Would you take two minutes, right now, if it could help bring freedom to a child like 5-year-old Malavika*?
Malavika should have been going to school. Instead, she was helping her parents crush rocks in an Indian rock quarry where they were slaves. Until they met International Justice Mission (IJM), an international human rights organization. Now she's free, but there are millions more who need your help.
Take a stand for freedom by taking two minutes right now to sign a letter to the President asking him to help end slavery in our lifetime.
Experts estimate that there are 27 million people held in slavery today. It doesnt have to be this way.
IJM investigators, social workers and lawyers work around the world to rescue the poor from violent oppression and restore them to freedom. When you add your signature to this letter to the President, you are taking a stand for freedom.
*A pseudonym
Dear President Obama:
Next year, our country will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Although slavery is illegal almost everywhere in the world today, it endures at home and abroad. We respectfully call upon you to make the United States a leader in the fight to end slavery - again.
Americans want to end slavery once and for all. The U.S. government can play a powerful role in fighting this crime by supporting robust law enforcement and victim relief at home and abroad.This year, we urge you to make our country a leader in the fight to end modern-day slavery by:
1. Taking a stand: In your 2012 Address to the U.N. General Assembly, charge the nations gathered to abolish modern-day slavery.
2. Getting slavery out of U.S. supply chains: When you authorize trade preference programs and free trade agreements, require that our partners take steps to ensure their supply chains are slavery-free, and insist that all U.S. government contracts include supply chain transparency requirements, so that we can ensure our tax dollars are never spent on slave-made goods.
3. Providing diplomatic support: Call on U.S. diplomats to work with foreign governments on high-level strategies to rescue victims of slavery and trafficking, apprehend perpetrators and eradicate the crime.
4. Funding the fight: Develop a Presidential Fund to Eradicate Slavery through the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons that will provide resources to help 15 "Focus Countries" end trafficking, and develop a Global Fund to Eradicate Slavery with other donor countries and private sources this year to announce at the 2013 meeting of the G-8.
It is time to take a stand so we can bring an end to slavery in our lifetime.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
