{"id":1498,"date":"2008-02-11T20:34:28","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T20:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2010-12-22T12:36:44","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:36:44","slug":"6105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/02\/11\/6105\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Million Signatures on Anti-Trafficking Petition"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (February 11, 2008) – As the Evangelical Covenant Church strengthens its focus on the worldwide tragedy of human trafficking, one Covenanter is working with an international organization to halt the $10 billion-a-year industry.
\n
\nAlicia VerHage, a 2002 graduate of North Park University and a member of Kalamazoo Covenant Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, has been interning with Oasis International and STOP THE TRAFFIK. She is helping to collect a million signatures from around the world to present to the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday. People still can sign the petition at the STOP THE TRAFFIK<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a just cause, it is our spiritual mandate to care for the poor and vulnerable,\u201d VerHage says.<\/p>\n

Although slavery was officially abolished worldwide in 1927, the UN estimates that today there are 27 million individuals forced to work as slaves and domestic servants. The U.S. State Department estimates 17,500 new slaves are brought into the United States each year, many of them as domestic help.<\/p>\n

Women Ministries of the Evangelical Covenant Church, in collaboration with the Department of Compassion, Mercy and Justice, recently introduced the Break the Chains<\/a> initiative to increase awareness and provide resources to local churches and individuals to join the abolitionist movement. The 2008 project also will raise funds to support the Hindustani Covenant Church<\/a> and the International Justice Mission<\/a> – both work with women and girls being sexually exploited in India, a nation considered to have the largest number of slaves. The Break the Chains website has information on what various ministry areas in the denomination are doing in response to this growing problem..<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very impressive to be able to tell my colleagues about my denomination and that it was ready to get on board,\u201d VerHage says. \u201cThey were impressed at the quick response and hopeful that like-minded people really could engage in the efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

VerHage recently moved to South Africa, where she is working to promote the Chocolate Campaign<\/a> to encourage people to buy fair trade chocolate. \u201cThis is connected to the issue of trafficking because many young children are currently being trafficked to and from places in West Africa to harvest cocoa beans,\u201d she says. \u201cAlthough all of us love a good piece of chocolate, I don’t think we would want to have a child suffer for our indulgence.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Break the Chains website, \u201cnearly 43 percent of the world’s cocoa farms are located in Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) where thousands of children are slaves\u201d and working in the industry.<\/p>\n

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BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (February 11, 2008) – As the Evangelical Covenant Church strengthens its focus on the worldwide tragedy of human trafficking, one Covenanter is working with an international organization to halt the $10 billion-a-year industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSeeking Million Signatures on Anti-Trafficking Petition - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/02\/11\/6105\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeking Million Signatures on Anti-Trafficking Petition - 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