Will You Pray For Them?

So much of what we are witnessing here at CSW60  are the testimonies of young women and their stories about human trafficking.  One of our Episcopal delegates is deeply committed to this work since her intern work with GEMS the Girl's Educational and Mentoring Services.

GEMS is the only organization in New York State specifically designed to serve girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) was founded in 1998 by Rachel Lloyd in response to an overwhelming need for services for girls and young women at risk for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking who were being ignored by traditional social service agencies. GEMS’ programming is gender responsive, trauma informed, developmentally grounded, strengths based, social justice oriented, and culturally competent. GEMS’ founding principles reside in survivor leadership and transformational relationships. GEMS’ services are based on the needs and interests of survivors and the agency’s programming is developed based on survivors’ ideas, input, and expertise.  GEMS provides young women with empathetic, consistent support and viable opportunities for positive change.

One of our small group conversations centered on the website Backpage (Wikipedia) and the role it plays in the exploitation of women and girls.  With this website men can "order" what they "require" by zip code.  A priest spoke about a spiritual exercise where you go onto the site, enter in your own zip code and then pray for the women that you find on the site.

So that is what I did.  Googled the site, clicked on Delaware, Men dating Women where I had to click on that I agreed that I was over 21 and was aware of what the site offered.

Well, I only stayed on the site for a little bit.  This is not for the faint of heart.

And, let us not forget the trafficking at the Truck Stops or the hotels during large sporting events.

Did you know that in some states that if two underage teenagers have sex there is a legal recourse that parents can take that would result in the young man, if convicted, being listed on the Sex Offenders Listing.  But these same states would charge a young girl of 13 sold into trade by an older man with the crime.  

Is your state one of them?

If so, let us now join together to get this changed.