I will never forget that sickening feeling I had when I finished watching “The Bitter Truth”, a BBC documentary about the chocolate industry in West Africa. Human trafficking suddenly had a face – it was no longer just something that I read about. I thought to myself, “I can stop eating certain chocolate . . . but there has to be something else I can do!”

I started researching human trafficking – that's when I discovered that it wasn't just a problem overseas . . . It was (and still is) a problem right here in America too!! I came across a list of suggestions for ways to get involved. The first thing on the list was to find out what is happening in your own area. My own area?? Could human trafficking be happening in my own backyard?!? The more I researched the more horrified I was to find that sex and labor trafficking were happening right in my own area, and all across the nation. What happened to the 'land of the free'??

Yvonne Williams, our Executive Director of Trafficking In America Task Force, had a similar experience when she learned about it. She states, "I can still remember the first time I heard about sex trafficking. It was the story of a 12-year-old runaway who had been coerced and enticed and then forced into the brutal world of sex trafficking. I clutched the sweater I was holding and wept as I felt my heart rip wide open, almost feeling the pain that young girl had endured."

Right now - at this very moment - there are estimated to be 100,000 sex trafficking victims here in America. These are our own children, being abused in the worst ways possible, in order to fulfill passion of another for sex or money. There are many people across our country working to rescue these victims and help them find healing, but we have to do more! We have to PREVENT this from happening at all! That is what this petition and the I Promise To Do My Part campaign are all about.

The Trafficking In America Task Force wants to see the statistic that says there are 100,000 victims in America every year cut in HALF by mid 2014. This is aggressive but it CAN be a reality if we all Promise To Do Our Part. We can start clubs on college campus; youth groups at church; family life groups; discussion groups; awareness events in your town; write a blog; use Social Media to make your friends aware; etc. Just do something to become educated and help one of your at-risk friends understand their true intrinsic value as a child, created in the image and likeness of God. We are worth more.

Americans have all of the ability and resources to step up to the plate in order to put an end to human trafficking – we are better than this! It will take thousands of individual efforts across this land to get rid of what is fueling this heart wrenching issue. Every soul on this earth is valuable and somehow we must search within ourselves to bring that truth to the surface and act on it.

Please take the pledge, sign the petition, and send it on:
"I Promise to do my part to educate myself on the issue of human trafficking in my state; to encourage and motivate my peers to become involved in educating themselves; to live with integrity, truth, respect, and humility as my guiding principles in my relationships; and to be a part of the solution rather than the problem. I am an Ambassador of a new generation and I am up for the challenge."