Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery where a perpetrator profits from the sexual exploitation and/or forced labor of a person by means including force, fraud, coercion, or deceit to engage in commercial sexual activity such as prostitution, exotic dancing, or pornography.

San Diego is one of the top 13 cities in the US for human trafficking, a hub for 3000 - 8,000 victims annually. Most victims are between 11-18 years old and often don't even see themselves as victims, because they've never been shown anything better. 26% of victims are children (under 18), 55% of victims are women and girls, and 68% of victims are in forced labor.

A team of 30 young professionals in San Diego have come together to fight human trafficking. The focus is providing awareness, resources, and aid to victims and survivors of Human Trafficking. They have identified three organizations on the West Coast to support with an emphasis on Awareness, Prevention, Restoration, and Advocacy.

Those three organizations are:

The STARS program at San Diego Youth Services (Surviving Together, Achieving and Reaching for Success) provides a program for teen girls and women between the ages of 12-24 involved with commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to empower the youth to escape sexual exploitation by developing their inner strengths, building a sense of community and supporting their reintegration into mainstream society. Services include intensive case management, detention outreach, support groups, recreational activities, therapy and community trainings. SDYS STARS has been providing services in the community for over 8 years and over the last year served 91 girls and young women. Donations would be utilized to enhance our therapeutic services and move towards our capacity. The trauma associated with domestic sex trafficking often leads to chronic traumatic stress, low self-esteem and self-worth, and self-harm behaviors. Therapeutic services aim at supporting Survivors as they heal and gain empowerment to regain control over their future through a whole person approach that includes intensive therapy, expressive art, healthy eating, yoga, and self-care activities.

Generate Hope in San Diego provides safe housing and victim services including counseling, medical care, education, therapy, etc. for children between the ages of 8 and 24 who have been victimized. The funds will specifically go toward a new home for minors.

Saving Innocence in Los Angeles partners with local law enforcement to provide crisis response, rescue services, and immediate aftercare to child victims of domestic minor sex trafficking and provides long-term advocacy, case management, and mentoring relationships to survivors of exploitation by promoting worth and restoring innocence.

The goal is to raise at least $250,000 to these organizations that are directly involved in helping victims and survivors. There is no better time than NOW to take action! 

You can choose one of these organizations and donate. The minimum starting amount is 10$. The donation page is here: https://www.crowdrise.com/foundnotbound

I chose Saving Innocence, but any of these organizations is a good choice and helps. To think that this happens to girls and young women in the world is just... I guess whatever word i use would not be enough to describe and even imagine what kind of pain they go through. If you can, please donate and help.

Deadline for this action is August 28th!

Some Statistics about Human Trafficking:

- Sex trafficking is San Diego’s 2nd largest underground economy after drug trafficking. The underground sex economy represents an estimated $810 million in annual revenue. 

- Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego are 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas in the nation.

- Approximately 27-30 million people around the world are in some form of slavery. 

- Each year about 17,500 individuals are brought into the United States and held against their will as victims of human trafficking. Conservative estimates say that 15,000 people are trafficked into the U.S. annually, while others guess the number is as high at 60,000.