Unlike the lighthearted days we often discuss in this blog, today’s commemoration is quite different. That’s because today, January 11th, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Human trafficking involves exploiting people, forcing people to do things against their will, much like slavery. This could involve holding people captive and making them perform work, sex acts, or other activities that they don’t want to do.

If human trafficking victims escape this bondage, the pain might still remain. They might look to soothe this pain with by taking a drug or drinking alcohol. This is a common phenomenon. Did you know that people who have experienced trauma and abuse are often more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol?

Human trafficking is unfortunately a global phenomenon. It crosses many national borders and exists in several countries, including the United States.

Every year since 2010, U.S. president Barack Obama has declared January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. He has said that the U.S. and other countries are developing new laws and technology to stop such trafficking and to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Such efforts can prevent people from enduring the physical and emotional abuse of human trafficking and its long-lasting repercussions. It may prevent people from developing alcohol abuse or drug addictions that they might develop to cope with such abuse.

This growing awareness might help treat people who have suffered such atrocities. Knowing about problems and discussing them, as horrible as they might be, is often the first step to treating them. This knowledge can remind people that they are not alone. It can assure people that the abuse they experienced was not their fault. It can encourage people that are people willing and able to help them.

Human trafficking affects so many people around the world in so many ways. Raising awareness of this issue is crucial to individual health and human rights.