How many slaves work for you?

Somewhere in these early days of Lent somebody said, “Lent is not about you; it is about your right relationships with others, with the world.”

Thinking about the relationships of my life could keep me very busy during these 40 days of Lent, but my relationships with the world and with the peoples of the world will surely take me a lifetime.

So, as is my practice, I looked for something concrete to do or, more importantly, someone concrete to think and pray about. That led me to the Slavery Footprint.  

If you have been following the recent justice activity of the Sisters of Providence, you know that we have tried to raise consciousness about the issue of human trafficking. Our proximity to Indianapolis and the Super Bowl brought home the reality that one of the major ways that human trafficking occurs in our country is at major sporting events. However, this is only one aspect of the human trafficking problem.

Forms of slavery in the 21st Century. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

There are 27 million people around the world who are forced to work without pay and unable to walk away. Forced labor most often happens to those made vulnerable by high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict or cultural acceptance.

This, too, is human trafficking and, unlike the sexual exploitation of women and children, this is a kind of slavery in which I do participate. 

The Slavery Footprint helped me identify how my own patterns of living and buying enslave people around the world. It was pretty sobering to find out how many slaves work for me.

Fortunately, the Slavery Footprint organization provides positive steps to help raise awareness, the kind of awareness that can lead to change. They even offer a blog of their own about actions to take during Lent against slavery.

I don’t expect to be able to eliminate all the slaves in my life by Easter, but I do hope that my new found awareness will help free some of them.