Freedom Sunday: Stop human trafficking, wherever you are

Churches will be celebrating Freedom Sunday on Feb. 21 in Canada, Poland, Uganda, Pakistan, Denmark, India, Thailand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, the USA, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Jamaica, and underground in China and Vietnam. Praying for the enslaved.

There is a map to help you find a participating church in The Underground Church Network.

The project is sponsored by Not For Sale.

Read stories from North America.

Child trafficking suit filed against two Australian Catholic orders

Three Maltese citizens allege they were victims of a child trafficking scam by the Australia-based Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Order of the Sisters of Mercy.

The three have filed a federal class action suit in which they say, reports the Malta Independent, that "the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Order of the Sisters of Mercy took subsidies from the British, Australian and Maltese governments for the children’s upkeep and education, but kept the money for themselves and gave the children nothing save hardship and pain, forcing them to beg for scraps of food and root around in pig troughs for sustenance."

That nightmare is said to have emerged from a larger British migrant program which victimized perhaps 12,000 "child migrants" between 1947 and 1967l and whose origins date to "the early 17th century."

More than a quarter of a million youth at risk of commercial sex exploitation

Says the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. Hence the busts, focused on arresting traffickers and rescuing children.

Hookers 4 Jesus

We found Hookers For Jesus on twitter, not a street corner.

Annie Lobért's story is not for the faint of heart or easily-triggered.

Her ministry is not a street-corner operation, either. It is a well-promoted operation which apply some Las Vegas techniques to the Las Vegas task at hand. Like the popular Saving Sex City series featuring Lobert with JC's Girls founder Heather Veitch on YouTube.

Along with the outreach, they do a good job with the statistics of human trafficking and how it causes lasting psychiatric trauma in those who sell themselves.

The Hookers For Jesus site is well worth the time required to explore it. And well-supplemented with visits to other human-trafficking sites, like those reached via Foreign Policy Association's Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Links.