Poverty and the Sex Trade

January 11th was Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Compassion International posted an informative (and heartbreaking) flyer online with details about the child sex trade around the world.

Poverty is downright putrid. It is debilitating, frightening, and wearying, a long, drawn out kind of torture. To add to the misery, children in poverty are at risk for being forced into the sex trade either by members of their family, strangers, or even of their own misguided decision in an attempt to escape their hellish situation. Sadly, their hell only intensifies. Poverty crushes people's sense of self-worth and plunges them into a desperation which makes choosing or falling into a degrading practice seem like the only escape. Children, who have little power or voice to control their own lives are more susceptible to this lie.

I have spoken before about my decision to be Childfree, meaning, I choose to not have children of my own, not now or when I get married either. While some people feel called to have children and raise them to be responsible, godly, kind, compassionate people who will influence future issues in the world, I feel called to not have children for the purpose of influencing someone else's children in the world.

More than anything, my heart breaks for children, here in America, but especially in poorer countries, whose lives are degraded to the basest of existences. I have a complete and utter lack of desire to be pregnant, to put money, time, energy and love into raising my own child, but I do have a daily, lifelong yearning to provide healthcare, education, love and encouragement, and safety to children who have no one to rescue them.

Even if this means that I spend the rest of my life sponsoring children through Compassion International as I have done for the past 11 years, that is where I will focus my resources. Maybe it will mean "adopting" a local poverty-stricken family to provide for, or tutoring disadvantaged children in the nearby city schools. Or maybe it will mean supporting missionaries who work with orphans or work to rescue children stuck in the sex industry. It might mean writing to raise awareness, such as I'm doing now, or visiting such countries myself, but regardless, I desire to make a dent in the horror of poverty.