100 Ways That You Can Fight Human Trafficking Right Now

1. It is easy to get confused by viral stories and Hollywood depictions of . Get informed and know your facts so you can better serve those most vulnerable. Read the book Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves by Kevin Bales to further your understanding of slavery.

2. Human trafficking, whether it is for sex, labor, or domestic servitude can be defined as the exploitation of vulnerability for commercial gain. Traffickers use force, fraud, and/or coercion to exploit their victims. Become aware and learn the warning signs and red flags of human trafficking and slavery. This way, when you see something, you can say something. To learn more, visit the .

3. Learn from the stories of others! Read the book A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner to further your understanding of slavery.

4. Save the National Human Trafficking Hotline number in your phone so you know how to report tips if you see slavery or trafficking occurring in real time: (888) 373-788

5. Get informed about survivor-led organizations like Gems! Watch the documentary film Very Young Girls to further your understanding of slavery. Also, visit the website of the organization featured in the film.

6. Know the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTip Line so you know how to report tips if you see children in need: (800) 843-5678 or

7. International Justice Mission is working to protect the poorest among us from violence. Read the book Terrify No More: Young Girls Held Captive and the Daring Undercover Operation to Win Their Freedom by Gary Haugen to further your understanding of global slavery.

8. Volunteer to post the Human Trafficking Hotline or the CyberTip Line number in your workplace, school, or house of worship.

9. Have a conversation with someone who’s life experience has been different from yours. Listen to their story.

10. Experience what it feels like for someone who is being manipulated by someone with more power. Ask permission to accomplish any task where someone else is present. If entering a building, ask someone near if you can enter. If in a coffee shop ask permission to order. If at work ask permission to be seated. Share your experience with others. 11. If you are caring for people because you think god will love you more, then you are sadly mistaken. You are loved. Reflect on the Good news of Christ and allow that to motivate you to love others.

12. Talk about slavery and inform those around you. You would be surprised how many people do not know that modern day slavery exists here and now.

13. Address demand by going to and learn how supply chains are impacted by modern day slavery.

14. Join the Nexus HTMS anti-slavery selfie campaign to help raise awareness about slavery by tweeting a picture of yourself, your friends, co-workers or family members holding a sign that says #EndSlaveryNow #WeAreNexus to @NexusHTMS.

15. Learn how your church can fight human trafficking. Go to lmpgnetwork.org.

16. Address demand by downloading Covenant Eyes online accountability software to your computer, phone and tablet. Though this is a small step, this can be a tool that will allow you to have honest conversations with trusted friends.

17. Trauma places a significant role in human trafficking. Read Diane Langberg’s books on Trauma, start with Suffering and the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores.

18. Help create jobs for survivors and women at risk of human trafficking. Visit this website and purchase your handmade, slave-free bag to help spread the message.

19. Buy a scarf or accessory from Rethreaded, a company that aims to renew hope, reignite dreams and release potential for survivors of human trafficking locally and globally through business.

20. Most products we wear, eat, use, or buy have slavery embedded in their supply chain. Find out how much you contribute to global slavery by visiting Slavery Footprint.

21. Read the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report to further your understanding of slavery on a global scale. Read the report here.

22. Sign up for Google Alerts on “human trafficking” or “slavery” to educate yourself. Also, set “google alerts” for the vulnerabilities in your community. If you do not know what a google alert is, google it.

23. Don’t let the enormity of the problem overwhelm you. Start with caring for the one person in front of you.

24. Learn what laws exist at the state and county level and where the deficiencies are. To learn how your state needs help, visit this website. 25. Be informed about Trauma. Read Chris Lim’s book, The Heart of a Healer Trauma Informed Biblical Counseling.

26. Call your Congressman or Senator’s office and ask them what they are doing to end slavery in your state and support those representatives that are strengthening anti-human trafficking laws. Start here.

27. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Read the book Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone to further your understanding of slavery.

28. Make your voice known to the lawmakers by voting for candidates that are tough on traffickers. You are also able to have your voice be heard as you sign petitions for legislation. Go here for more information.

