It has been a great while since I last posted. I’ve been quite busy, having just returned from a month-long “tour” in the States. I promise you an update on that trip shortly. But this post from Rachel Lloyd, founder of GEMS, strikes very pointedly at all of our efforts in raising awareness and it is very pertinent to this site.

PLEASE. READ. If you are at all involved in working with survivors of human trafficking, supporting organizations that do, have ever hosted and/or attended an awareness event, or thinking about doing so. PLEASE. READ. Stories are powerful, but we need not keep people in a constant states of survivorship. Remember not to exploit the exploited, or the formerly exploited, in the process of sensationalizing the issue. It is sensational and tragic enough.

“What we don’t need any more of is good intentions that aren’t backed up by thoughtfulness, integrity, common sense values and an educated, informed approach. Survivors aren’t actually asking for special treatment, we’re simply asking to be treated as people, as colleagues, as leaders in this work who bring far more to the table than the ability to make people cry. We’re asking simply that in your fight to help victims of trafficking, that you don’t harm survivors in the process.”

Thank you!