Day 12- Gleidys

Today's a little different because our profile is not a Northwestern student, but today you have the privilege of meeting my sweet sister, Gleidys. I met Gleidys when I was probably 16 and went down to Venezuela for the first time. Our church has a long standing partnership with a church in Valencia, Venezuela and I've gone down twice. Gleidys and I formed a wonderful bond, and have been sisters ever since. She messaged me that she too decided to participate in Dressember. Passion is contagious- even across continents.

"My name is Gleidys Escalona. I'm from Venezuela.

I used to ignore the topic of human trafficking like many of us, until my American sis, Kelsey, went to India. When she came back we were talking on skype and she told me what this whole "human trafficking" thing was about. Sometime after our conversation I started to see some posts on Facebook about human trafficking and her pictures with what said " I STAND FOR FREEDOM" so, I got interested about this whole thing. When I knew that she and her friends were participating in this movement called "Dressember" I wanted to know more about it. So I looked it up and when I got the answer, it really touched my heart. For some days I was thinking about how I could help them and support this cause if I live so far away from Iowa. So, I decided to keep praying for every single person that is going through human trafficking and wear a dress to let everyone know I support freedom. Maybe in my country we don't have this movement, but, who says that one person can't make the difference? Even though I'm miles away from Iowa, I'm part of those who care about this, and support it. Don't give up, keep fighting for those who are victims of human trafficking. I am confident that someday everyone will have the freedom we are fighting for today. And the most important thing, they will be free in Christ. We can have a better world, we just have to decide to make the difference caring for those no one else cares for."

Yesterday, Dressember shared these facts: 65-90% of women sold for sex are victims of incest, 80% are victims of rape, 70-90% have a trafficker selling her as a commodity and keeping all or most of the money, 72% have considered suicide, 68% suffer from PTSD (2x higher than a solider in a war zone!) and on average, a women who is sold for sex will die within 7 years after entering prostitution. This is not okay.