You may have thought slavery was a thing of the past, but slavery is real and thriving today.

Did you know:

• Two children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation/slavery - Approximately 400,000 per year. (2007 Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. State Department)
• Due to lack of awareness of human trafficking, many are lied to and promised the dream of a better life, an education, or a job in the city, and instead end up entering the nightmare of child slavery.
• Often, girls and boys are abducted and sold like helpless animals. They are cruelly tortured until they can no longer resist their abductors, and are forced to comply with their demands. (Zoe International)
• The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion (U.N.)
• Each year, more than 2 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade (UNICEF)
• 27 million men, women and children are held as slaves. (Kevin Bales, Disposable People)
• 1 in 5 women is a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. (U. N. Development Fund for Women)
• More than 1 million children live in detention, the vast majority awaiting trial for minor offenses. (UNICEF)

So how can you help? Support organizations like the International Justice Mission (IJM). Learn more about IJM at their website:  http://www.ijm.org.

The IJM Mission:
International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.

A while back a friend of mine introduced me to a site called Kiva. Such an interesting concept to help lend money (through micro-payments) to small business owners in developing countries. Check out http://www.kiva.org for more information.

Kiva's Mission:
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

Welcome to the eCompassion network!

Our mission is to support and bring awareness to various humanitarian organizations and efforts. Our emphasis is in the areas of social justice, which include the advocation for children in need, supporting the impoverished, and fighting for abolition. We also support various Christian missions to countries like Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines.

Join us as we journey through the global mission fields. We hope you'll find many ways to get involved in making an impacting in the world around you. In the simplest form and in our hope, we encourage you to... love one another.