I raised the Barnardo’s Stop the Cycle Campaign the other day. This year I had already chosen not to send paper cards and instead design a card using one of my photos and playing with Photo Shop and give the money I would have spent to Stop The Traffik.

If you do not know of this campaign then check it out. Slavery is not dead … and its far from dead in our own country of the UK!

Children are sold and shipped internationally for as little as $20!

Can you believe that? can you imagine the pain you would experience if your child was kidnapped and sold into slavery! Young women and children are particularly targeted by traffikers. There are at least 12.3 million people that are victims of forced labour worldwide. Stop the Traffik is working to combat traffiking of people.

At a time when we sing of peace and worship God visiting to usher in the Kingdom where justice will reign – what better time to join Stop The Traffik so these people may have a chance of reclaiming their freedom.

I was pointed this poem by Gerard Kerry which is powerful and challenging.

Stop the Traffic

I am a person,

not a potato

to be picked and packaged

and sent to market

to be sliced and diced,

chopped up and ketchupped

on the other side of the world.

I am human

and I am not for sale.

I am a living conscience,

not a cargo.

I travel passenger,

not freight.

I am not cattle,

not contraband,

not a catalogued commodity.

I’m not the bottom line

for those who trade in tragedy

and profit from perversity.

I am not a can

to be recycled.

I am human

and I am not for sale.

I am a thinking individual,

not a rare exotic bird.

I am your sister,

not an inmate for your zoo.

I am not merchandise,

not meat,

not a meal ticket.

I was mothered,

not manufactured,

begotten,

not created.

I am human

and I am not for sale.

Its time to end this trade

in human tragedy,

to terminate this travesty

of a global economy.

Let the red lights

of your cities

be put to better use

to stop the traffic.

Write it in lights

across your seared conscience:

I am human

and I am not for sale