July 27 (Day 149) Love 146

Today's post is another one of those posts that are hard to wrap your head around.  I literally wanted to break down and sob after reading the stories.  I hope you will take a few minutes and read the post and watch the video.  Please spend some time on the website learning more about this organization.  The work they are doing is so important! Below is the description of how this cause was started and why it continues.  This was taken directly from their website because their words are so powerful... you will want to make a difference after reading their story. Our hope is that someday charities like this will no longer be needed, but as long as they are... we need to support them.   THANK YOU LOVE 146 !

OUR NAME IS HER STORY:

"The number pinned to her dress was 146..."


In 2002, the co-founders of Love 146 travelled to South East Asia on an exploratory trip to determine how they could serve in the fight against child sex trafficking. In one experience, a couple of our co-founders were taken undercover with investigators to a brothel, where they witnessed children being sold for sex. This was their experience:

This is the story that changed our lives.

"We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children...raped each night... seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us, with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl..."
"...All of these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting to break through the glass. To take her away from that place. To scoop up as many of them as I could into my arms. To take all of them away. I wanted to break through the glass to tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her…"



“Because we went in as part of an ongoing, undercover investigation on this particular brothel, we were unable to immediately respond. Evidence had to be collected in order to bring about a raid, and eventually justice on those running the brothel. It is an immensely difficult problem when an immediate response cannot address an emergency. Some time later, there was a raid on this brothel and children were rescued. But the girl who wore #146 was no longer there. We do not know what happened to her, but we will never forget her. She changed the course of all of our lives."  -Rob Morris, President and Co-founder


We have taken her number so that we remember why this all started. So that we must tell her story. It is a number that was pinned to one girl, but that represents the millions enslaved. We wear her number with honor, with sorrow, and with a growing hope. Her story can be a different one for so many more.
Love is in our name, because it is our motivating drive to end child sex slavery and exploitation. We believe love to be the foundation of real, sustainable change. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love." We hold that to be true. Love Protects. Love Defends. Love Restores. Love Empowers.

We are Love146.


Love146 Overview from LOVE146 on Vimeo.



Get Involved: 

Donate to LOVE 146.

Other ways to get involved with LOVE 146.





Source:  love146.org

April 16 (Day 47) Giving Children a Voice

Please take a few minutes to watch this video and educate yourself on child slavery and those who are fighting to bring it to an end.




It's hard to believe that there are children that go through life without a single tender touch. Or that cowhide whips are bought on street corners so that they can be used on children who don't complete the chores most adults don't want to shoulder. Yet this is the real life of a restavek child. And there are more than 300,000 of them living in Haiti today.

Restavek is a Creole term which literally means "stay with." An accurate term in that these children do stay with their hosts, working as domestic servants in exchange for a roof over their head, some leftover food and, supposedly, the ability to go to school. In practice, though, the restaveks are easy prey for exploitation. Many are beaten, sexually abused and frequently denied access to education, since many host families believe that schooling will only make them less obedient.

The Restavek Foundation exists to bring an end to child slavery in Haiti. We're here because we believe that a broken system can be fixed. We believe that education and love will replace the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that comes from ignorance. And we believe that if we give these children a voice, we can give them hope for a better future.
 
If you would like to help end child slavery in Haiti, please click here for opportunities to take action to help the Restavek Foundation.  There are opportunities to donate, volunteer and fundraise.  Check out their FaceBook page and become a fan.
 
Source: The Restavek Foundation