29. Learn the art of empowerment, read When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the poor and yourself.

30. Support initiatives to change local, state and federal law so that underage girls in prostitution, slavery, or who are victims of trafficking are treated as victims and not criminals. They need rescuing, rehabilitation and vocational training, not jail time.

31. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Read the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof to further your understanding of slavery.

32. Find anti-trafficking organizations anywhere in the world using the Global Modern Slavery Directory.

33. Google articles about the myths of human trafficking. What surprised you?

34. Seek out and “like” or follow anti-trafficking/anti-slavery organizations on Facebook and Twitter - not only will you be showing your support for abolition, but you will learn more about slavery and trafficking from their updates as they appear in your social media feeds.

35. How many people are trafficked around the world? Check out the Walk Free Foundation’s annual Global Slavery. Visit their website here.

36. Take up trafficking as a topic for academic study. There is still much work to be done and we need your intellectual capital on this problem.

37. Learn more of what the Bible says about Justice, read Justice Awakening, by Eddie Byun 38. Seek out internships and volunteer opportunities with anti-trafficking/anti-slavery organizations.

39. For a look at Christian social action, read Mae Elise Cannon’s Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a better world.

40. Learn about the vulnerable populations in your community with the Distressed Communities Index.

41. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Watch the movie SOLD or read the book of the same title by Patricia McCormick to further your understanding of slavery. Then text SOLD to 51555 to join the SOLD campaign and stay informed about local screenings and events.

42. Do not support the commercial in the television you watch, the magazines you buy, the places you visit. If it offends you, put it down, turn it off, walk away (then write a letter of complaint).

43. Learn about inequality and privilege in Ken Wytsma’s Book, The Myth of Equality.

46. Listen to survivors and support survivor led empowerment organizations, like Mentari USA.

49. Be a conscientious consumer and switch to Fair Trade products in order to increase the demand for slave free labor.

44. Volunteer in a prison system or spend time working in an aftercare facility.

45. Demand the President stand by the 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act by instituting sanctions against, or pulling support, from those states and sub-state groups that continue to recruit, train and use individuals under 18 years old in any military capacity.

47. Promote a chocolate-free Valentine's Day or Easter and spare the West African children who are enslaved to make over 90 percent of the chocolate sold in America or buy fair trade chocolate, like Alter-eco.

48. Watch the documentary film The Dark Side of Chocolate to further your understanding of slavery.

50. Investigate the products you buy to ensure that they are free of slave labor and fairly traded. Download fair trade apps on your Smartphone and become aware of what you buy. 51. Ask your retailers if they know where their products come from and if they support slave-free supply chains. Then find out what they are doing about it or call on them to make changes in how their products are made.

52. Read the book : Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara to further your understanding of slavery.

53. Buy socially minded products and gifts that support the abolition movement or provide relief to victims or potential victims.

54. Read real life stories of those who have committed to the mission of vulnerability. Start with Let Justice Roll Down, by John Perkins.

55. Bring a group from your church or your university to NYC and learn how you can fight human trafficking in real time with Let My People Go. Visit the Let My People Go Network for more details.

56. Support survivors of human trafficking by buying products that are survivor-made. Visit this resource for more.

57. Read the book In Pursuit of Love: One Woman’s Journey from Trafficked to Triumphant by Rebecca Bender.

58. Invest in the lives of children, particularly those in poverty and at-risk. Take the Human Trafficking 101 Awareness Training.

59. Where does your food come from? Watch the documentary film Food Chains to further your understanding of slavery.

60. Talk to bus drivers, cab drivers, pizza delivery, cable installers, etc. about human trafficking and slavery. These workers have a vantage point that few have and may be able to identify potential victims.

61. Ask the managers and staff at hotels you stay in to take steps to care for those most vulnerable in their hotels. For more information, click here.

62. Ask a store associate if they carry fair or direct trade products.

63. Buy produce from distributors or dine at restaurants that have signed on to the Fair Food Program. Encourage those that have not to do so. Learn more here.

64. Watch the feature film The Whistleblower to see a Hollywood depiction based on a true story of human trafficking.

65. Buy or consume products that are Fair Trade. Encourage your favorite products to sign on if they have not already. Learn more at their website. 66. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Watch the documentary film Not My Life to further your understanding of slavery.

