An Introduction
When I was in college, a friend of mine asked me what my major was. I told him that I planned to be a vet. “Cool,” he said, “When are you joining up?” I had to explain to him that I meant that I wanted to be a veterinarian—an animal doctor, not a veteran. And, after eight long years of school, that’s exactly what I became. I’ve practiced veterinary medicine full time for over 26 years now. What most people don’t realize is that being a vet is a life, not just a job. The joys and pain and stress of the job are always with you. But that’s not what this blog is about.
A few years ago, while researching material about another issue, I came across an ebook about gendercide (“gendercide” is the practice of aborting girls or abandoning them to die, usually done in societies with a predilection for boys). Reading that book was an emotional experience for me. I have two daughters, and I just couldn’t imagine anyone purposefully aborting a child because of her sex, or abandoning her to die after birth. So I started supporting charities that fought against gendercide and gender-specific abortion in places like China and India. That led me to an interest in other issues involving girls and women. I learned about how girls’ education positively affected societies. I learned about the plight of women around the world—acid attacks and sexual assault in New Delhi; bride trafficking in southeast Asia; female genital mutilation (FGM) in the U.S, Africa, and the Middle East, and so on. What I learned was jarring.
By far the worst thing I have ever learned about is human trafficking, especially sex trafficking. If evil could be quantified, human trafficking (especially Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, or DMST) would have to be at the top of the list. It is surely one of the great scourges of our time. Experts estimate there are 100,000 to 300,000 children, mostly girls, trapped in, or at risk for, sex trafficking in the United States alone. As Nita Belles discussed in her book “In Our Backyard,” that means that it’s happening in our communities. Right in our backyards.
I was stunned and disgusted by what I learned, but also very frustrated. What could I do about it? My job and my family take up most of my time. Giving money was easy enough, but what other concrete things could I do to help? So, I’m on a journey to give and learn and act in whatever ways I can. I have found that it IS possible to do good, no matter who you are and what you do. In this blog, I’m going to attempt to explore what is happening, who’s helping, and what regular people can do, not only regarding human trafficking, but anything else I can think of, too (including poverty, acid attacks, honor killing, persecution, oppression, education, and the aforementioned gendercide and FGM). I truly hope you get something out of it, and that it spurs you to action.
M.
1 thought on “An Introduction”
A good first post. Thank you for being a light in the dark.
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