Dear Editor: Happy New Year. This is the time when many of us take stock of our lives and have thoughts of how we can improve ourselves, our country and our community. January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
Did you know?
–According to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise which unfortunately involves hundreds of thousands of children. No community is immune from being affected. (https://www.justice.gov)
–Alaska consistently struggles with some of the highest rates of child abuse and neglect in the nation. This makes our children more vulnerable to be trafficked. (Alaska Children’s Alliance)
–“The #1 driver of human trafficking in Alaska is the unsupervised online activity of our youth.” (Gwen Adams, Priceless Alaska)
What you can do…
–Learn more at: NCMEC.org. (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children); and NetSmartzKids.org
–Increase your awareness and support of our referring local agencies, like Youth Advocates of Sitka, Sitkans Against Family Violence (SAFV) , Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA), and more.
–Attend local presentations on Human Trafficking in Alaska including tools to protect us from online predators.
–Please pray for the protection of our most vulnerable (especially children) against all aspects of Human Trafficking and for God’s guidance in fighting the people and forces behind this horrendous activity. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11
Kathy Newman, Dick & Marjorie Parmelee, Dug & Susan Jensen,
Mary Stevens, Karen Lucas, Alene Henning, Gary & Coke Oines,
Ralph Junker, Mark & Denise Klingler, Kathie Johnson,
Cass & Stewart Pook, Ken & Alice Cameron, Dan & Kristy Corduan,
Karen and Jere Christner, Sitka
