What if...

Something that I have been thinking about lately, I was thinking about how we become passionate about things in our life. What makes us decide that something is important? Many people today are concerned with the Earth, or going green, there are people involved with spreading awareness about AIDS, Darfur, the war in Iraq, children in sweatshops, homelessness, and hundreds of other problems that we face. Is one problem bigger than the other? I don't think so. So how is it that we dedicate our attention to specific ones and not others?

I think that one thing that helps us to center our focus is when we actually come face to face with the problem. There are several ways that this can happen. We see a news segment, photographs, a documentary, or possibly hear a speaker (just to name a few). Our attention is captured, and it becomes real to us. Sometimes I think we have to see things to even have a glimpse of what other people are really enduring. I think that we are so privileged here in America that we take advantage of it, and don't really understand how lucky we are to have everything that we do.

I don't have the answers to the world's problems, I can't fix anything. All I can really do is dream, and hope that some are willing to dream with me, and take action. I think it is important that we recognize those that need our help, and we do something about it. I also don' t think that we have to go overseas to India to help people. We all have different passions, and I think there is a reason for that. We have a lot of ground to cover. What the world be like if we all cared a little bit more passionately and did something about it?

How to Help

One more post about the documentary, this information is strictly coming from the director of The Day My God Died. There are two big needs for the people working to help the girls affected by the sex trade. These are medicine/medical attention and money.

The first necessity is medicine. The girls are affected by HIV/AIDS and other diseases. They need medical care, and it takes a lot to give these girls the attention that they need. The second most important thing is money. It takes a lot of money to rehabilitate the girls. Not only is the money necessary for rehabilitation, but also for prevention measures. Border patrols are being built to help, but money of course is required for this. There are several organizations that are working towards making life better for these girls.

A list has been compiled of organizations that are helpful:

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/daymygoddied/more.html

Rescue

This post I feel is highly personal, and I know that many will not agree. However, in my view it is one of the only ways that I (I personally feel this, I do not expect everyone to agree) can help others in the world. This past semester I came across a man named Jimmy Doyle's blog. He usually speaks at the church camp I work at, and I have found him to be a very interesting man.

I have struggled very much with what I personally can do to help others, and I came across a post of his that has impacted me very much. His post was entitled "helpless." In a nutshell, his post was about how he feels so helpless in making the lives of others better. Sometimes we can only wish that we had a community that was dedicated and passionate (and had the resources) to give people the boost out of their current situations (whatever that may be). However, there are so many problems in the world, and one human cannot solve them all. Here is where many people will probably disagree with me, but I found Jimmy's words to be very eye opening for me. Jimmy says he cannot make the life of anyone better. This statement confused me, I immediately thought to myself that of course we can make the lives of others better, people do kind things all the time. It wasn't until I read further that I understood, and agreed. Jimmy says the only thing he can offer people to actually make their lives better is Jesus. Jimmy says, "Jesus is the helper. He is the healer. To expect more of myself is pride. To expect less of Him is blasphemous. That is the simple burden of the Christian...to carry Christ to others. Vessels of the one who can help."

It seems so simple. To simply love others, and by doing so we are showing them how Christ loves. I would carry it even farther to say that by loving others and sharing the good news (because that is my only hope for salvation) people can have true hope and have real rescue from whatever their situation may be. The women of the slave trade don't know real love, they only know the despair this world has brought them. In the words of Jimmy, all I can truly do is be a "vessel of the one who can help."

With the Holidays Approaching....

Lately the holiday decorations and advertisements have started to come out. As much as I love this time of the year, it made me start thinking about what I should get my family for Christmas. One might ask how does Christmas relate to this blog? In all honesty, this post doesn't relate to the women of Kamathipura very much, but it does involve another problem in our world, so please bear with me as I change topics a little here.

This blog was meant to provide education and awareness, but it is also supposed to provide information about what we can do to help. In my hometown, the high school kids I have the privilege of knowing have come together to try to lend a hand to the people of Uganda. They have become familiar with the Invisible Children organization, and they are rallying the people of their high school and our church to take part in this movement. However, although they are passionate about Invisible Children, they have taken a new angle. The kids designed their own t-shirt (with the help of a graphics artist) and sold them for $15, all profits going to Uganda.

Last time I was home, my sister and I had a conversation about Christmas. My sister is 15 years old, and I am so proud of her. We were discussing how we both felt we didn't want anything special for Christmas this year. Of course there are things that we would both love to have (both of us had already purchased a pair of shoes for ourselves for Christmas, we were feeling guilty, it wasn't a necessity). We got into a long discussion about the real meaning of Christmas (to us) and it had absolutely nothing to do with gifts, really anything that mainstream America makes the holidays out to be. Long story short, we decided we were not getting each other anything this year. We are putting our money towards the invisible children fund. I know of many people that do something like this instead of giving gifts, and so as another idea for those of you thinking about Christmas gifts, think about giving away your gift instead.

Call + Response

There is a new documentary that has just recently been released about the slave trade. I found an article about it on CNN.com a few weeks ago. The documentary is called "Call + Response" and it is directed by a man named Justin Dillon. The documentary features video taken undercover in different locations that are involved in the sex trade. The CNN clip gave a UN statistic that estimated around 12.3 million people have been forced into lives of forced sexual slavery.

The documentary features people such as former secretary of state, Madeline Albright, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. The film clip from CNN offers solutions from the documentary. Two of these are to rehabilitate the victims that have gone through this. Also an interesting one was to target the traffickers and help them to find a different source of income. The documentary calls for people interested in helping to take action. Possible ways are to visit the website and donate monetarily, or participate in their slave free initiative.

