Isn’t it FREEZING!?

 

Are you going to be in central London on Sunday 16 November?

Join hundreds of Londoners in THE FREEZE PROJECT! This is a fun, non-intrusive way for you as a member of the public to draw attention to the really important issues of human trafficking and slavery, and help people get informed by handing out flyers afterwards.

So how can you participate?

• Show up at the right place at the right time
• You will be directed to the ‘Freeze Space’ and blend into the crowdAt the cue, stop what you’re doing and stay frozen for the next 5 minutes until the next cue tells you the freeze is over
• Afterwards, hand out some print material to those nearby or who were watching you

Where will this FREEZE PROJECT happen?

Location: London Eye (corner of Jubilee Garden on the side of Belevedere St. There will be FREEZE PROJECT signs)

Time: 2pm for a 2.30pm freeze

Contact: duggyhj@gmail.com (Stephen – Co-ordinator)

See you there!

Freedom In a Bag

Each one tells a story of one woman’s journey to freedom.

She used to stand with 6,000 other people exploited through prostitution, many trafficked to a small but well known area of North Calcutta. She didn’t choose her profession; it chose her. Poverty does that. It robs people of their dignity and children of their innocence.

She still lives in the same area, but instead of selling her body she makes Freeset Bags. Now she has choices, the choice to work decent hours for decent pay, to re-establish her dignity in her community and to learn to read and write. Now her daughter won’t have to stand in the street selling her body like her mother used to.

Freedom has been passed on to the next generation.

Buy your STOP THE TRAFFIK bag at Freeset

 

Technorati Tags: people trafficking,human trafficking,freeset bags,india,calcutta,prostituion,sexual exploitation,freedom

Buy a cow & STOP THE TRAFFIK

Oasis Belgium met with STOP THE TRAFFIK partners in India who rescue & return trafficked children to their families.  Often these children come from very poor farming communities in India.  When the children were asked what would make a difference for their families and stop them taking up the offers of traffickers, they replied “the gift of a cow”.  A cow would bring in enough money for the family to have enough to live on.

Initially Oasis Belgium wants to buy 4 cows & give them to 4 families in India. 1 cow gives a family milk and a means to make butter, fuel and manure to cultivate the land. 

1 cow gives them hope & keeps children from being sold into the sex industry.

The money raised will also fund a social worker - not to visit the cow, but to support the family!

Any money raised over and above buying 4 cows will be used for research on human trafficking.

If you want to buy a cow check out http://www.oasisbe.org/EN/index.htm

 

Technorati Tags: Oasis Belgium,cow,india,child trafficking

The Hull Freedom Trail

 

Developed specifically to help victims of modern day slavery, The Hull Freedom Trail was an adventure for all concerned. Sierra Leone was just one country that has been affected by children being abducted during the civil war. Girls were forced into being sex slaves and boys were forced into being child soldiers and performed all manner of unspeakable acts.

The Hull Freedom Trail wanted to provide practical help in the form of rugged vehicles for the aid agencies in Sierra Leone, as well as learn about modern forms of slavery during our journey. Each vehicle displayed the STOP THE TRAFFIK logo. They visited dedicated people in Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal who battle tirelessly to release victims of trafficking, campaign for legislative change and educate young people to reduce their vulnerability to being trafficked.

During the civil war in Sierra Leone over 10,000 children were abducted by the rebels. One of the victims raped by the rebels is 18 year old Aminata whose daughter is 6. The rebels stormed into her house and wanted to kidnap all of her family but she offered herself as a sacrifice to save her family. Begging them to take just her and not the others. The Hull Freedom Trail donated vehicles to HANCI (Help A Needy Child International) who look after them both.

This film is a chronicle of their journey as well as an insight into how slavery is more complex and deep rooted than they first thought. 

http://hullfreedomtrail.com/blog/

20% increase in fair-trade chocolate worldwide

STOP PRESS …. CHOCOLATE CAMPAIGN SUCCESS

This month, one member of the Chocolate Industry took a landmark decision that will result in a 20% increase in fair-trade – Traffik Free – chocolate worldwide.

Royal Verkade, a Dutch household name and subsidiary of United Biscuits, announced that they will be using 100% Fair Trade cocoa and sugar in their products from the autumn onwards. This is the first A-list chocolate producer worldwide to make the transition to Fair Trade production on a large scale and STOP THE TRAFFIK congratulates Royal Verkade for taking this decision.

Though many players were involved, a major turning point occurred during STOP THE TRAFFIK Netherlands and local NGO Fairfood’s ‘naming and shaming’ campaign, linking Verkade with the worst forms of child labour in Ivory Coast. “Within a day we had a phone call from Fair Trade”, states Antonie Fountain of STOP THE TRAFFIK Holland, “saying that Verkade had just called them to talk about the possibility of Fair Trade sourcing for their cocoa”.

THIS IS BIG NEWS but It is critical we keep pressure up on this issue.  We are making a difference.  We will not stop until the trafficking has been STOPPED.

www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign

Bitter sweet news

 

STOP THE TRAFFIK Netherlands & Fairfood held a demonstration against the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa-industry outside the Dutch parliament. Two parliamentarians joined the demonstration, which marked the end of a competition inviting major producers of chocolate to commit to significant improvement. None of the companies approached were willing to make significant changes and therefore there was no winner to the competition.

Many people in your local community still don’t know that children are trafficked to work on cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast where nearly half the worlds chocolate is produced.

Even more people don’t know that the chocolate industry promised in 2001 to end the trafficking of children onto cocoa farms by July 1^st 2008.  Next week this deadline passes, yet still children are trafficked to work on these farms.

We can use our local papers, radio, community newsletters, our blogs to let people know the shocking reality behind the chocolate we eat.

For the local press and media to listen we need to do something that draws attention to the story.

Click here and find out how

Act together for those who can’t

Technorati Tags: chocolate,child trafficking,ivory coast,stop the traffik netherlands,campaign,1st July

Slavery takes many forms and runs deep

Interesting YouTube clip– a russian man claims he was kept in slave labor for 4 years in Georgia.

Stop the Traffik tries to stop the best job opportunities.

Check out this very cool video off of youtube. “To raise awareness about the traffiking of women into sex slavery, Stop the Traffik set up a stand at a prominent careers fair for ‘Top Jobs Abroad’ a fictional recruitment company offering “the very best opportunities”.  After being greeted by a friendly representative, visitors were ushered through a door at the stand and straight into a specially designed Red Light District window– in full view of passers by.”