How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours

No, there isn't something wrong with the title of this post. Last night, this was the 30 minute news story on Nightline. It's disgusting, and though we would hope that this is a unique scenerio - that child slavery doesn't affect many children - it is estimated that there are 27 million people enslaved today. This is more than at any other time on earth.

Please, I beg you to watch the footage. It only takes a 1/2 hour out of your day but you can't help to be moved into action after watching just how easy it is to "buy a child." I attended a conference on international child trafficking in Minneapolis a few years back - all I can imagine is, is this were my child and I ask myself - What would I do?

This news story really hit home as I am working on creating an organization in Ethiopia to provide for girl-mothers who have been trafficked or forced into early child marriage and impregnated by their captors. It's in the works and I hope when I return to Ethiopia I'll be able to get the ball rolling faster than working on this on the sidelines in Minnesota.

In some regions in Ethiopia, particularly the North, the average girl is married by 14, with some being married as young as 7 years - marrying much older men. In fact, in these regions 80% of girls in the area are married by age 15. Due to their resulting early pregnancies these girls are 6 times more likely to die in child birth (already at 1 in 12 lifetime risk in Ethiopia) and experiencing obstructed births resulting in fistula.

Very briefly, these are the services we hope to provide:
-24 hour emergency and counseling hotline
-counseling
-safe shelter
-maternal, prenatal and neonatal health care
-family foster care for girl mothers and children
-skilled labor training
-employment assistance
-micro-credit
-daycare

If you'd like to learn more about this program please just let me know!! It's going to take a lot to get this up and running as it is a VERY ambitious program but with concerned people joining together with their varied backgrounds, strengths, and amazing hearts it is certainly possible. This is the first program for the new NGO "All Our Children International Outreach" for which I am a founding board member.

Link to view the episode - also provides information on how you can get involved:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=5326508&page=1