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On Tuesday March, 15th, we had the incredible opportunity of attending a Congressional Hearing in Washington, DC on Domestic Child Sex Trafficking.
We were invited to the event by our friends at The Protection Project, which is a program run by Johns Hopkins University.
The hearing was to reintroduce the Domestic Minor Traffficking Deterrance and Victims Support Act. According to Senator's Wyden and Cornyn, "This legislation will provide valuable assistance to state and local governments on the front lines of battling organized criminal syndicates and violent gangs that traffic humans for labor and sex." Actress Mira Sorvino opened the hearing, and was followed by some incredible speakers including Tina Frundt, the executive director of Courtney's House in Washington, DC.; Libby Spears, filmaker; and Ernest Allen, President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The documentary film, The Playground, directed by Libby, said nearly 60,000 women have been trafficked in the state of Texas alone in recent years.
Our organization not only fully supports this bill, but ask anyone reading this to please help in any way you possibly can. Their are hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. right now that are depending on this being passed. Not only are there lives at stake, but the future of many other children as well. You can sign an online petition here on Change.org. You can also help by contacting your State Senator and urging them to support the bill. You can find them on www.congress.org.
Why is getting this bill passed so important? The legislation would provide between $2 million and $2.5 million dollars a year in funding to six state and local pilot projects in areas deemed to have significant sex trafficking activity. Funds from the bill would be used to increase law enforcement efforts, but 67 percent of the money would be used for direct, comprehensive services for victims.
To understand how critical this is, the State Department estimates that 300,000 children in the U.S. are sold for sex every single year. Right now there are only 80 beds in our entire country to take in these children. If you aren't knowledgable about sex trafficking, in the simplest of terms, these children are abducted and raped sometimes as many as 20 times every single day. They are held captive against their will, their lives, and their families lives threatened daily. These children as young as 5 years old face circumstances more horrific than most of us could ever imagine.
We urge you to help.
Another incredible part of our trip was meeting with Nicole Epps and Elaine Panter, two amazing people that work at The Protection Project. We also were able to meet with Dr. Mattar who is the executive director and we're very excited to team up with them for a research project that will aim to uncover the correlations between youth homelessness and child sex trafficking.
We also encourage you to watch the trailer for 'Playground' we are looking forward to teaming up with the filmaker to setup showings later this year.
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