Praying for Victims of Human Trafficking

There are 40 million slaves in the world today. How did we allow this to happen? Most of us probably assumed that this horrific crime against basic human dignity largely died out long ago. But human trafficking, including sex slavery and forced marriages, continues to be a worldwide problem that has a devastating impact on girls, women, their families, and their communities.

According to the International Labor Organization’s Global Estimates of Modern Slavery report:

• At any given time in 2016, an estimated 40.3 million people were living in modern slavery, including 24.9 million in forced labor and 15.4 million in forced marriage.
• Out of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labor, 16 million are exploited in the private sector in jobs such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million experience forced sexual exploitation; and 4 million face forced labor imposed by state authorities.
• Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labor, accounting for 99 percent of victims in the commercial sex industry and 58 percent in other sectors.

TWR Women of Hope is producing Hidden Treasures, an audio drama stored on handheld devices that are distributed by various organizations reaching out to sexually exploited women. Using the testimonies of women who formerly worked in prostitution, these audio dramas tackle sensitive social, physical, psychological, medical, and emotional issues in a nonthreatening yet professional manner from a Christian perspective. The Hidden Treasures audio program was designed with the ultimate intent of introducing Jesus as friend, Savior, and healer and of showing women their God-given intrinsic value and purpose.

I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. Isaiah 45:3