Haiti and Human Trafficking

Caleb Gerdes

Creative Writing/Psychology

 


Justice. We have all an innate desire for Justice.  So when I ask you if you know about the magnitude of modern day slavery and if you were to respond with the ‘not really sure how big it is, but it’s big.’  The lack of knowledge of the size and scope of modern day slavery leads me to believe that it is not that you do not care about bringing justice to those who have none, it is more about education.  I feel that when a person has a good understanding of how immediate this problem is, he or she could work faster and more intimately in finding a solution to this problem. 

Human Trafficking or Modern Day Slavery, affects upwards of 27 million people around the globe.  To put this in perspective, that means that the population of Eau Claire is only .002%, which means it would take 413 Eau Claires to match that number.  Everyone you have ever known and will ever meet would be a slave if you were even capable of meeting 27 million people in your lifetime. 27 million is a huge number, an easy number to get lost with, it is hard to try and build justice around such a number.  So let’s look smaller.  A lot smaller.

In Haiti on January 12, a 7.0 Mw earthquake hit.  The estimates are that 3 million people have been affected, the Haitian government estimates that the causalities are upwards of 170,000.  This is a disaster that equals the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004.  The January 12th earthquake is a natural disaster that has created a depth of need that will take a lot time and effort to fill. 

While the world rallies and tries to move to the support of Haiti by bringing in food, doctors, and clean water, there are those who have seen this as an opportunity to exploit those who have been displaced.  The Haitian border is more lax than ever; the government is trying to make it easy for the transportation of help.  This has made it very easy for a trafficker to move a child out of the country and sell the child into forced labor and sex trafficking.  Before the earthquake there was an estimated 300,000 children already in forced labor in Haiti, now it is getting worse.  This issue is being addressed by the Joint Counsel of International Child Services which has been deployed in order to begin to sort out the mass amount of confusion. 

The injustice that these children face is staggering.  Many have been made homeless due to the earthquake and are looking for a way to survive in a world that has been literally shaken apart.  The chaos created by the earthquake makes them more vulnerable than ever.  The issues that we face are huge, yet there is something amazing in the fact that there are more people with potential to fight against slavery than there are slaves.  This is a beautiful possibility.

There is one group in particular, One Day’s Wages, that has done a lot with fighting poverty; poverty is the greatest push factor for slavery.  This organization is focused on the fact that we can give a single day of our year and truly make a difference for an entire year for those in need.  They push the idea that we can help with what we have, we do not need to be wealthy in American terms to help.  Work one day for the children of Haiti. Check them out: www.onedayswages.org. 



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