Friday, November 16, 2012

Visible Love through Shopping: Part 6

Sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. With over two million women and children sold into sexual slavery each year, it is a global crisis that must be stopped.
http://empowermentstore.org  is a company that sells products that supports survivors of modern day slavery. It is a part of the Somaly Mam foundation which is a nonprofit charity committed to ending modern day slavery in North America and around the world. The Foundation goal is to eradicate human trafficking, liberate its victims, and empower survivors so they can create and sustain lives of dignity. Somaly Mam supports survivor rescue, shelter, recovery, and empowerment programs globally, with a special focus on Southeast Asia, where the sex trafficking of women and children is a widespread practice.
Even though the company sells Jewelry, clothing and accessories; the focus of this post will be the three  books available in the website. If you are already looking to buy some books for the holidays, by shopping from this website you will be able to do two things at once. You can educate others or yourself about sexual slavery, while helping fund that allow somaly Mam foundation to support a great cause.

Half the Sky: Written by Pulitzer prize winner Nicholas D. Kisristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book takes you through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. It shows that how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. Through these stories, the authors help us see that, the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women’s potential. They make it clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty.

The Road Of Lost Innocence: Written by Somaly Mam. A fascinating and beautiful memoir of tragedy and hope–by a woman named Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.  The book takes you through a true story of a Cambodian women Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. She suffered unspeakable acts of brutality and witnessed horrors that would haunt her for the rest of her life–until, in her early twenties, she managed to escape. Unable to forget the girls she left behind, Mam became a tenacious and brave leader in the fight against human trafficking, rescuing sex workers–some as young as five and six–offering them Shelter, rehabilitation, healing, and love and leading them In to  new life. The Road of Lost Innocence is a memoir that will leave you awestruck by the courage and strength of this extraordinary woman and will renew your faith in the power of an individual to bring about change.



Traffik: By a renowned photographer Jean Roy. If you would  like to help stop human beings from being bought and sold,  this book will give you all the  pictures  you'll need to get motivated:  its one thing to read about this stuff, but another to have that connection to the human face. Photographer Norman Jean Roy put his creative talents to good use in Cambodia in 2008, where he caught on camera the plight of exploited women and girls.   All the photos (like this girl who is on the book’s cover) are of real people; real victims with heart-wrenching stories.  So we can all Look into their eyes and remember their faces.

 
It may be hard for some of us to face this stories and to look at this pictures. It may even  be one of those things we would rather not think about, or pretend as if it doesn't exist,  but we have to remember the only way to advocate is to educate. Compare to the pain this people go through in real life, shading a few tears by living their stories through a book is the least we can do.  Any benefit?  Yes.  awarness plus  motivation  to become a better person and live an action field life.

"Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else." Galatians 6:4

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