Justice is what love looks like in public: The battle against human trafficking !

Human Trafficking is the movement of individuals with the primary purpose of forced servitude or sexual slavery.

In Greece, prostitution is very much legal. So sex trafficking is very difficult to prosecute. 

It is the fear that leaves girls with no hope and no way out. . .

The A21 Campaign stands for "abolishing injustice in the 21st century" and focuses on sex trafficking in Southeastern Europe. 

In Thessaloniki, Greece, brothels are marked with white lights. Girls are taken, stolen, brutally raped and then often sold into brothels and forced to service up to 35 or 40 men a day!

LIFE FOR A SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIM

After a trafficking journey that typically involves deception, rape, beatings, and constant threats, victims are often forced to live in confining and unsanitary conditions. 

Malnutrition, sleep deprivation, as well as emotional and physical abuse become day-to-day normalities. In addition, forced abortions and the contraction of STI's, Hepatitis B & C, and AIDS are ever looming probabilities. Life for a victim of sex trafficking is hell on earth. This injustice is the reason The A21 Campaign exists.

Whilst human trafficking is a global issue, the growth of trafficking of women from Eastern and Southern Europe (the former Soviet Bloc) into Western Europe over the past 20 years has been unparalleled anywhere else on the globe23. This trend has developed due to a specific combination of factors:

--Fall of Communism:

--Impact of Poverty on Women:

--EU Immigration Restrictions:

--International Organized Crime:

--Demand for Prostitutes

Human Trafficking is an organised criminal industry that affects every nation. 

Whilst the statistics can seem overwhelming, it is important to remember that every number represents the life of a victim. The A21 Campaign has recognised a significant need in the region of Europe, and is committed to combating this injustice through rescuing one life at a time. 

"When confronted with the horrific statistics surrounding human trafficking, it is easy to agree on the fact that "someone should do something." The A21 Campaign was born when the decision was made to put our hand up and be that "someone". It was a decision of ordinary people who decided to take responsibility regarding the issue of human trafficking. So with little knowledge, and a lot of passion, in 2007 we set out to make a difference.
After extensive research, planning, fundraising, more research, relationship building, a lot of learning, and a great leap of faith, we opened our first shelter for victims of human trafficking at the end of 2008."

'Nepal's Stolen Children'

NEPAL’S STOLEN CHILDREN: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary

Actress Demi Moore partners with CNN Freedom Project for a compelling documentary. A passionate advocate for victims of human trafficking herself, Moore travels to Nepal to meet 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala and some of the thousands of women and girls Koirala’s organisation has rescued from forced prostitution. How were they taken and where were they sent? Hear the emotional, first-hand experiences of these young survivors. And follow along with Moore as she searches for answers in the fight to end this form of modern-day slavery !

  

 WORLD PREMIERE: Sunday, June 26 

Hong Kong 20:00

London 20:00

Berlin/Johannesburg 20:00

Abu Dhabi 22:00

New York/Miami 8 PM

Mexico City 7 PM

Los Angeles 8 PM

The CNN Freedom Project: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/

The battle against human trafficking cannot be fought by one person, but requires all of us to come together as one and stand for justice. Together, we can make a difference.

Anokhi 

A lifeline for hundreds of thousands of carers across the UK: The BBC Lifeline Appeal

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers will be featured on the BBC Lifeline Appeal BBC One on Sunday 19th June. Tune in at 4:45 pm in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and at 5:15 pm in Scotland.

For over twenty years, BBC Lifeline has helped raise money and increase the profile of hundreds of charities across the UK and abroad.

The appeal will be a unique opportunity to tell people about the work of The Trust and why they need more support for the UK's unpaid Carers. www.carers.org / www.youngcarers.net

Marking Carers Week 2011, actress Pam Ferris (Matilda, Rosemary and Thyme) makes an impassioned appeal to raise funds for The Princess Royal Trust for Carers. Speaking from personal experience, Pam Ferris describes the isolation and lack of support carers can face, having been one herself for the last years of her mother's life. The film features an exclusive interview with The Trust's president, HRH Princess Anne.

One in 10 people in the UK are carers - looking after a loved-one who is sick, disabled, suffering from a mental health problem or an addiction - some carers are as young as five years old. What carers have in common is the selflessness to put their family members' needs before their own, but they face an on-going life of isolation, ill-health and poverty.

A lifeline for hundreds of thousands of carers across the UK.




For 20 years, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers has been fighting to provide carers with the support they so desperately need. The Trust understands that few of us plan to become carers, so when a caring role starts, every carer needs an expert to guide them through the maze of services, rules and entitlements. For a carer, this can make the difference between keeping and losing their job, or between staying healthy and collapsing under the stress.

