END MODERN SLAVERY INITIATIVES
› To help eliminate slavery and human trafficking around the globe.› To raise $1.5 billion, more than 80 percent of which will come through matching funds from the private sector and foreign governments.› Set clear, defined goals and outcomes that can be empirically measured.› Achieve a measurable 50 percent reduction of modern slavery in targeted populations.› Create The End Modern Slavery Foundation to issue grants to anti-slavery programs outside the U.S. The foundation has three goals: Contribute to the freeing and sustainable recovery of victims of modern slavery, prevent individuals from being enslaved and enforce laws to punish individual and corporate perpetrators of modern slavery.
According to www.ithastostop.com, the sex trafficking outreach campaign of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation:
› 1 in 4 children who run away will be propositioned by a sex trafficker within 48 hours of leaving home.› Every year 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked for sex.› Human trafficking is the second fastest-growing criminal industry behind drug trafficking.› Every 2 minutes in the United States, a child is sold for sex.› The average age of a child sold for sex is 13 years old.
This is part one of a two-part series focusing on an effort to end sex trafficking.
“Let me breathe for a second,” Shandra Womoruntu said. “I didn’t take my medication yet today and this is stirring up trauma for me.”
Womoruntu gulped a shaky breath and then told the story of the day her hands and feet were held down, her body trapped on a bed, men watching and cheering for Womoruntu’s “client” while shouting instructions to the man. At the crowd’s direction, the man used a hunting knife and other props to assault Womoruntu for 45 minutes – the amount of time he had purchased with Womoruntu, the amount of time he thought he owned her body.