An Admirable Resolve

“So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the Trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for Abolition. Let the consequences be what they would, I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.” -William Wilberforce


May we never rest.

Feeling the Love in Florida.

Love says NO...

to arrogance

to cynicism

to pessimism

to giving up.


-Rob

Love Thoughts

  We asked Raphiella a middle school student from the U.S. "what does it mean to be a slave?" 
She said: "what it means to be a slave is when people don't appreciate you and how you look and [it means] how they mistreat you the way they think you don't have any sense of humor, you don't have anything in your body you just have tears and you just have fear." We then asked her “how do you know someone loves you?”  “Because they appreciate you and hug you.”

  Margaret Walker said that [Love] “makes you big inside.” It is an ever expansion, an invitation, a freedom. Love is the greatest gift of all. Love lives in each one of us and invites others in. Love is found in the faces of mothers, fathers, friends. It lives in the hands that bring healing and end slavery. It breathes through words that give freedom and break chains. Love frees each child from a disgusting cage and whispers, 

  Hope, abolition, restoration, it is all found in Love.  Love knows that you have a sense of humor, knows that you are beautiful and it frees your body of the years that tears and fear have been your only friends. Love always sings back your own song and wraps your body in safe embrace, replacing the cage. 

  As many of you know, we have been tirelessly working on our new round safehome in the Philippines. As we near our completion date in April, we have taken time to reflect on the magnitude of this responsibility.  The responsibility of this great love. That is why this Valentine's Day we are focusing on our prevention efforts.  Our reflections bring us to the fact that the best safehome, is one that is eventually empty.  

  So, this Valentine’s Day we need to raise $15,000.  This money will be used to develop an animated video, beginning in the Philippines and reaching thousands of children across Asia. This animation is the third installment of a series dedicated to educate children on issues of sexual abuse. The video will specifically deal with the issues of trafficking. This series has seen tremendous prevention success already.  This ongoing project will prevent children from knowing sexual slavery and exploitation. 

Because Valentine’s Day is all about Love:
Consider a Donation
Throw a Valentine’s Day dinner and raise funds
Give your Love a gift that changes lives (Ecards, New Tshirts)
We need your partnership this Valentine’s Day season. Please consider giving.

I will be sending email updates with funds raised for our V-Day Project and to tease you with a Program launch we will be announcing before the end of February.

with Love as always,

Desirea Rodgers
Co-Founder/Creative Director

          Check out our winning t-shirt design here!  This t-shirt was designed by Jonathan Bowden of Kreathaus . (take a look at his other work!)  
 
To send an E-card, go here

T-shirt from kristique

I just heard from Adam at 

www.kristique.com they designed a 

t-shirt that benefits Love146! 

Thanks to Adam and his entire team for supporting Love146.

Keep up the Love.

Abolition!

The Girl Effect

Another inspiration for today. 

Who would have guessed that the World Economic Forum would look to girls to end poverty. 

A couple of quotes - 

"We found that the most neglected, at risk, and unsupported part of the world's population, also happened to be the part of the world's population that could make the biggest impact if supported with economic opportunities." Mark Parker

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala talked about the Bank's Adolescent Girls Initiative, which connects girls in developing countries to job opportunities linked to labor market demand. She summed it up nicely, "Investing in women is smart economics...Investing in girls is even smarter economics because we believe that investing in girls is at the center of development."

Supporting education and employment opportunities for young women, not only will be effective in ending poverty but also in abolishing child sex slavery. 

To read the full article, click here.

Inspiration.

This inspired me today. I wanted to share it.

Desirea

1.5.09 TRAFFICKING NEWS

Nelson Mandela said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Fight trafficking every day by educating yourself and those around you. -liz

AFGHANISTAN: Child servitude, marriage resemble modern-day slavery

In Afghanistan, particularly in poor rural communities, child slavery and debt bondage practices are growing, but are often disguised as marriage, labour or family affairs not requiring state intervention. Extreme poverty, lack of awareness about child rights, weak law enforcement and strong conservative traditions are among the problems which have pushed many minors - boys and girls - into situations of peonage, child rights activists say. “These practices - the selling of children and servitude - have the very characteristics of modern slavery which have been overlooked by the government and other actors,” said Ajmal Samadi, an analyst of the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a local rights watchdog.

For the full story please see www.irinnews.org Link

MySpace Steps Up

MySpace removes 90,000 sex offenders

RALEIGH, NC, US- About 90,000 sex offenders have been identified and removed from the social networking Web site MySpace, company and law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The number was nearly double what MySpace officials originally estimated last year, said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who along with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has led efforts to make social networking Web sites safer for young users. Cooper said he wasn't surprised by the updated numbers, and demanded that MySpace and rival online networking site Facebook — which claim to have more than 170 million users combined — do more to protect children and teenagers.

For the full story please see msnbc.com Link

Safehome Update

I can't help but think,

This will be a place where children 

Run

Play

Laugh

Dance

Cry 

Embrace

Begin

Fly

Thank you for being a part of this.

Abolition and Restoration,

Desirea

1.3.09 TRAFFICKING NEWS

Police arrest gang accused of human trafficking

Dubai- Police recently arrested a gang accused of human trafficking. The department for combating organized crime was able to detain the suspects who were accused of holding women and forcing them into committing indecent acts. Information was passed to the Dubai Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) about a gang who was said to be holding a number of women and forcing them into prostitution. The information was followed up by a police team from the department for verification, evidence was collected and a plan for capturing the gang members set up. After intensive investigations, the team arrested the gang leader (Sh. S), who tried to elude the police by telling them that he was a customer. The police also arrested (K.K), who also tried to misguide the police by saying he worked in the kitchen in the flat the police raided.

For the full story please see www.gulfnews.com Link

2.2.09 TRAFFICKING NEWS

Nelson Mandela said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Fight trafficking every day by educating yourself and those around you. -liz

SYRIA: First shelter for trafficked people opens in Damascus

DAMASCUS, SYRIA- A shelter for people trafficking victims has just opened in an undisclosed location in Damascus. It is the first of its kind in Syria, which has only recently recognized human trafficking as a problem but still has no specific laws against it. Human trafficking is only just starting to gain widespread public attention in the region: Jordan passed a law to penalize people trafficking only last week; a similar Egyptian law is still in draft form, and other countries like Lebanon still have no specific legislation against people traffickers. The new shelter has 20 beds, a communal area, a kitchen and a bathroom. Further rooms are for medical treatment, psychological care and legal advice. A second shelter is planned for the northern city of Aleppo.

For the full story please see www.irinnews.org Link