The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion) for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation.
Human smuggling is the facilitation, transportation or illegal entry of a person(s) across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception. Often, human smuggling is conducted in order to obtain a financial or other material benefit for the smuggler.
MoviesMakingADifference a 501(c)(3), addresses, raises awareness and then aids the survivors of such crimes.
Child Brides
As the issue of forced child marriage gains visibility around the world, many Americans remain unaware of the atrocity in their own backyards.
Most are oblivious to the fact that this is human trafficking. These terrified girls are more often than not, traded between communities in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada as sex slaves and for domestic servitude or as one would horses to 'breed the best stock", hoping for strapping young males for child labor.
In 27 states, the law does not specify any minimum age below which a child cannot marry. In a survey of marriage licenses, at least 167,000 children under 18 were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010. Statistics are not available for later years
Forced marriage has several important parallels with human trafficking. Each year, thousands of girls are removed from U.S. schools and forced to be married. Girls who resist or refuse these marriages may be subjected to physical and emotional abuse, confinement in the home, or even death. Once married, victims experience include increased rates of infant and maternal mortality, rape, domestic violence and suicide. The coercion, exploitation and ongoing violence involved in these scenarios mirror the critical traits of human trafficking.
Child Labor
It is hard to believe that in the U.S., children are being forced to build municipal projects, and work in factories and on construction sites, ending their education and their childhood. But it is happening every day, from coast to coast in America.
In fact all of the young men who have joined MoviesMakingADifference were forced into hard labor by age 9.
They are then discarded when of no more use or even questioned their lack of education or pay. Suicide, addiction or victims of human trafficking are often their future.
Very few reports are available and most are outdated. As of 2019, it is estimated 14,000 are on still on the streets.
Map: polygamous construction companies
have worked on construction jobs with their
Child Laborers.
Spiritual Abuse
Imagine being just fourteen years old, never seeing the outside world, and being forced to marry a man thirty years your senior. Imagine being sexually abused over and over at such a delicate age, not really even knowing what was happening to you, or even what being loved meant. Imagine that happening to your daughter or son for that matter. Can you imagine being a mother of 6 children, all the product of rape and anticipating the same such horrible act on a child you loved. Or imagine being forced into child labor at age 9 with no pay or a father working like that for decades, not having enough food to feed yourself or your children.
Imagine never going to school, never celebrating a birthday and not knowing how old you really are because birthdays were forbidden in your community.
This is not the story of one child or just Colorado City, but 1000s in our country, Canada and Mexico. Many brave girls and boys, women and men have escaped the confinement of such communities and with the help of MoviesMakingADifference. They now have a job, an apartment, clothes and food for their children. Many have scholarships for drug and alcohol treatment. Many have gotten GEDs with our help.
We Rescued from
Sex Traffickers
Diana received an Imessage passed on by another MMAD family member. She pinned the location, found the closest establishment opened
at 9:00 at night, directed the trafficked girl and called the establishment, instructing them to call the police and an ambulance. She was taken to the hospital where a rape kit was performed. Diana gave the police the address where she was being held, the waited for the traffickers to come back. They were arrested, the DNA matched and they were arrested. Bravely the young survivor faced her predators and testified in court. Diana testified remotely and all were found guilty. Today they are in prison and the young woman actually works in the same establishment who initially opened their doors to her. MMAD, provided basic needs, got her into a domestic violence shelter, and eventually purchased a car so she would have transportation in the tiny town with no Ubers or public transportation.
Board Member
Laura Delisa at a
Truck Stop
Have you ever wished you could do something to help young innocent victims, create awareness while making a huge Difference?
Well, now you can.
We have aided over 150 survivors adjust to our world and giving them the love that a childhood should have been filled with. For just $22/month in 2022, you can help these kids with food, shelter, jobs, rehab, clothing and education. Just the basic things in life we all take for granted.
It’s so rewarding to see these once hopeless individuals, now feeling inspired and purposeful…that they belong, that they are important, that they have a voice, that they can be happy, that life is worth living.
THAT THEY MATTER.
We welcome you aboard with us and thank you for sharing your love and MakingADifference in someone's life.