For this Hearts Should Be Free Giveaway I wanted to give away something map related. Not having a lot to spend, I found some rolled map beads on Etsy for $1, and made these out of them and some beads I already had. Not bad, I say!
Oh, and, I have to share the envelope Sarah Pepper sent the beads in....I mean isn't that cool! (Sorry, cool envelope not included with giveaway).
But wherever you live, whether here or across the world, I wanted to show you just how close slavery comes!
TO ENTER
To enter to win, visit http://www.slaverymap.org. Find your country or state, and click where you think your city is. Find the closest incident (marked by an orange exclamation...or by a number if there are more than one incident). Pick one incident near where you live, open it up, and read it. Then share in the rafflecopter below a detail from the incident.
Remember, these are only the incidents reported to Slavery Map and confirmed. There are other incidents of slavery which don't show up on this map. But it gives you an idea of the scope. The nearest incident to me was about an hour away. The victim was a 19-year-old woman who had been kept in a Texas hotel for 3 days and forced to have sex with four men. She found a way to call family at home, and they called the police who rescued her. This happened in 2010.
Would you like to win this beautiful bracelet from Tiggy's House? It's one I bought that was a little loose (but then I have small hands, so it should fit most people). This giveaway is part of the Hearts Should Be Free Giveaway event to raise awareness of the up to 27 million people currently enslaved.
ABOUT TIGGY'S HOUSE
At Tiggy's House Etsy Shop you'll find beautiful handmade jewelery. You'll also find a vision....a vision to help children who have been abused in the child sex trafficking industry; to give them a home and a place to heal.
Tiggy's House is named after Dana Harvey's young son, who died at 21 months of age. It is also the name that will be given to the children's home she is raising funds to build through Tiny Hands International, an organization which helps child victims of sex trafficking. 100% of the profits from her shop go to support this project.
Here's a picture I took of this bracelet on my arm:
Pretty, isn't it? Just perfect for St. Patrick's Day with that cool Celtic Kotwork (a Josephine knot to be specific).
TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY
First read this CNN article on human trafficking (you don't have to watch the videos that are interspersed), then enter the Rafflecopter form below. There are more things you can do for extra entries, but they're not required.
HOW TO ENTER
To enter add the phone number above to your contact list or write it down and put it in your wallet, then fill out the rafflecopter form below. Sometimes the form take a minute or two to load. There's extra entries too!
STATIONERY ON SALE - PROCEEDS TO CHARITY
I am going to be selling some of the stationery above and donate the proceeds to an organization which fights modern slavery or helps human trafficking victims. I havn't yet decided on the organization or the price, and need to check on how much shipping would be. If you would be interested in being notified when I get this posted up for sale, please e-mail me at ecarian at yahoo com or leave a comment with you e-mail below.
I won the 3G iPhone cell phone case from CafePress pictures above in a giveaway last year. Never used it and thought it would be a great item to give away for the Hearts Should Be Free event.
Hearts Should Be Free is a giveaway event to spread awareness of modern slavery. Many people don't realize that slavery still exists today, yet there are as many as 27 million people enslaved today around the world.
Today I want to talk about how slave labor contributes to many of the products we find on our store shelves. Sadly, forced labor contributes to many of the products we use and much of the produce that we buy. In recent years slave labor has been used for making clothes, for mining diamonds, mining gold and other minerals (including those used in our electronics), farming coffee beans and cocoa, harvesting tomatoes (right here in America), and many, many other areas of farming and manufacturing.
I want to be clear...it isn't that companies go out and seek out slave labor. But poor monitoring of a company's supply chain can allow forced labor to"sneak in" to the supply chain unnoticed. However, when large companies put in mechanisms to monitor and improve the working conditions throughout their supply chain, it can have a huge impact.
Since this giveaway is for an iPhone case (and I'll assume if you're entering you have an iphone), I'd like to share a couple related aps you can download to your phone.
The Fair Trade App
When you buy Fair Trade you know that you are buying a product that provides a living wage to workers all down the supply chain and that monitors it's working conditions. This also helps guarantee that these products are not made with the work of slaves. The Fair Trade App helps you find Fair Trade items near you, and allows you to help build their database by adding fair trade items you find for sale in your area.
The Free2Work App
This app allows you to look up products to see how they rate on to trafficking and other labor abuses. Though it only has a few hundred products listed so far, and though the bar code scanning is a little buggy, I still like this app as it allows you to browse companies by category to see their rating, and so is a great way to find some of the companies who are already doing things to help rid their supply chain of slavery.
I'd also encourage you to visit Chain Store Reaction, a website where you can write letters to companies urging them to take a stand against slavery, and can see their responses.
I'd also like to point you towards a couple articles related to Apple and it's labor policies....
Should Apple Make a Conflict Free Minerals iPhone
Slavery is rampant in the Congo, where revenue from the mines funds the militias which are a war there. This Forbes article questions whether abstaining from buying conflict minerals is the best course of action, and highlights the complexities of this issue well.
Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory
While this program by This American Life (through NPR) is NOT about slavery, I felt it was relavant and wanted to include it. This three act look at labor policies in China is EXCELLENT and, yes, even entertaining. This program is in three section, or "acts, " which can be listened to together or separately. While it doesn't deal with slavery directly (all the workers in the factory Mr. Daisey visited were payed a salary and could quit any time they wanted) it does highlight the importance of workplace monitoring, and the third act contains insightful commentary on workers rights and labor conditions around the world.
Now, on to the giveaway...
HOW TO ENTER
Just fill out the entry form below. Giveaway ends February 29. Open worldwide, 18+ only. Form may take a minute or two to load.
At Tiggy's House Etsy Shop you'll find beautiful handmade jewelery. You'll also find a vision....a vision to help children who have been abused in the child sex trafficking industry; to give them a home and a place to heal.
Tiggy's House is named after Dana Harvey's young son, who died at 21 months of age. It is also the name that will be given to the children's home she is raising funds to build through Tiny Hands International, an organization which helps child victims of sex trafficking. 100% of the profits from her shop go to support this project.
The prices at Tiggy's House shop are really reasonable too. I was surprised to find many items for under $5, like the bracelet above.
You will have a chance to win an item of your choice from Tiggy's House. To enter, watch the short video below about Child Trafficking, and then fill out the Rafflecopter form below (sometimes the form takes a few minutes to load).
This is just ONE of the items I'm giving away to spread awareness about modern slavery. I have more giveaways going RIGHT NOW, and later this month will have a multi-item giveaway which will include a bracelet from Tiggy's House.
I'm holding this giveaway to spread awareness of modern slavery. You may think that slavery ended with the Civil War, but there are actually more people in slavery today than there was before emancipation.
You have a chance to win 20 Valentines Mini-Cards pictured above just for learning a little about slavery. To enter, read the 10 facts below and then fill out the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post.
10 Facts about Modern Slavery
There are more slaves today than in any other time in modern history--around 27 million.
Slavery is illegal everywhere, but nevertheless is extremely widespread. Slavery exists even in developed nations, like the United States.
The average cost of a slave around the world is $90.
The slave trade today is commonly called "human trafficking." Human trafficking includes trafficking for forced labor and forced prostitution.
Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, second in size only to drug dealing, with the illegal arms trade running alongside.
Around 80% of human trafficking victims are women and girls.
50% of human trafficking victims are under 18.
Worldwide, there are nearly two million children in the commercial sex trade.
After being forced into prostitution, the average life expectancy for a child prostitute is 7 years.
1,000s of victims are trafficked into the US every year.
Did you know that there are as many as 27 million people in slavery today? That's more than there were before the start of the civil war! There are people being kept illegally enslaved by fraud and threat of violence in every country around the world.
This giveaway event helped spread awareness about modern slavery (sometimes called human trafficking). So many are un-aware of this terrible injustice, and people who don't know about a problem can't do anything to change it.
To increase awareness, my sponsors and me gave away various items on this blog. To enter people read articles about slavery, watch short videos, found incidents of slavery near them, and added the Human Trafficking Hotline to their wallets and cell phone contact lists.
There was 7 giveaways total. You can see what was given away below.
HSBF WINNERS
If you won a giveaway, you should have
been sent an e-mail. If not please contact me
at ecarian at yahoo dot com.
Volunteers Wanted For 2014! Do you care about the issues of slavery? Hearts Should Be Free is returning in January 2014, and I will need some help. If you are interested in helping in any of the following ways, please let me know by e-mailing me at ecarian@yahoo.com and I will send you more info closer to the events Heres some ways I'll need help. I may think of others:
HELP PROMOTE: You will be able to help promote by blogging, tweeting, sharing on facebook, e-mailing your friends, or posting a link to the event on your blog or website (there will be a button provided.
PROVIDE A GIVEAWAY PRIZE: I'm especially interested in fair trade products. Hand-made items are great too.
GRAMMAR CHECK: I would love some grammar police to help review posts.
FACT CHECK/RESEARCH: I want to keep the posts that are part of this event as factual as possible.
HOST A GIVEAWAY: I may be having other bloggers help host the giveaways this year.
TAKE PART IN A GROUP GIVEAWAY: One thing I would like to do this year is a group giveaway. Contributing an amount (haven't decided how much, but probably $3-$5 will get you a place on the Rafflecopter. The money will be used to buy a prize from a shop which donates their profits to help end human trafficking or help victims.
HELP ME RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY LAW: The last time I did this I just jumped in and made the giveaways open internationally without really knowing what I was doing. That was stupid. Every country has their own laws regarding giveaways. If you understand giveaway laws in any country outside the US, or are willing to research them (for any country), I could use your help. I may not be able to make this as "international" as last time, but I would at least like to have some giveaways open to other countries, and you can help with that.
If you're interested in doing any of the above in 2014, please contact me at ecarian@yahoo.com.
Thanks to Andrea Renee for her creative commons photo which was used to make the background for the button for this event.
