Category Archives: Advocacy

Your chance to fight human trafficking [Livestream]

Posted on September 27, 2011 by James Addis in Advocacy, Causes

Your chance to fight human trafficking | World Vision Blog

It’s easy to get disillusioned with political debate. Frequently, it degenerates into petty point-scoring and partisan bickering. Constructive dialogue, it seems, often disappears out the window. So it’s nice when an issue comes along on which nearly everybody can agree. One such issue is the problem of human trafficking — the use of fraud, force, or coercion to exploit a child or adult for profit. It’s estimated that there are more than 12 million trafficked people in the world today — a $32 billion industry. Every day, children are forced to perform sexual acts or work long hours in filthy, dangerous conditions for the financial benefit of someone else. Sometimes, I imagine my own children forced into this position, and...

The moral imperative of humanitarian aid

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Kent Hill, Senior Vice President, World Vision International Programs in Advocacy

The following commentary is based on remarks Mr. Hill presented on September 5 at a forum entitled “Reforming Aid, Transforming the World,” hosted by Global Washington at the University of Washington. For more information on Global Washington, visit: www.globalwa.org. “I think back to what Camus wrote about the fact that perhaps this world is a world in which children suffer, but we can lessen the number of suffering children, and if you do not do this, then who will do this? I’d like to feel that I’d done something to lessen that suffering.” —Robert F. Kennedy, in response to a question, a few weeks before his assassination, about how his obituary should read From books to blogs, it has become...

Trafficking victims protection: Keeping a law that works

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Jesse Eaves in Advocacy

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2011 | World Vision Blog

Debating the effectiveness of laws is a tradition as old as our nation itself. But I want to share a story that illustrates how one law is accomplishing exactly what it was passed to do. From 2003 to 2007, the owners of the U.S. company Global Horizons trafficked more than 600 Thai workers to U.S. soil. The company lured the men with promises of high-paying agricultural jobs. When the men arrived after having paid exorbitant recruitment fees, their passports and immigration papers were taken from them. Instead of receiving high-paying jobs, the men were forced to work on farms in Washington state and Hawaii to pay off the “debt” they were told they incurred. In 2007, the owners of the...

International Youth Day: 6 youth changing our world

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Lindsey Talerico-Hedren in Advocacy, Causes

Change our world — that’s this year’s International Youth Day theme. It seems more than appropriate in a year of ongoing economic struggle, debt ceilings, radiation leaks and famines. And there are issues of injustice that fail to make headlines but distress so many people — child abuse, abduction and trafficking, school drop-outs because of forced labor or need for income, neglect of children and youth, and an apparent lack of youth voice. But there are youth out there advocating against such injustices, making real differences in their communities, and changing our world for good. This post is a reminder, on International Youth Day, that youth are to believed in because through them, great things are possible. Don’t let anyone...

Debt ceiling debate: Why foreign aid is an issue of ‘right-wrong,’ not ‘right-left’

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Peter Warski in Advocacy

The International Affairs Budget provides life-saving assistance to children and families living in poverty. Photo: Jon Warren/WV

Consider what you’ve heard in the news over the past several weeks regarding the ongoing impasse over the nation’s debt ceiling. You’ve probably heard a great deal about spending cuts, versus tax increases, versus any combination thereof. You’ve likely heard about the August 2 deadline for raising the limit, lest the United States default on its debts and risk an economic meltdown. In the midst of this, you’ve almost certainly observed a soap opera of political posturing and bickering among members of both parties. But what you probably haven’t heard much about in the context of this debate is the group that stands to lose the most: the world’s poorest, who literally depend on U.S. foreign aid for their survival....