I think it’s fair to say most people realize slavery is still an issue, even if we call it a different name. It’s the scope and scale that will take you by surprise. Here are a few statistics:

• There have been cases of child (under age 18) trafficking in all 50 states.  And most of the sex trafficking victims in the US are citizens.  (source: UNICEF)
• 55% of human trafficking victims are women and girls. (source: ILO)
• Globally, there are currently 5.5 million children in some state of slavery. (source: UNICEF)
• An estimated 21 million victims (of any age) are trapped in modern-day slavery.  Of these:

             14.2 million (68%) were exploited for labor
             4.5 million (22%) were sexually exploited
             2.2 million (10%) were exploited in state-imposed forced labor (source: ILO)

• Of the 14.2 million forced labor victims, half work in construction, mining, or manufacturing. The remaining are split between agricultural work and domestic work. (source: ILO)

You may think that 21 million isn’t all that huge compared to the world’s population. If you do the math you’ll find that about 1 in 300 human beings are slaves.  Let that sink in. 

So how can we use our money to do something to fight against human trafficking?  As you can imagine, there are lots of great resources and organizations out there doing just that. There’s the Polaris Project, UNICEF, COSA, Goodweave, are good resources. 

There’s another important consideration in combatting slavery: how can we reduce the demand for slave-made goods?  The US Department of Labor maintains a list of goods by originating country. With a little research you can find how to minimize or eliminate goods you purchase that are likely produced by slave labor. Here’s the link:

https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/

Another consideration is how to avoid making money off slave labor. You may not have thought of it, but it’s a good bet you have investments in mutual funds which invest in many, many companies. How many of them are overseas?  How many benefit from exploiting slave labor?  Again, there are resources available to identify which companies to avoid investments with. One such organization is US SIF, The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment.  They provide a directory of financial advisors and investments that are sustainable and responsible. 

To recap: we can give to organizations that combat slavery, we can reduce demand for slave-made goods by not purchasing those goods, and we can invest responsibly to avoid indirectly rewarding the perpetrators of human trafficking.