At Global Advocacy Days | Washington DC on March 1st & 2nd, nearly 200 advocates hit the Hill to support needed legislation to combat modern-day slavery. The event was a resounding success!

But the Advocacy doesn’t stop there. We need the ongoing help of Americans in order to secure legislative funding to combat human trafficking!

Join us by signing the petition to Labor & Health and Human Services Appropriators.

Take Action. Click here!

Meet Matt Harper: A college student at Holy Cross in Massachusetts. He became an ambassador for Not For Sale in January 2010. Since then, he has raised over $1600 from over 17 sponsors for our international project in Cambodia.

An ambassador is an individual that takes on the challenge of supporting one of our international projects. They encourage family and friends to donate to the project of their choice. In Matt Harper’s case, that was Cambodia. He took it upon himself to research trafficking patterns in Cambodia, and spread the knowledge of what he learned to his family and friends.

For more information about how you can become an ambassador, check out: www.notforsalecampaign.org/international-projects/ambassadors/

Here is what Matt has to say about his experience:

If it is possible to get to know someone through a blurb, the two questions that will help you get to know me seem to be, “What in my life has most shaped me and what in my life got me to being selected as the Top Ambassador this month?” Well, my family loves – anything and everything. That love brought us to the dinner table every night growing up, which shaped each one of us in our own way. We talked about life, we questioned decisions made and we shared our ups and downs all over some fajitas or rotisserie chicken. But one day the time came to move from my family and the beautiful southern California weather to my next life experience. I entrusted once more the ever-inspiring (and occasionally “problematic”) Jesuits with guiding my development and now find myself in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross where I am halfway through my junior year. I have been privileged enough to travel the world as well as our country and it is my desire for new experiences that has brought me to question two.

I was introduced to Not For Sale only four months ago (a blip in my being) by my classmate, now friend, and NFS state director Jamee Herbert. Through her enthusiasm and the commitment and hard work of many individuals and groups on my campus, we were able to bring David and Brant here for the Backyard Abolitionist Tour. By the end of their presentation I was ready to commit myself and commit myself rather seriously. I became a Young Ambassador and now, only a few weeks after beginning my work, have exceeded my financial goal of $1200. I owe any and all recognition from this to my friends and family who have shown and continue to show faith in me. This financial goal is important but it isn’t enough. I know that no amount of money will solve the horrors many find themselves trapped in. So, I have also committed myself to examining the root causes of Cambodian trafficking, investigating possible solutions and doing what I can to effect changes in the structures that perpetuate this problem. It’s a lot to bite off and maybe more than I can reasonably expect to make a dent in, but this is commitment, real commitment, and I don’t do enough of that.

I recently came across a quote from Annie Besant that I would like to finish with. “Plenty of people wish well to any good cause, but very few care to exert themselves to help it, and still fewer will risk anything in its support. ‘Some one ought to do it, but why should I?’ is the ever reëchoed phrase of weak-kneed amiability. ‘Some one ought to do it, so why not I?’ is the cry of some earnest servant of man, eagerly forward springing to face some perilous duty. Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution.” I am not this servant, not yet and maybe never completely. But it seems to be a process worth undertaking, in whatever way we each might be called to. I wish you the best in your process.

Peace.

https://nfs.webconnex.com/mattharper

This Valentines Day our gift to you is an enhanced Free2Work.org, which will help you know what the likelihood your chocolate, is produced using bonded or forced child labor.  “As consumers its our responsibility to know if the goods we buy are perpetuating exploitative labor.  Unfortunately, no standard or system can ensure a product is 100% slave-free but as consumers, it is our responsibility to know which products are less likely to be produced by slaves,” David Batstone, President of the Not for Sale Campaign. “The concentration of slave labor used in chocolate production has significant implications for the credibility of the entire industry”.  This week before you purchase your loved ones chocolate checkout the companies rating on Free2Work.org!

Every year on Valentines Day we purchase chocolate and other wonderful gifts for those we love and care about.  These same delicious boxes of chocolate that signify love and care to us might mean pain and suffering to others.  A recent report by the Department of Labor documented that some chocolate we consume is still tainted by forced labor.   The report highlighted that forced and child labor continue to occur in a region that produces 70% of the worlds chocolate nine years after these labor abuses were exposed.