At the heart of The Trust is a unique network of 144 independently-managed Carers' Centres, 89 young carers' services and interactive websites (www.carers.org and www.youngcarers.net) which deliver around the clock support to over 424,000 carers and approximately 25,000 young carers. Today we are the largest provider of carer support in the UK offering unique and innovative services.

How you can care for the carers?

With an ageing population, the UK will need more care from families and friends in the future. This is an issue that will touch everyone’s life at some point and The Trust aims to be there for every carer.

The Trust relies almost exclusively on voluntary donations to sustain their work. This is why your support is vital. They need you to help them to provide services like www.youngcarers.net, support their local Carers' Centres and develop new services, so that they continue to reach many more of the UK’s unpaid, unsupported and often unidentified carers.

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers

Please tune in tomorrow (Sunday 19th June, 2011) at 4.45pm (England) - BBC One. 

Thousands of carers out there need your support. . .

Thank you.

CarersBlog

Channel 4 lead the way to “Positive Journalism": Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields. THE TRUTH REVEALED!

Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009, as the Colombo government claimed victory over the insurgents after a bloody military operation that killed thousands of people and displaced many more.

Last night, UK broadcaster Channel 4 aired ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, a traumatic documentary exposing shocking new evidence of war crimes committed during the closing days of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009.

The footage screened ranks among the most horrific yet shown on British television. 

Sri Lanka Killing Field

Britain has renewed calls for Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes after video footage apparently showing the summary execution of naked and bound prisoners was broadcast on UK television.

A fantastic editorial in today’s Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/15/sri-lanka-evidence-that-wont-be-buried

“Naked prisoners shot in the head; the dead bodies of women who had been raped, dumped on a truck; the immediate aftermath of a shell landing on a hospital – images caught on mobile phones of the atrocities committed by government soldiers in the final months of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war. The story of what happened two years ago when government forces corralled hundreds of thousands of Tamils in horrific conditions into an ever-shrinking space, as they closed in the defeated Tigers, is well known. A UN panel last month found credible allegations of war crimes committed both by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. But the pictures of the shootings are new and Channel 4 has done what human rights organisations should have been doing in compiling and sifting through it.”

Absolutely disturbing...! The cowardice, the lies, the brutality, the hate, the absolute disregard for the life of fellow human beings is hard to accept (no matter how many times we watch this).

Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps; and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.

How can people inflict this amount of suffering on other people??

Just a bunch of extremely dangerous and powerful psychopaths!

The common definition of a “psychopath” - formally referred to a personality disorder characterised by the inability to form human attachment and an abnormal lack of empathy, masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal.

Could we really define these people?!

A complete exposé... thanks to Channel 4 and John Snow. Yet, the all-mighty UN remains silent and the influence of the International Community powerless.

Who will bring peace to all the innocent civilians killed? We can only hope that one day this can be achieved.

According to Amnesty International, the importance of a film like this in terms of pushing the human rights agenda is great. The film reinforces the findings of the UN panel – namely that both sides committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It contains very graphic footage in a long format documentary that lasts one hour and therefore has more impact on the public than a written report.
The film has been hugely important; making it impossible for diplomats to ignore that gross human rights violations took place.
Amnesty International calls for an independent international investigation into the extent of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

Amnesty International has repeatedly called for the Secretary General to launch such an independent inquiry and has urged UN member states to support it.

Q&A: SRI LANKA’S KILLING FIELDS

Justice can only be served and healing delivered if the international community launches an international, independent investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka. This historic opportunity must be seized, or the price for us all will be intolerably high.

“Channel 4 is lifting its normal commercial access restrictions to allow the film to be freely seen by anyone anywhere in the world. Additionally, it is bound to go viral via Youtube."

"This is not my normal kind of Snowblog. I end by asking you to watch this film. It could well prove a kind of a watershed, a moment when humanity, confronted with the evidence, cries ‘no more’. In our century of war – as the 21st Century is already beginning to feel – this could provide a moment when the perpetrators of war crimes meet the law courtesy of global disgust and pressure."

"You will see that the film had to be, as it is, horrifically true to the facts of what happened. I hope you will spare 50 minutes, it could be that it will make a difference.”

John Snow, Presenter
SnowBlog: http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/sri-lankas-killing-fields-project-affect-history/15457


Sri Lanka is trying to pretend these events are history. . .


They are not. . . 

For more background on Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, please visit, http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/articles/background-information

Help and Support: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/articles/help-support


Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields is available to watch on 4oD

This evidence cannot be buried !!!

Much love,

Anokhi