I am going to step out of my La La Land bubble for a minute, and write about something that is dead serious. It doesn't get any more serious than this. People might find this information distressing, but I think it is important that you read it.
My friend Claire is currently in India working for an organization that is working to put a stop to sex trafficking. She is currently working on a campaign that is aimed at criminalizing the demand side of the industry. Part of the campaign is to get a minimum of 10,000 signatures on an online petition.
They are not asking for money. All they are asking is that you sign this online petition and it only takes about 25 seconds, depending on how slowly you type. At the moment they are over halfway to their goal.
Claire and I went to the same primary school, but our friendship didn't kick of until grade 4 or so and from then we were inseparable. It was actually Claire's dad Barry, who first started calling me Mez. We were so close, and Claire's brother was even the very first boy I ever kissed.
Now imagine if Claire and I grew up in India. I don't think our childhood would have been quite the same at all.
I don't think I would have the memory of my first kiss being when I was 11 or whatever, under the flashing strobe lights at a Skateworld disco. Instead it would probably be a memory of having to have sex with about 10 males per day, against my will, from an age younger than 11.
Some information from Claire:
"Sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing organised crimes in the world.
In India alone 3 million women and girls are trapped in this illegal industry, 45% of those were children when first raped.
They are each forced on average to have sex with 10 men every night. That is 30 million rapes EVERY night in India alone.
The statistics can be depressing but there are organisations trying to improve this and there is something you can do!
Apne Aap Women Worldwide is a grassroots anti-trafficking NGO dedicated to eliminating sex slavery in India. We are implementing a new campaign this year called “Cool Men Don’t Buy Sex”.
The aim of this campaign is to instill awareness about the male demand of sex that is the basis of the sex industry and thereby the cause of trafficking.
The two main components of this campaign are raising awareness and changing legislation.
We are starting a petition to amend the anti-trafficking law ITPA (Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act) so that it penalizes clients, traffickers, and pimps and not the prostitutes and victims of trafficking.
Help us reach our goal of 10,000 signatures by signing the online petition at www.apneaap.org/cmdbs/sign-petition"
Last month this blog had over 120,000 hits.
Imagine if each person who visited took 20 seconds out of their busy day to sign this online petition.
Please do it. Most of my readers are women, and you were once this age.
This could have been you, but hopefully you were fortunate enough to not grow up like this.
Please, please, please sign this petition. I will owe you one.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar