When I gave birth to my daughter Margot, my life changed in many ways. My connection to another human being was like nothing I had experienced until that point. And my emotional connection to the world, and caring about the lives of other children, intensified. In realizing just how much another person could mean to me, and how much I prized my baby girl, I began to feel plagued by the misfortune of other parents. Particularly parents who have no choice but to witness the atrocities their children may face.
Imagine the 6 year old Cambodian little girl sold to and raped by American male tourists. Every week, hundreds of grown men. Imagine her life now - mentally ill and HIV positive.
Imagine a group of 10-14 year old girls in a hut in Thailand, lying on a mattress in the dark, and each time the door opens, they blink to find another man walking in to purchase one of them. They are thin, lifeless, hungry and abused.
And imagine the 12 year old girl in the US who is riding the bus and gets lured away, thrown into a house, gang raped, kept in a dog crate and forced to have sex with hundreds of men for money.
For some parents, they don't have to imagine it, it's very real.
It's horrible to think about it, but this is happening every day. Millions of girls and women are being "trafficked," sold, coerced to have sex, every single day everywhere in the world. Raped, tortured, brutalized, brainwashed, beaten, mutilated, discarded in the name of satisfying others.
Why? Because they're female. And in most cultures, particularly plagued with poverty, but even those that aren't, they just don't matter.
There are many dedicated to helping these victims. But it's not enough to eradicate the issue, nor are there enough resources to help those who are rescued.
Frighteningly, we live in a world where it is okay to regard women and girls as less than human. Where it is okay, and accepted, to regard women as sexual objects at the whim of male desire to the degree of torture and the loss of their lives.
Even if we can't fight this fight on the front lines, there are things we can do every day, both big and small.
We need to raise our children to respect both gender and all races.
We need to educate the men and boys around us that it is not okay to use, abuse or rape girls and women. We need to do our part to volunteer, donate and educate.
This blog is your access to understanding this horror.
Jaclyn and I will synthesize the information and provide easy ways for the busy everyperson to help make a difference.
Please read as often as you can and join our abolitionist movement.
Every single one of us can make a difference every day.
Let's do this for someone's daughter - who is somewhere in the world forced to live a life of torture.
Let's do this for all of the girls and women who lost their freedom and their basic right to a life.
Let's do it for someone's daughter.
And in turn, we'll help our own.
Marie Damato
human rights activist and abolitionist
