Proceeds from the Resc\You shirt will go directly toward funding a scholarship fund for the children of sex workers.
“Trafficking is essentially modern day slavery, and currently there are 27 million people in slavery.”
“The average age of entry for prostitution for girls and boys ranges from 11-14″
“Within the first 48 hours of being on the street, 1 in 3 children are lured into prostitution”
The facts and statistics are endless. We have the choice to respond or grow numb to the figures.
The vision behind this effort began when five friends met while working with Faceless International in the slums of Kolkata, India. They initially traveled to become more aware of the underbelly of the human trafficking world, but never expected to be changed in such a radical way and feel the conviction to respond.
During this trip they were exposed to more than facts and saw the human side of sex trafficking. Rather than reading the statistics from the comfort of their homes, they personally engaged the mothers and children in bondage by the sex trade. They met children who had spent their entire lives in brothels and whose future of becoming a sex worker was all but decided for them. They met mothers who tried to give their children away with the hope that it would give their baby some kind of future.
It spurned a conviction that would simply not rest until action took place.
Recognizing that education has the ability to enable change, the goal is to provide people who are survivors of trafficking an education, so they can move forth into their own communities and change the world.
In addition to this, funding advanced education will enable the children an opportunity to get away from the environment of the brothel. We want these children to know that they are loved.
We are partnering with Resc\You & Faceless International with the hopes of giving these same children the opportunity to create, dream, and change the communities in which they live.
When you purchase this shirt, you are opening doors to conversation on trafficking. You are helping educate yourself and others through discussion. You are helping a child in the Red Light District of Kolkata, India to go to school.
Photography courtesy of J*Grace.
To read more about Resc\You please see the following blog entries:
“India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Internal forced labor may constitute India’s largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, embroidery factories, and brothel houses. Although no comprehensive study of forced and bonded labor has been carried out, some NGOs estimate this problem affects tens of millions of Indians. Those from India’s most disadvantaged social economic strata are particularly vulnerable to forced or bonded labor and sex trafficking. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Children are also subjected to forced labor as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agricultural workers.” – U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009
In December 08, a group of us met at the JFK Airport in New York, in transit to Hyderabad, India. There we spent time observing, loving, serving and learning about human trafficking, debt bondage and slavery in the majority of the Indian provinces. The term “out of sight out of mind” kept hitting me right in the middle of my forehead. “How could I have not known that TENS OF MILLIONS of Indian inhabitants are enslaved!” … the thoughts that each person I pass is a potential slave, a sex working, a life begging for the hope of freedom and a life worth living were the most frequent and the most echoed thoughts as we returned home.
But first … Her name was Axshmia, she was the youngest in her family, her mother and father had died, and she lived with her uncle in the Vishakhapatnam province. She was what the Hindu Caste System calls the Shudras or Untouchables. The Untouchables were literally social outcasts, to the point where after tea they were ordered to break the tea cup they drank from so no one else would drink from it. Axshmia, as we were visiting her village, was the “Belle of the Ball”. With a smile that would steal even the hardest heart and eyes that would make anyone gaze longer. Her family is of the poorest in Vishakhapatnam, her mother and father gone and her only guardian is an uncle who has his family to provide for as well as Axshmia.
With all of the variables … the probability of Axshmia being sold into forced labor and or sex trafficking is sky ward.
Resc/You exists because of Axshmia, and the innocent, beautiful and destitute children she stands for.
Resc/You has to happen to see change in not only the lives of the ones who are held in bondage, but also to see change in the hearts of the ones who bind.
-Kris Byerly
Please click here to find out more about the partnership between Resc/You and Spendyourself.
It’s been a great year for Spendyourself, and without all of you, this would still be nothing more than a dream.
As our way to give you all a big THANK YOU for all of your support over the last year, we’ve decided to give two people free shirts for a year!
What exactly does this mean? For each new shirt project we create over the next year, Spendyourself will be shipping you your very own shirt, and it’s all free.
In conjunction with the Resc/You project, we’ve come up with several different ways for you to enter the contest and raise awareness for human trafficking at the same time. Do as many of the following as you like and you’ll get an entry for each one!
The contest ends November 30th… so start spreading the word!
Ways to enter:
1 . Leave a comment on our blog on human trafficking (facts, useful links, etc.)
2. Retweet the following message: Win free clothes for a year! http://tiny.cc/d8m6V @spendyourself
3. Send us a picture of you wearing any Spendyourself shirt: jessica@spendyourself.net
4. Buy any Spendyourself shirt (counts as two entries)
5. Put a link to spendyourself.net on your blog and email us to let us know
6. Visit us at the GMHC, 11/12 – 11/14
7.Tell someone the story behind your Spendyourself shirt and email us
8. Make this your profile picture for a day or more, and post it on the Spendyourself Facebook page
9. Perform any random act of kindness, just let us know!
Questions? lee@spendyourself.net
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