1. I have a dream. (Maybe you’ve heard
this line before?) It’s a really big dream.
2. I want to see all of the slaves in
the world set free. You may have thought that slavery no longer exists. Or
maybe you haven’t thought about slavery much at all.
3. Slavery is real. It is estimated that
there are 27 million slaves around the world, including in the United States.
4. I grew up in a world with a lot of
choices. If you are reading this, you probably did too.
5. As a baby, my mom could choose
whether to feed me carrots or spinach. When I was a baby, I’m sure I spit them out,
but now I love them both (not the baby food kind though).
6. As a child, I could choose whether I
wanted to eat a chocolate chip cookie or an oatmeal raisin cookie (At the time,
I thought it was crazy to choose anything other than chocolate chip). I could
choose whether I wanted to wear a hot pink skirt or purple leggings. (Yes, this
is what we wore in the early 1990s.)
7. I could choose whether I wanted to
play four-square or hang on the monkey bars at recess.
8. As a teenager, I could choose what
music I wanted to listen to on my radio or what television show I wanted to
watch.
9. When I was done with high school, I
could choose what college I wanted to go to and what I wanted to study. I could
choose when I went to bed, when I got up, and how many times a week I ate ice
cream.
10. Now as an adult, the choices seem to
never end. I can choose to jump on my bed or eat straight out of the peanut
butter jar (And sometimes, I do.)
11. But what if you lived in a world
where you didn’t have any choices at all?
12. There are some kids who don’t. They
are forced to work for many hours a day for no pay.
13. They aren’t able to go to school or learn
how to read and write.
14. There are children in Africa who are
taken away from their families and are forced to pick cocoa beans. These cocoa
beans are made into chocolate, which most of them have never eaten.
15. These children work in the hot sun
all day long. The work is back-breaking. If they don’t work hard enough, they
are beaten. This is their life every single day.
16. Human trafficking is another word for
slavery. It happens everywhere, including in the United States.
17. Human trafficking happens when one
person controls another person and forces them to work for nothing. Slave labor
is used to make various products around the world, including chocolate, coffee,
tea, rice, and clothing.
18. This is a big problem, right? Now,
you may say, “I’m just a kid. What can I do to help free slaves?”
19. My answer to this is, “Every little
bit counts.” You have a voice. Let it be heard.
20. Tell your parents about human
trafficking. Tell anyone you know about human trafficking. Tell your piano
teacher, the cashier at the grocery store, the person on the other end of the
telephone. Tell them to tell other people about human trafficking.
21. Ask adults in your life to vote for
people in the government who want to fight against human trafficking. Ask them
to write letters to the government asking them to support this cause.
22. Ask them to buy fair trade products
such as chocolate, coffee, tea, rice, and clothing. When you buy fair trade,
these products are guaranteed to be made without slave labor.
23. You have a choice. You have a choice
about what to do with the information you’ve been given.
24. The choices you make can help change
lives. The choices you make can set people free. What are you going to choose?
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