In 1852 Fredrick Douglas, a runaway slave living in the North, was asked to give a Fourth of July speech in Rochester, New York. He gave a speech, but it was on the Fifth of July instead, because, as the theme of his speech went, what is Independence Day to a slave?
Today slavery still exists; so many children in America and across the world are held in bondage, but rather than physical chains many are instead chained by fear, shame, and depression. Many Americans are still unaware that this is the case, but we are thankful that those who do know about it are willing to do something about it. These people, these modern-day abolitionists, are standing arm in arm with us in the fight against child sex trafficking.
We are starting a new feature on our website in which each month we highlight one of our supporters and fellow abolitionists and give them thanks for helping us in the fight. For this inaugural month, we wish to single out Mark Wang, who for years now has supported our work in combatting child sex trafficking through a regular, monthly donation. We asked him to tell us a bit about himself and why he choose to donate to us these past few years, here’s what he said:
“I am married with 3 children (daughter, age 11, daughter age 8 and a son age 7). We live in Albany Oregon and love the pacific northwest (lots of fun outdoor activities to do with the kids here). I own/run a business with professional caregivers who provide in-homecare services to seniors so that they can live safely and independently at home.
“As for why I support ECPAT-USA, years ago I heard a radio interview entitled “The Girls Next Door” with Peter Landesman on NPR (National Public Radio) about sex trafficking survivors and it really touched me in a profound way. I hadn’t ever heard of anything like this before and couldn’t believe that people would mis-treat others (especially children) like that. Having young children of my own and not being able to imagine a future like that for them, I became inspired to look around and find things that I could do to help prevent this from happening to anybody else’ children. In my search, I came across ECPAT International and ECPAT-USA. Your mission and the initiatives you advocate for were a great match with the values I wanted to support, and that’s why I have been so happy to support ECPAT-USA all these years (and will continue to do so).
“One of favorite quotes is by Anne Frank; ‘How wonderful that no one need wait a single moment to improve the world.’.”
We thank Mark Wang, and we know that with the support of people like him we can see an end to the modern day slavery that is child sex trafficking within our lifetimes.