NOT FOR SALE: A cause for freedom in Romania

Guest post: Allison Trowbridge is Not For Sale’s Communications Director. Allison manages the global brand of Not For Sale and oversees all things media, messaging, marketing, PR and design.

There are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in human history. Men, women, girls and boys sold across borders for forced labor, domestic servitude, and the illicit sex trade. From America to Amsterdam, Uganda to Thailand, human trafficking generates an estimated $32 billion a year — making it the fastest growing criminal industry on the globe.

How do you make an impact against the greatest human rights abuse in our world?

Not For Sale, an international organization to end slavery, believes the work begins with people. It begins with the victims and the most vulnerable, and it continues with the people willing to take action for justice on their behalf.

Not For Sale creates new futures for survivors of modern-day slavery, while equipping and mobilizing a global movement of individuals committed to the cause of abolition.

This week, Causes is launching a new model of partnership with the Not For Sale team towards this end. We looked at the global issue of human trafficking, and then pinpointed a specific area of great and tangible need: Romania.

In Romania, young men, women and children are taken from impoverished villages and sold for sex and forced labor across the entirety of Europe. Girls like Tatiana, who came to our project after being sold into Europe’s illicit sex trade at 12-years old.

Every week, we receive new survivors of human trafficking who have been intercepted at borders and rescued in undercover operations. They need food, shelter, counseling, legal services, education and vocational training.

Here is where the Causes community comes in.

This week, we are reaching out inside the Causes network — to those who care most about ending the global slave trade — and asking individuals to take a step of action. The average cost for us to care for a survivor of human trafficking in Romania is only $1000 per year. That’s just $83 per month for freedom.

Give money. Give a minute. Share the project with friends. The action steps are simple, but for a survivor of human trafficking, these action steps will change the course of their life.

Not For Sale’s goal of $50,000 will mean freedom for 50 survivors of modern-day slavery in Romania. The financial goal of this campaign will be life-changing… while its global effect will be world-changing.

Causes has given Not For Sale the opportunity to engage a global community around this work. Every person that contributes will — over the course of the coming year — be able to share in the triumphs of our project once the financial goal is met. They will experience the joys and wins we feel each day at the Not For Sale headquarters when we see the impact of our efforts on the front lines.

This work is truly a movement… and Romania is just the beginning. As more people join the Cause, more people will take notice of this issue. And subsequently, more people will take the next step of action into deeper engagement against slavery.

The global movement is gaining momentum. At Not For Sale, we’re seeing companies address forced labor when consumers check supply chain ratings at Free2Work.org. We’re seeing law enforcement mount investigations when graduates of the Not For Sale Academy (www.nfsacademy.org) generate leads and document cases on SlaveryMap.org. And we’re seeing international media focus its attention on modern-day slavery when survivors are cared for in Eastern Europe.

Not For Sale is thrilled to partner with Causes in the global effort to re-Abolish slavery. Together, we’re creating real world change for real people on the front lines, and we invite you join with us as we endeavor towards this end.

Thank you for spreading the word, and thank you for giving your support.

Welcome to the movement to re-Abolish slavery.