I am dedicating this week’s post to Jasmine and the women of Amirah- a non-profit organization located in the Boston area that provides a wide range of services for survivors of commercial exploitation* (amirahboston.org). Jasmine spoke at author Anne LaMott’s book event (Stitches) on Thursday, November 7th. Her story of degradation and triumph was moving and inspiring. Jasmine: You are Beautiful!
Live Long Enough and You Will Find
Beautiful Treasures on this Earth
People You Meet, Come to Know
Who Share Their Stories
Filled with Grief, Heartache,
Struggle and Strain
Addiction and Abuse
Sickness and Death
They’ve walked in Darkness
Alone, left out, Hanging by a thread
Made to feel Powerless and Worthless
An Object for others to use and throw away
Then one day they hear a Whisper
The sound of their Own Voice
They gather Strength and Taste their Freedom
They see their Worth and the Beauty Within
Their Voice becomes a Roar- a Cry for Others
As they walk the Path of Healing
To the Light of Wholeness and Joy
A fully realized Human
Touched by Grace
*The Stats on Human Trafficking Around the World:
20.9 million adults and children in forced labor
8.7 million number of these exploited by private agents for labor and commercial sex purposes
2.2 million forced to work by the State or rebel military groups
$32 billion total year profits, in U.S. dollars, generated by the human trafficking industry
$14.8 billion The 2012 Video Game Industry in the United States
98% percent of victims of sex trafficking are women and girls
Here in the U.S.:
100,00-300,000 number of prostituted children in the U.S.
98.8: Percent suspected or confirmed child victims of domestic sex trafficking taken in by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NMCE) nationwide from 2004-2010 who were classified as endangered runaways.
(Thank you to Amirah for providing these statistics through the International Labor Organization , the Polaris Project, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, U.S. Department of State(Trafficking in Persons Report) and http://vgsales.wiki.com/wiki/Video_game_industry)
Building A Life Of Hope 
Reblogged this on Traces of the Soul and commented:
Sad, beautifully written and hopefully creates an awareness.
I appreciate the reblog! The response from others has been huge! I, too, hope that it creates increased awareness.
That’s absolutely the most eloquent way I have heard that sentiment expressed, and it is so true, you cannot understand joy until you have experienced despair, among other emotions.
Wow! Thank you! The Free Write prompt from Kellie Elmore was beautifully timed for the emotion I was feeling from Thursday’s experience.
That’s really cool when things line up like that, especially with writing. I have tried using prompts, but they just do not seem to work for me. I basically have to write my entire headspace down, and then edit so it makes sense. It’s different, but it works.
That really was a beautiful piece of writing 🙂
A powerful poem that sheds light on the horrible abuse of women held captive by the human trafficking gangs. It’s so wonderful to read that some can regain their voice — ripped away from them by the sex trade, hard labor, and mistreatment. The more these beautiful women speak out, the more aware society will become of the American involvement. People think child prostitution is something that happens in places like Thailand, not on our own door step. Thank you for sharing this story.
You are welcome! In fact, the event took place in a nice small town near where I live and we were told that a trafficking ring was recently broken up just down the street.
That is very close to home! People just can’t imagine that kind of thing happening in their neighbourhood! A different way to look at NiMBy.
Amazing and worthy post! Thanks for sharing this with fwf!
Thanks Kellie! I hope that I have raised more awareness about this very serious problem.