From Delegate Kathy Szeliga:
Here’s a chance to make a difference in the lives of children and women enslaved in the sex trafficking industry without leaving Maryland! On October 29th beginning at 8:30 AM at Beachmont Camp in Kingsville, MD, Freedom 424 will be holding a 5K race. You can run or walk or even just come and support the cause. As a non-profit organization, Freedom 424 exists to raise awareness of the rampant sexual exploitation of women and girls around the world while raising money to support efforts that seek to rescue victims enslaved in the sex industry.
Races are being held on this day in many states. Our Maryland Race is being hosted at Beachmont Christian Camp in Baltimore County and is sponsored by Grace Community Church. The scenic course at Beachmont will take you through sprawling fields and rolling hills. Race time is 8:30am. This is a family friendly event. Participants who would like to walk and those who want to enjoy the scenery of beautiful Kingsville are also invited – you don’t have to be a runner to participate.
The registration fee is only $24. For $24, a woman can be given a night off from prostitution. Once she is free for the night, the goal is to show her a permanent route out of the sex industry through alternative means of survival and opportunities they never could have imagined.
Run For Their Lives is also seeking sponsors to support the event on October 29th. For more information or to donate to the Kingsville event, please contact Tracy Smith attster828@gmail.com or contact Delegate Kathy Szeliga at 443-570-1555 or Kathy.szeliga@house.state.md.us
You can also find more information about Freedom 424 atwww.freedom424.org andwww.freedom424maryland.org
This is an enormous issue that must be addressed on many different levels. We must begin somewhere. Let it begin with $24. Let it begin with one enslaved woman or child offered freedom. Let it begin with you.
I think you got this wrong. They are normally enslaved to drug use not the sex industry. Maryland’s prostitutes are mostly private entrepreneurs and not slaves to anything but addiction and nymphomania. The few that do work with pimps are basically “new” to the game and to tell you the truth are normally pimped willingly by their boyfriends and husbands in order to get money for addictions. Pretty disgusting, but true.
Werdna
This company helps girls across the globe. Women are sold and kidnapped into the sex industry all over the world, including the United States. What this group does is extremely important. In countries near India, women are promised jobs in tech support and when they get to India their passports are taken and they are forced to work as prostitutes by the people they were sold to until they can pay off their debt, which is usually never!
Great to hear about this effort! Over time wouldn’t it be great if it starts to affect the crazy constant sexual portrayals of our young girls in the media as well? You can’t have a dance at a local high school without constantly turning the lights on so that kids are not simulating sex? The whole idea that you can use and be used physically and get away without any effect to emotions, etc … is truly a myth. Wouldn’t it be great if we all took a step back from the cliff of believing that everything should be sexualized?
Ptamom,
wouldn’t it be better if you left that to the childs parents? It’s not your job.