Reasons

There are numerous reasons why I chose to start this blog, but they all center around a common theme: human trafficking, the modern-day slave trade.

Many people are surprised to learn that an estimated 27 million people are currently enslaved. That means there are more slaves today than there were during all 400 years of the African slave trade.

This reality can be especially hard for people in America to swallow. We point to the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, and other such things and say "But look, slavery has been outlawed for over 100 years."

Outlawed - yes.
Ended - no.

The modern-day slave trade is now called "human trafficking" and there are laws against it in almost every country on earth. Despite the ink & paper laws, human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar-a-year business. Yes - multi-BILLION. In 2003, the U.S. State Department estimated that revenue and earnings from human trafficking exceeded $25 billion. Estimates today, in 2009, put that amount over $50 billion. Monies made by the modern-day slave trade are exceeded only by those made through drug- and weapons-trafficking.

My goal with this blog is to raise awareness, and move people to act. I chose the tile "Nowhere to Hide" because that is my dream and my vision for human traffickers; that people the world over would be so aware of and involved in the fight against modern slavery that those who practice these atrocities would have nowhere left to turn. Like cockroaches, they hide in dark places. They hide in places where the weak and the poor have no voice, no advocate; places where poverty makes people desperate and legal infrastructures are inadequate or uninformed. Every neighborhood, city and country into which the light of truth shines is one less neighborhood, city or country where these people can carry out their deceptions and abuses.

This blog will not only include steps anyone can take to get involved in the fight, it will include information about countries where human trafficking is especially rampant. It will include stories of those who have been rescued, and stories of their rescuers. It will include information on legislation pending, passed and enacted that aids the fight against human trafficking.

I hope that many of you will choose to take this journey with me. It won't be an easy one. It will be heart-breaking and overwhelming; but every victory will be sweet. And there WILL be victories. There will be battles won, victims rescued, criminals prosecuted, and hope and dignity restored to those who thought they'd been forgotten.