67. Speak out! Write about this issue and how it is affecting your community in your local newspaper or news blog. The power of a pen has never been more true.

68. Think trafficking doesn’t happen in your community? Think again. Read the book Not in My Town: Exposing and Ending Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery by Dillon Burroughs and Charles Powell to further your understanding of slavery.

69. Host a fundraiser for a local anti-trafficking organization.

70. Donate to organizations that that are addressing the vulnerability that traffickers are likely to target. For example, those working with the homeless and immigrant communities.

71. Get a small taste of not being heard. On a given day only speak if you are asked a direct question. The following day, share your experience with friends and co-workers. Then get them involved in encouraging those around you to speak up and listen well.

72. Watch I am Jane Doe on Netflix to learn more about how people are trafficked online on websites like Backpage.com.

73. Raise awareness by celebrating the United Nation’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30.

74. You can’t walk with vulnerable people without having others walk with you in your vulnerabilities. Look into the Rest Initiative. Go to their website by clicking here.

75. Raise awareness by celebrating the United States’ National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in January.

76. Watch the feature film Twelve Years A Slave to further your understanding of slavery.

77. Change the conversation about buying sex - pimping is not to be admired; the person is not a prostitute, this word conveys identity, rather they are prostituted.

78. Pray for all those involved in human trafficking, pray for those who are at risk of trafficking. Pray for the traffickers. Pray for the buyers. Pray that ordinary people, like you and I, would stand up and say, “Enough!”

79. Diamonds are a source of funding for authoritarian regimes and violent sub-state groups all across Africa who frequently use slave labor (both children and adults) to mine them. Make sure when buying precious gems that they are guaranteed conflict free. 80. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Watch the documentary film Blood Diamonds or the feature film Blood Diamond to further your understanding of slavery.

81. Host an information session at home, school, your house of worship or your workplace and invite a local anti-trafficking organization to come speak to you and your friends about what they do and how you can help.

82. Learn about those who are most often targeted by traffickers.

85. Pray for an end to modern slavery in all of it forms.

83. Write an old fashioned letter of encouragement once a day for a month and send them to 30 different organizations combating human trafficking to encourage the leadership.

84. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Watch the documentary film Born Into Brothels to further your understanding of slavery.

86. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Read the book The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence by Gary Haugen to further your understanding of slavery.

87. Ask local businesses if they have vocational programs for survivors. If they do not, encourage them to learn more about how they can help survivors get back on their feet and help them return to a more normal life by training and hiring them as part of the staff.

88. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Watch the documentary film Amazing Grace to further your understanding of slavery.

89. Find a project that inspires you to help. Visit Freedom United and learn more about or support projects that need your assistance immediately and raise money and awareness with their peer-to-peer platform.

90. Mentor someone. Friendship and care are an integral part of everyone’s process.

91. Talk to those who see those most vulnerable on a daily basis in your community. Talk to Social services, Non-profits and law enforcement.

92. Learn about child and forced labor. Click here.

93. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Watch the documentary film by Justin Dillon CALL + RESPONSE to further your understanding of slavery. 94. Be a digital defender! Apply for a fellowship at the Thorn Innovation Lab and help put a stop to online trafficking and sex slavery. For more information, click here.

95. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Subscribe to the journal of Trafficking: A Powerful New Journal Addressing A Global Human Rights Crisis

96. Find opportunities for survivors to tell their stories. Host a survivor at your school, workplace, or house of worship.

97. Learn about the leadership in this fight. Visit End Slavery Now, and look under the ‘Connect’ tab to read about a new organization each day for a month.

98. Get informed and know your facts so you can be a better abolitionist! Read the book The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter to further your understanding of slavery.

99. Slavery touches every corner of the earth - no man, woman or child, no state, city or town is immune from this societal plague. Take the time to visit with victim centers, anti- trafficking non-profits and NGOs, or law enforcement wherever you travel and learn about how different communities around the world struggle with and combat slavery.

100. Remember that as you love those most vulnerable, you are investing in the world in which you want to live.

*Adapted from Vulnerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking by Raleigh Sadler and Nexus HTMS.