Hope City United

The Issue:

Currently, there are approximately 20.9 million people enslaved throughout the world. Innocent young children and teens are abducted and subjected to human and sexual trafficking, forever impacting the course of their lives. While reports of the international trafficking epidemic may seemingly make it easy to write these occurrences off as a distant tragedy, the truth is that these atrocities hare happening right in our backyards. Florida is in the top three states in the nation for sex trafficking; its tourist attractions act as a trafficker’s paradise. It’s no rare incidence; this $35 billion industry ranks just below drug trafficking.

Studies tell us that nearly half of these children are barely 16 years old; the average age of entry into sex trafficking is 12-14 years old. Every year, 300,000 American children are at-risk for sex trafficking – but children aren’t the only ones. Victims include people of all ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Vulnerable populations, such as runaways and homeless children, victims of sexual abuse and assault, domestic violence, discrimination, or war, are frequently the targets of traffickers. These people are taken to foreign places, exploited physically and emotionally, and subjected to horrific acts of violence and manipulation.

These horrors are taking place every single day. Every day, children are robbed of their safety, of their natural penchant for playing and laughing, of their right to live a happy life.