Sex-trafficking and YOU.

Anne Jackson, a young woman I’ve mentioned many times before left for the little country of Moldova to learn more about the current situation of sex-trafficking.

That’s right, I said “current”.

As in, it happens every day, even in 2010.

Anne shared a ton of her thoughts — including dealing with her own issues of sexual abuse as a teen. I want to share with you some of the facts she shared about what she will be seeing and confronting.

When I’m in Moldova, we’re going to encounter some really difficult sights. Moldova itself is pretty heart-breaking.

• The average income in Moldova is around $100 annually.
• Moldova is the main source in Europe (60%) for women and girls trafficked in Western Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East. At least 20% of Moldovan females will be trafficked at some point in their lifetimes.

What happens here is so many girls live in impoverished rural villages. So, they go to the city looking for work, get lured out of the country at the promise of a job, have their identity and papers stripped from them, and are forced into prostitution – often having to “service” up to 40 men a day.

If they don’t (and sometimes if they do) they get beat, raped, and drugged.

If a girl happens to escape, when she returns home, she is typically banished from her family and is unable to marry. And it’s tragic that Moldova has the 18th highest suicide rate in the world.

However, while we’re there, we’ll also be visiting orphanages and transitional housing (or safe houses) so we can see the other side of this very dark world – the hope.

The prevention. The education. The recovery.

Later in the week, on Saturday (Friday night for most of you), we’ll head from Moldova to some areas around Moscow and see the cycle all over again.

It’s my plan to blog as much as possible during this trip (which ends on April 16), but like most of my trips, that all depends on internet accessibility. I’ll be twittering as well, when I can anyway. If you follow me there, you’ll be able to see snapshots of our trip as they happen.

Sex trafficking isn’t an issue that the world has decided to talk about very much, so any awareness we can give it will be incredible.

Because where there’s light, darkness can’t live.

As you go through your days between now and April 16th, think about these girls and young women and pray that as Anne and the people from Children’s Hope Chest meet them, these who have lived in this horrible darkness will see the light and recognize the hope and that rescue and true freedom will be found.

Please, don’t stop there. Learn more about this issue of sex trafficking. It’s not just in Russia, it’s happening in the United States, too. Not long ago, girls were rescued from forced prostitution in Nashville and Memphis! We must do all we can to carry the light and banish darkness.

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