up in a brothel until they die of AIDS.  

What if they had other job opportunities?  That's my motivation - to find artists (just for the sake of narrowing down our focus), employ them, and offer grants to other potential businessmen and women in their village.  

With a bridge out of poverty, the path to slavery is blocked.