Last week we learned what a great job our interactors are doing. They were also able to meet their fundraising goals with Walter's help. We need to support this club.
This week is teacher recognition for our club. We need to come out and encourage these teachers that have done such a great job with our kids.
Greg and I have volunteered to serve on the District 5890 Task Force on Human Trafficking. At this stage the task force is still in its learning phase and we are finding out as much as we can about Human Trafficking. We have attended an all day workshop sponsored by the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston. There we found out that the Houston area is #1 in the country on number of cases of Human Trafficking. Last week at our Task Force meeting, the invited speakers were Mayor Anise Parker, Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, Harris County DA Atty. Devon Anderson, FBI Special Agent Al Tribble, Capt Dan Harris of the Houston Police Dept. Vice Division and Lt. Cathy Richards also of the Vice Division. They all shared with us what each agency is doing to work together to solve this big problem occurring right in our communities. Root cause, “there is a demand" and there is profit.
Human trafficking is a modern day form of slavery, a violation of human rights, a federal law and state law crime. It was said that 12.3 million people live in forced labor, bonded labor and sexual exploitation conditions worldwide.
All the speakers have encouraged us to continue or effort to spread public awareness on the problem of Human Trafficking . For our next meeting we will begin to outline specific plans on what we can do as Rotarians. There are a lot of agencies and church groups already in existence helping to solve the problem in various ways. We will soon be creating our plan of action for District 5890. If anyone is interested in joining this task force, let me know.
