BOOKS

• A Crime So Monstrous by Benjamin Skinner—Skinner reports on current and former slaves and slave dealers. Skinner’s travelogue-cum-indictment focuses most sharply on Haiti, Sudan, Romania and India, and is interspersed with a detailed account of the work of John Miller, director of the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Available here.

• Disposable People by Kevin Bales—Bales is a social researcher who examines slavery in the modern world by looking at the social and economic factors that drive it. Available here.

• Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World by Gary A. Haugen—Interspersed with individual stories of specific abuse, this book chronicles the vision behind IJM’s work and seeks to tackle tragic injustices with practical insight, answering tough questions regarding the nature of injustice and the Biblical mandate for Christians to confront it. Available from IJM.

• Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian by Gary A. Haugen—Haugen leads us on a journey to freedom from the triviality and fear that can stifle our lives. Available from IJM.

• Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade—and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone—Batstone tells the story of 21st century abolitionists and their heroic campaign to put an end to human bondage. He weaves the narratives of activists and those in bondage in a way that raises awareness of the modern-day slave trade and serves as a call to action. Available here.

• The Road to Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam—Somaly’s first hand account of her life as a sex slave in Cambodia, her escape from slavery, and her life rescuing other women. The book is available here through the Somaly Mam Foundation.

• The Slave Next Door by Ron Soodalter and Kevin Bales—Bales, sociologist and president of Free the Slaves, and Soodalter, a historian, document routine coercive slave labor in domestic service, prostitution, farm labor, factories, light industry, prisons and mining operations. Their case studies stretch from an American suburb to urban China, rural Ghana and back to Los Angeles, Calif., and East Orange, N.J. The second half of the book focuses on causes and solutions. Available here.

• Terrify No More: Young Girls Held Captive and the Daring Undercover Operation to Win Their Freedom by Gary A. Haugen and Gregg Hunter—This gripping book documents the events leading up to, and surrounding, IJM’s groundbreaking work in the notorious Cambodian village of Svay Pak. In this operation alone, IJM’s work resulted in the rescue of 37 underage victims of sex-trafficking, many of them under the age of 10. Available from IJM.

FILMS

• Call+Response—A documentary featuring musicians that takes a comprehensive look at human trafficking today and what individual people can do to stop it. Their site has a variety of resources.

• Holly—A fictional film about an American man who attempts to help a child prostitute in Cambodia. The film is available here through the Somaly Mam Foundation.

• Playground—A documentary on child sex trafficking in the United States. Find out more and watch a clip.

• Born Into Brothels—This Academy Award winning documentary follows photographer, Zana Briski, as she teaches photography to some of the children living in brothels in Sonagachi, a large red light district in Calcutta. It’s uplifting to see the lives of the kids and the way they flourish through art. It’s disturbing to see and hear the bleak backdrop of their lives, and their hope is almost unfathomable. Despite everything, these kids dare to dream, and Zana works to help them achieve their dreams. Find out more at Kids With Cameras. Buy the documentary.

• Calcutta Hilton—This short documentary (with tons of bonus footage) tells the story of the Hiltons, a family from New Zealand who started Freeset, the manufacturer of the jute bags you see in the Stop Traffick Fashion store. The mission of Freeset is to give the women of Sonagachi a choice that they’ve never had before—to leave the sex trade. The documentary tells about the lives of several of the women and the challenges of building this type of business. Find out more about Freeset. Buy the documentary. Or watch a clip.

WEBSITES

• Abolish Slavery is a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking and restoring dignity to victims. We organize and coordinate investigations and field operations to find, identify, and retrieve men, women, and children from slavery, providing for their safe aftercare and rehabilitation.

• International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.
• Polaris Project is a nonprofit organization that conducts direct outreach and victim identification, provides social services to victims, operates the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) serving as the central national hotline on human trafficking, advocates for stronger legislation, and engages communities in grassroots efforts.

• Hagar International is a Swiss-based Christian organization that is committed to individualized and long-term assistance to its beneficiaries, advocating the strategic use of the social enterprise model as a tool for social rehabilitation and economic empowerment. Hagar works with women and children from devastating backgrounds of violence, abuse and trafficking and supports them in their recovery, rehabilitation, job readiness and ultimately community reintegration.