I love this time of year, Thanksgiving with a lot of great food, family and friends and the beginning of the Christmas season. Maybe Black Friday is your thing or maybe Cyber Monday (both of which are now becoming weeks instead of days), whatever way you enjoy your holiday shopping I would love to share a few “slave-free” options. With an estimated 20 million people enslaved globally today, it’s easy to say that human trafficking and modern day slavery are an epidemic hitting our society as a whole…and hitting us hard. Many of our items that we purchase on a regular basis and especially during the holidays, such as clothing, coffee and chocolate are made with slave labor (including child labor). These are precious people who are trafficked and/or exploited into harvesting materials and making these items for retail. We can take a stand against slavery, do something about it and still buy our loved ones beautiful gifts. When you are out shopping look for labels that read,”Fair Trade,” or you can also check out below just some of the websites that are out there. There is no better time to start doing something for our fellow man than now. Anne Frank once said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and happy shopping!
*Fair trade coffee and chocolate can be found at local grocery stores.
*Thistle Farms
*Freeset USA
*iSanctuary/ Purpose Jewelry
MORE INFORMATION ON LABOR TRAFFICKING AND FORCED LABOR
https://polarisproject.org/labor-trafficking