See the CNN clip at:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2008/10/13/wynter.sex.trade.expose.cnn

Visit the Call + Response website at:

http://callandresponse.com/home.html

“Obedience to authority is irresistible.” Dr. Maxson

In a documentary shown on ABC News Primetime, a study examined how far people would go when placed under authority. In a nutshell, the participants in the study thought the study was to observe people in punishment and learning situations. Two people were studied at a time. One designated “teacher” and the other “student.” The student was required to answer a series of questions given by the teacher. The student was hooked up to a machine that causes the person to be shocked every time the button is pushed. The teacher was to administer the punishment (of a shock) every time the student answered a question wrong. Each time the student answered incorrectly, the shock level was to increase.

As the experiment continued, the student would continuously answer incorrectly. Eventually, the student would demand to be let out of the room. The teacher is supplied with the information that the student has a heart condition, and is in a lot of pain. The teacher’s response to the situation is the main substance of the study. People reacted differently. Some laughed at the pained response of the student to some of the shocks, some refused to continue, a couple continued so long as they were reassured that they would not be in legal trouble if the student were to be seriously injured or die.

After watching the documentary in my persuasion class, Dr. Maxson stated, “obedience to authority is irresistible.” This statement made me think about the girls of Kamathipura. Often I wonder what the psychological state of the girls is. Obviously they are held in physical confinement, but they are also given little room for freedom of thought. In other words, a captivity of the mind. I think that this study was interesting because it showed how far people really would go when placed under authority. It seems as though we have a block in our mind sometimes about our ability to make choices when under pressure.

In the study, the teacher was capable of making his or her own decisions in the situation. However, because the person of authority administering the experiment said the experiment must continue, many pressed on. I do not feel that the girls held in captivity have much room to make choices, because of the authority they are under. They have two choices, give the customer or brothel owner whatever is demanded, or die. In many cases, police officers come to visit the girls. Sometimes the officers have been paid off by the brother owner, in order to see if the girls will lie, and say they are happy, or if the girls will tell the officer the truth about their lives. If the girls lie, they are not harmed. If they tell the truth, they are beaten. How can these girls have faith in anyone if a group of people that could potentially free them is corrupt? For the girls of Kamathipura, obedience to authority is irresistible. It is practically a death sentence to not conform to the authority.

The Day My God Died

In my last post, I mentioned the documentary, The Day My God Died. Although it is an extremely heart wrenching film, it contains valuable information about the conditions in Kamathipura. I think it is important to begin this by sharing more about The Day My God Died. The Day My God Died was directed and produced by a man named Andrew Levine. After seeing the atrocities in Kamathipura, Levine said,

“It was that exact moment when I realized the first step was not to write a fictionalized screenplay. Rather, the first step should be to document the real story by combining real word and real statistics with pictures that don't lie.

There are so many stories of strength and resiliency. So many unanswered prayers and so many betrayals left unaccounted for. It is my hope to allow these children the opportunity to tell their stories, and by doing so share their hopes, dreams and unanswered prayers.”

The film depicts the lives of the women and children who lived in the Kamathipura district. The Day My God Died gives appalling information about their living conditions. According the film, the United Nations has released information estimating around 2,500 women and children disappear everyday to be sold into sexual slavery. Girls are often drugged, sold, and eventually wake up in their new homes: the brothels. The captive population of Kamathipura is greater than that of Salt Lake City.

The girls are forced to have sex with any customer that comes into the brothel. If they refuse, they are held down, beaten, raped, and sometimes even murdered. Men will burn the girls with acid and cigarettes if the girls do not agree to do what the customers ask. Girls will sometimes have up to 30 or 40 customers a day that they must entertain. When one of the girls becomes pregnant, she will have to have an abortion, and she will not be given any time to recover before another customer comes in.

The average age for a girl in the brothels is 14 years old. The myth is that if a man has HIV or AIDS and sleeps with a virgin, he will be revitalized or even cured. There is also the myth that if a man sleeps with a young virgin he will not get a disease. Due to these myths, HIV and AIDS have spread in massive amounts.

The film contains much more important information. Also the website provides a good source for facts about Kamathipura.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/daymygoddied/

Kamathipura

Some of you may be wondering why I have chosen such a strange name for this blog. Kamathipura is located in Asia and it is one of the largest red-light districts in the world. For those of you that do not know, a red-light district is basically a place that prostitution and the sex trade rein. There are girls in this place that have been kidnapped and forced into this sexual slavery. After much though, I realized this issue is not one many people will find pleasing to read about, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed. People need to know about the lives these women and young girls are living.

I will start by explaining how I have recently become more aware of this subject. Prior to this past summer I had heard about the sex trade and trafficking of young women and children. I had always thought of it as a problem, but it had never taken a place of priority in my mind. This summer I began to hear stories about the children in Africa who are currently being sold into sexual slavery. The more I heard, the more I began to think about the issue. In late July I saw a documentary called, “The Day My God Died.” The documentary tells the stories of young girls in the Kamathipura red-light district located in Bombay (also known as Mumbai), India. After seeing this documentary, my heart was broken for the young women and children.

I have decided to dedicate this blog to spreading awareness about the women and children who have been forced into lives of sexual slavery. I do not want to merely discuss this issue though. I want a change to be made in the lives of these women and children. I am not satisfied living a comfortable life when atrocious things are happening in India. Although my focus is currently on the Kamathipura district of India, it is important to note that this is occurring in all parts of the world, including the United States. Throughout this semester I hope to gain a better understanding of what is occurring in Kamathipura. This blog will become my first step towards helping these women, by telling others of their situation.