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TechnoratiThe nation’s largest public policy women’s organization announced Tuesday that its project help trained 7,000 Mexican leaders to combat sex trafficking.
Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) Beverly LaHaye Institute (BLI) last year launched “The Bridge Project,” which trained 16 Mexican leaders on how to combat sex trafficking. Some of the leaders were chosen in turn to launch projects in Mexico resulting in 7,000 Mexican leaders trained for leadership in combating sex trafficking.
“This is one of the most satisfying and successful projects that I have ever been involved with,” said Bridge Project director and BLI senior fellow Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, in a statement. “We have laid the ground work in Mexico and our Mexican colleagues are trained and prepared to continue building on that foundation. This is the beginning of the end of trafficking in persons in Mexico.”
In addition to leadership training, CWA’s Bridge Project produced over 600 people trained to lobby for stronger legislation in prosecuting criminals who traffic in persons, a shelter manual to guide the rescue of victims, a 56-page analysis of the legal aspects of trafficking in Mexico’s Federal Penal Code, and launched an awareness campaign for tourist industry personnel among other results.
Human trafficking has been called modern-day slavery. Sex trafficking is the movement of women and children, usually from one country to another but sometimes within a country, for purposes of prostitution or some other form of sexual slavery. According to Ambassador John R. Miller of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Person, 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked across international borders each year. Between 18,000-20,000 victims are trafficked into the United States for forced labor or sexual exploitation, according to the Trafficking in Persons Report 2003 USA Department of State.
Christian humanitarian groups have also spearheaded initiatives to fight sex trafficking. The Salvation Army designated a weekend of pray for victims of sex trade trafficking in late September. Focus on the Family has also expressed concern about the issue of sex trafficking.
