Slavery's Gone Isn't It?

​

October 21st, 2016

​

Nicklaus Bartelli

​

               “There are 45 million slaves who don’t have Liam Neeson as their dad,” is one unique way Rapha House Director of Philanthropy David Conrad gave a statistic in his message to PSU students about the absence of effort taken to fight trafficking. The reference came after Conrad discussed how many individuals in the United States became aware of human trafficking with the movie “Taken,” which originally released in 2009.

​

               The International Justice Mission’s PSU chapter is hosting Justice Week, an initiative to raise awareness for their main cause, human trafficking. IJM brought Conrad from Joplin’s Rapha House to speak about the current issues revolving around child trafficking in the world. Rapha House is a global Christian organization set out to end cases of sexual child exploitation.

​

               “I really appreciate organizations like International Justice Missions because they really are unifying a lot of us by getting voices like Rapha House into their arena,” Conrad said.

​

               “I think it’s important to realize that human trafficking is a big issue in today’s world,” Kristen Simmons, a junior in social work and IJM vice president said. “With Rapha House being right in Joplin there are ways we can help fight it rather than just learning about it, we can actually go out and volunteer.”

​

               Conrad covered a full spectrum of issues with the students about all major types of human trafficking, which includes sex trafficking as well as labor and organ trafficking. 45.8 million people are entrapped in slavery around the world, a new number that is the highest it has ever been in the history of the globe.

​

               These numbers completely refute the idea that many people have ingrained in their minds. “Slavery’s gone, isn’t it? Right?” Conrad asked “No, it’s not,” he said, reminding students that humans are not all free and innocent. There are slaves that are real people and there are people who are making slaves and something can be done about it.

​

               “I think the biggest thing I learned was I didn’t realize how much trafficking was work-oriented, and how naïve in America we are to what’s going on,” said Evan Burke, a senior elementary education major who attended because he cares about human dignity for children.

​

               The growth of children online and their time spent in interaction on the web has made it easier for traffickers to develop relationships with kids.

​

               “Kids are now realizing they don’t have to meet people to be a friend with them,” Conrad said. “It is estimated there are 1 million predators online at any given time.”

​

               Popular social media sites for young children and early teens are often looked at as dangerous and avoided by parents and counselors, but one might not expect the app that is just a game on their child’s phone to be the stimulus for a relationship between them and a predator.

​

               “There was a huge bust in Louisiana of 37,000 pictures of naked kids, primarily 12 to 14-year-old boys, primarily gained through the app Clash of Clans,” Conrad said, a once big user of Clash of Clans himself. A large number of junior high aged students are downloading apps like “Kik” and “Line” to further communicate with people they meet on Clash of Clans.

​

               “Parents can easily be unaware of what their kids are doing, and it’s just baffling how truly easy it is, I think if I was a parent now learning these things some of it would catch me off guard, and it’s crazy how much trust the kids have,” Burke said.

​

               The rapidly growing and morphing human trafficking industry of sex, labor, and bodily organs is a 150-billion-dollar industry today.

​

               “I don’t think there’s a currency on the planet that can purchase anybody. We at Rapha House believe the blood of Christ is the only currency valuable enough to pay for anybody,” Conrad said.

​

               The International Justice Mission’s next fundraiser to help the goals of groups like these is a labor auction November 13th at 3 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church. A Rapha House film called Finding Home is available on Netflix that further explores the lives of children who have been changed by human trafficking.