Total Wipeout’s Amanda Byram tells us of how she first started on her abolition journey.

“Hello fellow Run for Love-ers!

It’s so great that this years events are finding momentum with such enthusiastic people joining the Love146 journey! This is where mine started…

I found out about child trafficking when I was up late at night jetlagged from a long flight. I came across the Love146 website and spent hours watching Rob Morris (Love146 Founder) recall the horrific reality of what was and is going on to children around the globe. I sat and watched videos of survivors stories. They were stories of sadness but also so much hope. These stories broke me, and I knew from that very moment that I could no longer be a bystander.

In January I went to visit the Love146 Round Home in the Philippines. It is a beautiful house where the lives of the most traumatized, sexually exploited children are painstakingly pieced back together. It was overwhelming to meet these beautiful young teenagers who had had their youth and their lives stolen from them by predators. As well as the Round Home I also visited the Red Light District, which was so oppressive and completely sickening, and saw where some of these girls had escaped from, and where so many like them were still trapped.

While I was visiting the Round Home, there was a wonderful celebration occurring. Two of the girls who had been cared for at the Round Home previously were having a double wedding, an occasion I will never forget! These girls were discovering some of the joys of life that had once seemed an impossibility to them. And they were happy again! Everyone was smiling, dancing and laughing. The weddings took place at the Love146 safe home because this is such an incredible visual encouragement to the other girls who are still recovering from their experience. It’s a display of hope and a glimpse into the future that is now open to them!

The children I met are just a small drop in the ocean of those trapped in situations of the worst kinds of slavery and exploitation. But I know that Love146 is committed to helping as many children as they can. I know that Love146 is committed to stopping this exploitation from happening at all, in many countries including our own.

The fundraising and awareness you are creating is critical to Love146′s work towards change. I am delighted to count myself amongst your ranks as a fellow abolitionist and standing together to make this change possible!

So I’ll leave you with the words of Margaret Mead.

‘Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’

So come on gang… let’s work really hard on behalf of the children that need us!”

Lots of love
AMANDA BYRAM

This week Love146′s Director of Aftercare, Gundelina Velazco, tells us about the hope and restoration that she sees in girls at the Love146 Round Home. Love146 knows that children can only be truly freed from exploitation and slavery if a home of safety and holistic care is waiting for them. The Love146 Round Home is designed to facilitate the restoration of every child entering its doors. Gundelina’s story of Neni’s experience at the Round Home follows…

“I see the numerous scars on Neni’s (not her real name) wrists and recall her countless attempts to take her own life. She was trafficked and then went blind. She decided she had every reason to want to end it all.
But she is now joyful, hopeful and full of visions of a bright future for herself. She is playing the piano, going to school, getting excellent marks and is often complimented on being the model student and great example to others.
Such improbable feats of restoration are being made possible by the support and love of people like you. Indeed, Neni always says that were it not for the support of people who want to donate and fundraise then she would not be going to school and pursuing her dreams. In fact she would not be alive at all.
This is the same song that all the Round Home girls are singing. All of them have their own sad story to tell but all of these stories are being tweaked by your act, that is, run, of love.”

It’s time for us all to bring this level of care to trafficked children in the UK. This is our vision, thank you for joining us in it!

As Run for Love progresses from one large run in 2011 to having 7 runs in 2012, in places as far reaching as London, Athens and San Diego, it is important to remind ourselves why we have this activity.

Every single minute of every day, a child somewhere in the world – perhaps on your own doorstep – is being sold into exploitation, including forced prostitution, labour without pay, begging and in the extreme – organ removal.

It would not be enough for Love146 to simply be another charity asking for your money but not asking you to become a participant in change. But what does change look like? What could it look like here in the UK with our own child trafficking issues?

Two years ago I was in a gathering in London and there speaking was a guy called Cyril Regis. You would have to be older than 30, or a real football fan, to know who Cyril Regis is, and whilst I certainly fall into the over 30′s category, my lack of football knowledge meant I hadn’t a clue. Cyril used to play for England, but more than this, he was one of the first two black players to be invited into the England squad at a time when racism was still alive and well amongst the general UK population.

At this gathering, Cyril spoke about what his career was like 30 years ago. He went from playing in a lower league club with a crowd of 5000, with 500 people chanting racist abuse, to being in the England Squad with crowds of 50,000 people and 5,000 people chanting racist abuse and throwing bananas onto the pitch. Cyril was sharing this story because he wanted to celebrate our capacity as people to partner with change.

In his own lifetime, he has seen the issue of racism change in the UK.  The general public consciousness changed to the majority finding racism unacceptable in the workplace, in education and in law. Not only has legislation been implemented to curtail those who wish to continue to be racist, that legislation is implemented and perpetrators are brought to justice.

All of this changed in 30 years. So is it impossible to think that through public awareness, strong public opinion, action, legislation and law enforcement, that we could see the UK become a safe place for children, free from exploitation and sexual abuse?

Yes, of course we need your money.  We need you to go crazy with your fundraising as it fuels the work we are doing.  But it is the work itself that must also involve you, as an advocate, as an activist, as a participant in change.

Yours in abolition,

GAZ KISHERE – Love146 Europe Operations Director

Many members of the public in the western world could be forgiven for believing that human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children happens anywhere but where you are. We are used to associating issues of child exploitation with being something that happens to children in Asia or Eastern Europe – an issue that is firmly ‘Over There’. Well, that issue is very much ‘Over Here’ in the UK, US, Central Europe and many other places, and it is not just the children of other nations being brought into our country. Right now in the UK, there will be many of our own UK children being forced into sexual exploitation for financial profit of their pimps and related gangs. The grooming and pimping of UK children has been steadily increasing over the years to an all time high.

Why is this happening?

There are two critical factors to all exploitation: demand for people to use and enslave, and people looking to financially profit from others sufferings. A critical aspect of internal trafficking within and across UK communities is that is makes good business sense to professional exploiters. They do not have to pay to bring people across international borders and they do not have to risk customs and border security. And why should they, when they can feed the demand for sex with minors from your own country and communities? This is the harsh reality of human trafficking – seeing people as product in a world ruthlessly driven by profit, which has seen the sale of people become the crime of choice for criminals. More than guns and drugs.

In some UK cities, literally hundreds of children and young people are being referred to safeguarding teams and counselling. It’s fast becoming an environment where the older teen we have all seen waiting for a girl at the school gates could just as easily be part of a gang beginning a slow process of grooming towards forced prostitution. The average age that a child is forced into prostitution in the US is just 13 years of age. We are no longer talking about people with a mental disposition to have sex with children. This is being surpassed by a sub group within a generation who feel they can do anything to anyone without significant fear of consequences. And the ages of those being victimised will continue to become lower.

Love146 is committed to safeguarding children, not just those exploited across national borders but those exploited within our own communities. Love 146 are developing an online youth magazine which, as well as being a general youth culture magazine, will keep pressing home the strategies which are being used by those who wish to groom and sell UK Children. We are working with the National Working Group on sexually exploited children and young people to see a UK version of our Escape Magazine which has been helping to safeguard vulnerable youth in Eastern Europe for over 2 years.

It is possible to safeguard young people and it is possible to see those who have become victims to find freedom it and experience restoration.

Your fundraising as part of RUN FOR LOVE will make a direct impact on this moving forwards. Register to Run, Jog or Walk to help end Child Trafficking today!   www.runforlove146.org

GAZ KISHERE – Love146 Operations Director