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Apopka United Methodist Women sponsoring human trafficking program

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From the United Methodist Women at First United Methodist Church of Apopka

A Human Trafficking Program will be sponsored by the United Methodist Women on October 14th 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall of the First United Methodist Church in Apopka. Space is limited. Please reserve your seat by calling 407-782-0488 or 407-889-2628, onebazaarwoman@embarqmail.com. or the church office 407-886-3421. The church is located at 201 S. Park Avenue, Apopka. Admission is free.

Knowledgeable Victim Specialist Speakers from the Human Trafficking Unit, Office of the State Attorney, Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida and Apopka Police Department will make us aware of the seriousness of this problem right here in our community and what we can do to know how to assist in this program. Folks, this is serious. We cannot help if we don't even know it exists. Come and learn and help.

Human trafficking, believed to be the third-largest criminal activity in the world, is a form of human slavery which must be addressed. Human trafficking includes forced labor, domestic servitude, and commercial sex trafficking. It involves both U.S. citizens and foreigners alike, and has no demographic restrictions. The FBI works human trafficking cases under both its Civil Rights program and its Violent Crimes Against Children program. The majority of human trafficking victims in our cases are U.S. citizens, and we take a victim-centered approach in investigating such cases, which means that ensuring the needs of the victims take precedence over all other considerations.

Here in this country, people are being bought, sold, and smuggled like modern-day slaves, often beaten, starved, and forced to work as prostitutes or to take jobs as migrant, domestic, restaurant, or factory workers with little or no pay. Over the past decade, human trafficking has been identified as a heinous crime which exploits the most vulnerable in society. Among the Civil Rights Unit’s priorities is its human trafficking program, based on the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provided that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” Human trafficking, believed to be the third-largest criminal activity in the world, is a form of human slavery which must be addressed.

 

First United Methodist Church, Human Trafficking, United Methodist Women

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