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Chester County Press

Why talk about human trafficking on a 'joyous occasion'?

10/16/2013 05:03PM ● By Acl

Letter to the Editor:

I was enjoying the festivities of a First Friday event hosted by Oxford Mainstreet while I passed out invitations for residents to join ACE Anti-Human Trafficking Alliance for coffee and discussion on the first Saturday of each month at the Oxford Senior Center.

As I handed an invitation to one person, he asked, “Why are you handing these out at such a joyous occasion?”

I believe he asked a very valid question. Why, indeed? Why would people volunteer to sit at a table during the Senior Expo to talk about human trafficking? Why would people stand at the Apple Festival to educate the community about modern day slavery? Why, indeed, would one walk the streets and ask strangers to coffee?

Why? Because between 100,000 and 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk to being a part of the sex trafficking trade each year. Hundreds of thousands of teenage girls, and others as young as five may become victims to the sex trade.

A prostituted child is forced to serve between 100 and 1,500 clients per year.

That’s why.

One of these children could be your own or a child you love.

That’s why.

 

Peggy Ann Russell

ACE Anti-Human Trafficking Alliance of Oxford