Many people don't know that slavery still exists, but there are as amny as 27 million slaves in the world today. You can help spread awareness by blogging about this issue. Not sure where to start? Below you can find 6 ideas to get you going, and links to resources to help you spread awareness.
1. Blog About the Facts
The facts surrounding slavery are mind-boggling and heart breaking. I've compiled a list of
seven facts I thought were especially informative or compelling which you are welcomed to use
Other great sources for facts about slavery:
United Nations Worldwide Report on Human Trafficking
2013 U.S. State Department Report on Trafficking in Persons.
The Global Slavery Index
A WORD ON COPYRIGHT: Just remember that while facts themselves are not copywrited (at least in the US) the way things are worded IS. It's ok to quote a sentence or two from a report or article verbatim if you put it in quotes and credit the source, but make sure that most of the post is written in your own words, even if it uses facts from various sources.
2. Share a Video
There are many, many great videos on you-tube and they are easy to embed in a blog post. They can stand alone or be incorporated into a longer post.
Click here for a list of suggested videos.
HOW TO POST A YOU-TUBE VIDEO:
To post one of these videos on a blogger blog, simply click the "share" button after watching the video, then click the embed button to get the code. Click over to the HTML tab in the post editor and copy paste the code.: For wordpress blogs see instructions here.
3. Blog About Slavery Where You Live
While awareness of slavery is glrowing, many still think it's something that happens "somewhere else." But it is present worldwide. Blogging about slavery where you live can help shed light that slavery isn't "some other country's problem" but everyone's problem.
So how do you find out about slavery where you live? A simple google search with "human trafficking" and the name of your city, state, country, or region will often bring up news articles. And below are some more resources to help you find local info on human trafficking where you live:
Sources:
WORLDWIDE:
SlaveryMap.org
Slavery Map records instances of slavery across the globe. Unlike the Global Slavery Index it's goal is not to estimate the total number of slaves in a certain area, but to highlight individual stories. It's a great tool for bloggers because you can actually embed a map of an incident in your area right onto your blog. Incidents are shown with an orange flag with an exclamation point (if you see a number that means there's more than one incident in that area). When you click on it a screen will come up showing more details about the incident, and a copy paste code for embedding it on your blog.
Global Slavery Index
This site gives estimates of the number of slaves in nearly every country around the world, and ranks countries by prevalence of slavery. They also have special reports on a select number of countries, and have some additional reports on a few other countries.
U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report (All Years)
This has a detailed "country narratives" on nearly every country around the world. It's somewhat difficult reading, but has a lot of useful facts and details.
US: STATE BY STATE RESOURCES
Shared Hope International 2013 State Report Card
This report card ranks states according to
41 key legislative components that must be addressed in a state’s laws in order to effectively respond to the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking
Polaris State Ratings on Human Trafficking Laws
An overview of laws by state dealing with trafficking, with a grid that shows how well each state does on this issue.
UNDOC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons - 2012
This United Nations report has several charts which break up statistics by nation. You can find them fairly easily just scrolling through the report. Some are in map form. I don't think you can copy the charts as they are but you could certainly use info from them.
US Data from the Polaris Project
The Polaris project has a lot of good state by state data for the US.
4. Focus on an Aspect of Modern Slavery
Slavery is such a broad topic. Sometimes it's good to focus on just one aspect of it. If you're blog is related to a certain topic, you might want to write about slavery in light of that. For instance, if your blog is about cooking, you could write about how slave labor often contributes to our food supply. If you have a parenting blog, you could tackle how to talk with your kids about this issue.
You could focus on a charity working to help victims, focus on labor slavery, prostitution and slavery, take a closer look at laws about human trafficking being considered, etc.
5. Use A Compelling Graphic
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. I don't know if that's true, but I do know that a picture can catch someone's attention and sometimes draw them in to read 1,000 words...or however many you dedicate to this subject.
Click here to see images you can use on your blog...
(with restrictions...please read instructions below each picture.)
5. Share YOUR Plan to Fight Slavery
How do you plan to combat slavery? By spreading awareness, maybe by becoming better informed, or even giving to an organization working to end human trafficking? Whatever you plan is, consider sharing it with others...and maybe they will be inspired to do something too.
GRAPHIC CREDIT
The graphic for the mousepad came from a custom mousepad I made using
Zazzle. You can make one yourself like it there using their fonts and tools.
