LIHUE — Ho‘ola Na Pua invites the community to join the World Day Against Trafficking statewide sign-waving event today starting at 3 p.m. on Rice Street fronting the historic County Building.
The statewide effort is geared toward uniting the community in raising awareness about human trafficking and exploitation. On Kauai, supporting organizations include the Kauai Committee on the Status of Women, the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, and the Zonta Club of Kauai.
The United Nations designate July 30 as World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, and its website states that globally, one in three victims of human trafficking is a child, and the majority of the trafficked children are girls.
Children are subjected to various forms of trafficking, including forced labor, crime, begging, illegal adoption, sexual abuse, and the online dissemination of abusive images. In extreme instances, some children are also recruited into armed groups.
The Hawaii Tribune Herald, the Garden Island’s sister newspaper on Hawaii Island, reported that on July 19, a Pauilo woman and her child disappeared and was later found in Arizona after triggering Arizona’s first Turquoise Alert.
According to the United Nations, the reasons for child trafficking are many with the most prominent being poverty, insufficient support for an unaccompanied minors in the face of increasing migration and refugee flows, armed conflicts, dysfunctional families, and lack of parental care.
Ho‘ola Na Pua, translated to mean new life for children, and with collaboration and partnerships, builds a comprehensive response to sex trafficking and exploitation with programs addressing prevention, intervention, empowerment, and health as stated on their website, www.hoolanapua.org.
Through information on its website, Ho‘ola Na Pua served more than 15,000 youth and community members through direct service programming to the present.
If you are a victim of human trafficking, call 1-888-373-7888, or 808-245-6362. People may also text HELP to 233733.
Source: The Garden Island
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