“A teenage girl screams in terror as she is beaten up by a man twice her size. Trapped in a squalid basement [also known as a brothel] in a foreign country, bruised and bleeding, she is at the complete mercy of her captors. Having been raped and forced into prostitution, the continued psychological torture has pushed her to the depths of despair” describes Sally Bolton, journalist from the UN Chronicle 42.4. This little girl, like most cases on sex slavery, is ignored because people choose to believe sex slavery is not happening and turn their backs on the ones that most need their help. The victims go day by day being ignored and shun from their families as the sexual consumers treat them as useless items while each time the victim’s lives become emptier.

A recent article from the 2008 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace states, “Most people imagine that slavery died in the 19th century. Since 1817, more than a dozen international conventions have been signed banning the slave trade. Yet, today there are more slaves than at any time in human history, [27million to be exact].” In 2008 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reported recently a journalist who went 600 miles from the United States to the poor country of Haiti. He was surprised when a man named Benavil, a trafficker, asked if he wanted a slave for labor or personal usage; as if human being were just an object that can be used and abused whenever someone likes. Benavil successfully arranged for this journalist to buy a human being for 50 bucks. Considering that it is so easy to buy a slave, what can we do to be more concern and sympathetic towards these victims? We need to start putting a face to each rape, each scream, each statistic, and every 27 million faces so it can become more personal to us!

Many of these young girls are forced to have sex with at least 10 men a day; some total 100 men a year. As young virgins are being sold for a least $500, many of the traffickers buy these little girls as young as 3 to have sex with these grown men. The fact of the matter is buyers visit these victims and rape them--repeatedly. They are constantly being reminded that they are worthless as each consumer neglects them and takes advantage of them. These sexual consumers have no concern for their feelings. No concern for their pain. Most of these victims are stripped from a lifestyle of freedom and are kept in bondage to satisfy the needs of others. "They are ordinary girls [teenage boys and girls are also included] who've been stolen from their lives. Their lives are a living hell." Donald Sutherland, who plays a senior United States Immigration and Customs enforcement agent, bluntly implies.  How they long to break free from that lifestyle and just be happy.

The artist of the name of Emmanuel Jal describes his experience while observing a young girl in the industry of sex slavery. “Her screams get faint and her cries silence. Does she think she is worthy of attention? Suppose she doesn’t think she is worthy at all. What do you want me to do I ask the girl, ‘write my story so I can be heard’ I say to her just grab a piece of paper write down your thoughts. Fold the paper into a paper plane and send it out the window to someone who cares.” We can research and follow up with this issue all we want, but when that paper plane hits us right dab in our chest, will we read it and do something about it or will we pick it up and throw it in the air hoping someone else will care? We see the paper plane hover above us. Droplets of the child’s tears drip from the plane. We catch it and read. “Is anyone out there? Why me? Why me?”