Yesterday I read a report on human trafficking written for Congress in 2004. In it I learned that Georgia (the country, not the state) is among the 16 worst countries in the world in regards to human trafficking. From what I know of Georgia, I can imagine it is a pretty good transit country for women coming out of Russia. Russia, by the way, is trafficking women in droves. It seems that trafficked people don't just go from their home country to their final destination; they travel through somewhere else (and maybe a few other somewhere else’s) before they get to their final country. Trafficked people sort of flow around the world, like a large, slow river... which makes it harder to stop.

The reason I brought up Georgia is because I was there a couple months ago. The two weeks my team and I spent at an orphanage way out in the beautiful country impacted us like nothing else did. While we were there, we learned that all the kids are sent out of the orphanage when they turn 18. The boys get poor paying jobs, and the girls do too, if they're lucky. Some of the girls end up in prostitution.... and now I'm pretty convinced that some of them end up being trafficked.

I mean, imagine this situation:
Here's a beautiful 14 year old orphan girl wondering what she's going to be doing with herself after she turns 18. The orphanage owners are approached by a man saying that when she turns 18, he'll pay a nice little sum to take her off their hands. Being generally more concerned about personal gain than the welfare of their children, the orphanage owners agree. Nice deal. And there's 30 more girls where she came from.

Or, maybe the trafficker goes straight to the girl and tells her that when she's 18 he can guarantee her a job in the big city. He could call it a modeling job or a dancing job, or even a housekeeping job. Or he could offer to take her overseas to America or Europe where she would have even more job opportunities.

When your life has been confined by the walls of an orphanage, freedom can look both scary and tantalizing. In a world where you're all alone, it's nice to have someone to show you the ropes and help you along your way.... But what if it was a smooth talking trafficker who gained your trust?

It happens.
Far too often.

For me, the incomprehensibly huge number of woman and children trafficked each year just dwindled heartbreaking few.

Eteri
Natia
Nino
Acha
Mari

Is the nightmare they are living today just a shadow of the horrors to come?
Please, God. Keep them safe.