The Dominican Crisis…
Poverty rears its head in numerous forms around the globe, especially in the Dominican Republic. With a population exceeding 10 million people, over 34% of Dominican residents live on less than $2 per day. Concerning education, half of Dominican boys and 35% of Dominican girls drop out of school before their high school years. 55% of children born in the D.R. do not even have a birth certificate.
These constant struggles leave children susceptible to many of the effects of poverty, namely human trafficking. Consider these facts:
- More than 20 million people are victimized by forced labor and sex trafficking globally.[i]
- An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked annually[ii]
- Every 26 seconds someone is trafficked in the world.[iii]
- Over 30,000 children are sexually exploited annually in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic.[iv]
Our Response…
Our desire is that you would join us in establishing food centers to care for at risk children and in forming a rescue program that fights human trafficking. This will enable us to restore these rescued children and facilitate their development as independent, self-supporting, Christ-following adults. With your help, this rescue base will share resources with our self-sustaining orphanage that will be fully equipped to integrate these children into families.
Will you help us be the answer to the prayers of one Dominican child today?
[i] (Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States 2013-2017, 2014)
[ii] UNICEF. (March 2011). Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58005.html
[iii] http://www.destinyrescue.org/us/get-involved/programs/26-second-challenge (accessed 7/24/14)
[iv] http://www.ecpat.org.uk/sites/default/files/dom_rep05.pdf (accessed 7/24/14)
Keith and Amy Melugin 