Donate to fight rape trade

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Hi everyone,

Please read the email below and consider donating money to Avaaz to end the rape trade. Every minute, 2 girls (as young as 9 years old) are sold into sex slavery, raped and beaten. This actually happens near our homes and schools. Avaaz is working with other unsung heroes to end this evil and disgusting slave trade. Signing can and does make a difference. It has helped Avaaz raise huge donations to fight for human rights. Signing has also helped rebuild countries torn by natural disasters, like Haiti. You voice really does count. You can donate here:


https://secure.avaaz.org/en/fight_rape_trade/?vl


Feel free to let me know if I need to add or correct anything. Thank you so much if you choose to sign, or to help in any other way. We can't afford to sit by and do nothing about this. The cost is too high.

 Amita was a sweet 9 year old girl who loved her family. One day, she was kidnapped, taken to a city far away and put in a cage. She was forced to have sex with dozens of men per day, and brutally beaten when she cried or refused. 5 terror-filled years later, suffering from sexually transmitted disease, she died from a beating at age 14.

Amita's story is about the worst nightmare imaginable, but millions of women and girls are traded for rape every year -- one of the most evil problems in our world today. The best way to tackle it is to expose the rape traders and kill their profits. In January Avaaz members voted to make this a top priority this year, so we're beginning work across the world with expert teams, local campaigners and investigators to shut down these brutal and shadowy businesses.

Every minute this problem continues is too long. We can't bring Amita back, but every minute, two more Amitas are sold into horror. Let's stop it now -- click to donate:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/fight_rape_trade/?vl

In the annual Avaaz poll, almost 90% of our community voted for tackling the rape trade as a top campaigning priority for 2010. Here are the actions we are developing:

* Supporting a team of expert sting operators to pose as sex customers, working with local law enforcement to expose the rape trade one location at a time, breaking trafficking rings, freeing the women and girls and hurting the profits of the rape traders.
* Publicly shaming complicit officials and politicians in countries where official corruption is part of the rape trade. The ads would name and shame individuals and campaign for their removal and reform.
* Running a global day of action outside slave houses - exposing locations across the world where trade victims are being sold and raped This shocking violence is often going on just down the road from our homes and schools.
* Lobbying elected leaders to make this issue a priority and use the full resources of our governments to stop it, including passing better legislation to protect and provide for the women caught in the rape trade.
* Partnering with sex work activists, who have deep understanding of the business, to expose the violence and take on the traffickers.
* Tracking key trade routes and blocking ships carrying kidnapped girls and women in key transit ports.
* Going after rape traders directly by publicly exposing them with WANTED billboards in their communities.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/fight_rape_trade/?vl

Avaaz emails like this one have generated millions for other causes like Burma, climate change and Haiti. That's what it will take to stop this trade. It's not about how much we give, but how many of us do. Right now, a girl's life is being transformed into an unimaginable horror, and we can do something to stop it:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/fight_rape_trade/?vl

In the time it took to read this email, we've lost another 4 girls. There's no time to waste.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Raluca, Ricken, Graziela, Paula, Paul, Benjamin, Pascal, Milena and the entire Avaaz team.

More Information:

BBC on modern slavery:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/slavery/default.stm

Source for statistics and more information about human trafficking at UN Office on Drugs and Crime:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html?ref=menuside

FBI's work on human trafficking:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/civilrights/slavery.htm

Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings:
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=197&CM=1&CL=ENG

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Avaaz.org is a 4.2-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.