By: Jordan Wasserman

Sold is a heartbreaking story of an Indian girl named Lakshmi who is sold into slavery, unknowingly, by her stepfather at the age of thirteen. She is brought to a place called Happiness House where she is forced to do unmentionable things with whomever. The woman in charge this so-called “Happiness House” says that she has to pay off a debt of 20,000 Rupes before she can leave. It takes years to pay it back as each man only pays 30 rupes (that’s equivalent to how much they pay there for a bottle of Coke).

Each year 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked each year Of the 600,000 to 800,000, 70 percent female, and 50 percent are children. Each year, an estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States. The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country each year is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry.

There are physical and mental effects that a person faces after being trafficked.

Sleeping and eating disorders STD’s, HIV/AIDS, etc. Chronic back, hearing, cardiovascular, and respiratory problems Often, children and women may have had broken bones that are never set right, and can’t heal.

Fear and anxiety Depression, mood changes Guilt and shame Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Traumatic bonding with trafficker Drug use is common, and so is alcohol abuse.

In the book I read, her stepfather thought that he was giving her to a woman to be a maid in the city. This is how most children and women are sucked into the human trafficking industry. They were promised jobs, but when they realize that they’re not there to be a maid or waitress or whatever it might be that they were promised, it’s too late.

In this picture is Maria. A man offered her a job as a waitress in Johanesburg. Eager to earn some money, she agreed to travel with him from her home country to South Africa. But when Maria arrived in Johanesburg, there was no waitressing job. Instead the man beat her and forced her to work as a prostitute.

There are tons of government run agencies that help to end human trafficking.

One of the best known, and has separate programs in different countries. Stands for: End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children For Sexual Purposes EPCAT’s purpose is to nurture and harness the commitment underpinning partnerships to ensure a collective presence in response to address the problem of sexual exploitation of children. In plain English, that means that they hold together partnerships between countries and other organizations to ensure that the sexual exploitation of children isn’t something that’s ignored.