Sexual Anxiety: Overcoming the Fear of Sex

By Patricia Aguilar 3 years ago

Isn’t slavery abolished? Well, yes, it is. At least the ancient way of doing it. However, it’s still going on all over the world in its modern-day form — human trafficking. This is a horrible practice and an international issue, meaning it’s happening everywhere. 

 

The most common purpose behind sex trafficking is to use men, women, and children for commercial sex (prostitution) or as labor. In the next few paragraphs, we’ll list some ways of human trafficking prevention. But first, let’s define this practice more precisely.

Understand What Is Human Trafficking

When talking about fighting human trafficking, we must ask three questions: What is it? How does it work? And why are people doing it?

 

Here’s what to know:

 

  1. Human trafficking is moving, keeping, and passing one or more people along as slave labor or for prostitution.
  2. People do it in various ways that are almost always violent and deceptive. They threaten, enforce, pay, and abuse power over their victims.
  3. The reason is simply to exploit someone’s body. As we said, most of the time, this exploitation is of sexual nature or forced labor. 

 

This inhumane practice is, unfortunately, present everywhere. From Third World countries to so-called developed ones, people either gather victims or deploy them. This makes it a complex issue, meaning that it’s more than hard to handle it. Laws and policies exist, but seeing how widespread the problem is, they’re often pretty much useless. Therefore, it’s critical for every one of us to get involved and help victims by any means possible. 

Be an Advocate

The first and logical step to fight human trafficking is to activate yourself and your community. The best way to do so is to reach out to local representatives and inform them of your passion for human rights. By doing that, you’ll bring this issue up and make them realize the local community’s immediate concern. By becoming an advocate for human rights, you increase the chances of law enforcement doing something about sex and labor trafficking in your area.

 

In the United States, the law paints a clear picture of how it sees this inhumane practice. Namely, “The Trafficking Victims Protection Act” from the year 2000 is what we perceive as a cornerstone of this type of legislation, but our government allowed it to expire back in 2011. Unfortunately, it took two years for it to come up again. But guess what — it wouldn’t be so if numerous anti-trafficking groups in the U.S. didn’t come together to advocate for it. This is a great example of how advocating actually works in real life.

Raise and Spread Awareness

Another way to be active about this issue is to hold events in the hope of raising local awareness about labor and sex trafficking. This will, with some luck, up the number of locals in your posse fighting for a common cause. Events like these often lead to chain reactions, meaning they spread like fire. If that does happen, you can count on powerful people lobbying for you and raising funds to educate more and more folks.

 

Of course, events about trafficking situations don’t need to be gala dinner parties. Well, at least not in the beginning. You can start with a few friends in a busy area in your town and simply show up with signs and a megaphone. The point is to attract attention and, over time, the gatherings will gather more and more followers. Once the numbers go up, the event can broaden too, reaching the town hall and an even bigger audience.

Support and Donate to Non-Profit Organizations

Once your local anti-trafficking group gains numbers, it will be a perfect time to start fundraising. Holding an event like this is a great way to allow people to donate money to any of the already existing organizations that tackle this problem. Yet, it’s not just about the cash. Fundraising also helps with the previous point. That is, it draws attention and, by itself, spreads awareness locally. Luckily, this isn’t the only way to support non-profit organizations. There are practical ways of helping out too.

 

Another way to support the cause is to volunteer. This is a prime example of doing something against human trafficking. Unlike some people who sit around their dorms and in hipster bars, talking about how this is a grave issue, you’re actually doing something about it. And the more volunteers, the more powerful an anti-trafficking organization will become. No matter your profession, there’s a place for everyone and their specific skills when it comes to tackling modern-day slavery — human trafficking.

Help and Support Human Trafficking Survivors

Since we’ve mentioned volunteering, it’s best to mention how it works in practice. If you decide to go this route, you’ll probably begin to gather clothing and various other goods and donate them to victims of human trafficking. That entails traveling across the country and seeking shelters in need of particular goods. 

 

Furthermore, you might also have a task to talk to local business owners, encouraging them to offer jobs to survivors. This helps victims to get a fresh start and find a way out of their current situation. On the other hand, you can work for the national human trafficking hotline, getting an actual job yourself.

 

However, even if you don’t associate yourself with any organizations, you can still help make a change. In fact, you can always be on the prowl for any suspicious activity. There are certain signs that you can look out for. These include poor living and working conditions, mental health issues, and a lack of control. In case you do come across any of these signs, it’s essential to report them to local authorities. This can even be while abroad, so look up for numbers of foreign services that you can call quickly.

 

Lastly, we’d like to mention yet another way you can help victims. Although this might seem like a lost cause, it’s not. Namely, you can always boycott companies and products that come about due to human trafficking and poor working conditions.

 

Many goods that we take for granted in the United States come from foreign corporations that permit inhumane treatment of workers. You can, therefore, stop buying their products and encourage others to do so as well. You’d be surprised if you knew how many companies should be on your list.