Our guest post today is by author Karen-Anne Stewart. I am so thrilled to welcome her back to Plain Talk.
The Rain Trilogy is a powerful story of abuse, human trafficking, and beautiful, redeeming love. I have experience working with domestic abuse survivors, but I wasn’t very familiar with sex-slavery, other than knowing it exists and is horrific.
This is not a happy or easy topic; in fact, it’s sickening and saddening. Throughout the research process for the trilogy, I spiraled through a myriad of emotions, anger being the most prevalent. Reading statistics and stories about what so many children, women, and even men, go through every minute of every day enraged me.
There were many times I had to walk away from my laptop because I simply couldn’t read any more of the horrors of this modern day slavery. I cried, wanted to scream, and even wanted to cause physical harm at times, while reading about what goes on in every country, every state, and every town. I have a daughter, and the thoughts of anything bad happening to her is paralyzing.
After researching trafficking, I was hit hard with the task of how to present sex-slavery into The Rain Trilogy. I wanted to show the depravity while being sensitive, but still felt compelled to shed light on the reality of what the survivors and victims are forced to endure.
This is my humble attempt to stand up in the fight against trafficking. There are several amazing organizations that provide resources for survivors of sex-slavery; the Polaris Project and Shared Hope International are a couple of them.
The Polaris Project treats all forms of human trafficking in a holistic approach, and this organization, as well as Shared Hope, have become close to my heart. You can find the website for the Polaris Project information on my website, www.karen-annestewart.com, and the Human Trafficking
Hotline is in the back of all three novels in The Rain Trilogy.
As tragic as sex-slavery is, it’s a lucrative business, growing rapidly throughout the world, and number one in organized crime, according to FBI statistics. Finding accurate statistics of how many children are forced into sex-slavery is daunting, due to under-reporting. According to Forsaken Generation, the United States is the top location in the world for child trafficking. Minors are forced into sex-slavery every hour of every day.
I strongly encourage readers to conduct their own research, but be prepared, your heart will break. Although this topic is devastating, it is necessary to get the information out there so people can become aware of the growing problem and realize that it’s in every part of the world, including our own backyards.
Learn about Karen-Anne’s novel trilogy here.
Check out my Q&A with Karen-Anne here.
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Hi Gillian, thank you so much for allowing me to be on your site today to share some information about human trafficking.
Karen-Anne
End human trafficking of minors! … This should be a top priority in every nation of the world!
By Augusto (Gus) Venegas
I just learned about how mothers in Brazil send their young daughters out to prostitute themselves on the highway, so I can understand your level of horror. I can’t imagine ever doing that to my daughters, and the fact it is happening to girls was so horrific I cried. I went and found the organisation trying to help those girls so I could donate, but it’s hard to read the emails they send me about the work they are doing, because the circumstances are so dreadful.
That people can do these things to other people is heartbreaking and beyond belief.
It is heartbreaking. Thank you for taking the time to care and read.
Happy Holidays!