I may not be the first person you want to invite to your next party, but let me explain. So oftentimes when you meet somebody new at a party, you say, you know, so what's your name, your favorite color, your favorite food, right? That's what you do. But then inevitably the question comes up, so what do you do for a living?

And when I get asked that question, I'm, I, I realize I'm about to lower the bu. Because I usually respond with, well, I actually lead an organization that deals with issues of human trafficking and slavery right here in Richmond. You can imagine after that, the mood gets a little more somber as questions about sex trafficking, forced labor violence and torture, and just how big of an issue that is here.

And there is something to be said about the response we have when an injustice is so horrendous and humans hovering. So, There's this visceral response that surges through us. It kind of whispers and screams to us all at the same time, saying, this shouldn't be so this can't be right. My introduction to this issue of human trafficking and slavery started about eight years ago on a long forgotten corner of the world.

My space, oh, oh, nope, nope, no, sorry, . I don't wanna give that away. I got trigger happy. So as funny as it is to say my space actually changed my life short was the the first site that my wife and I messaged the other back and forth after we first met. It was adorable and it was also the first place that made it okay to take selfies of yourself and your parents' bathroom mirror with the flash on and don't act like you didn't do it or still don't do it, , but it was also the first.

That I saw the name of this organization called The Blind Project that focused on human trafficking in Southeast Asia. And this is where I first heard the story of Amira. Amira was a girl, young girl from Thailand who was promised by a family friend, an opportunity to move to a larger city, to get a job, to go to school and for her in her small world town, this was not really.

Her economic opportunity was very low. Access to education was extremely low. So at this opportunity, she jumped and her family jumped cuz of what it meant for them. So she decided to go with this trusted person. But when they got to the larger city, that wasn't the case. She was taken to a brothel and told that if you try to leave and if you don't comply, you'll be beaten or worse.

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