Human Trafficking Ever Increasing in Our News

It was two years ago this month that President Obama declared January Human Trafficking Awareness month. Last year, we did not notice too much about it. So here we are in January of 2015 and it is early in the month but I am truly hopeful that our government will again attempt to educate our nation more on this pandemic of Human Trafficking that is all too common here in the United States.

As an organization and an alliance of Instructors who are helping educate and empower children to live safer lives in their world today, the topic of "Human Trafficking", although uncomfortable for many, must be information we are familiar with and keep in our minds as an increasing reality in our world today.

In many of the informational pieces that are being published we see that many of these children are targeted by their predators due to their lack of confidence and their lack of self-value and self-worth. Once groomed by their predators they are then isolated and controlled through fear and mental and physical violence and victimization. As this is a common theme in many of the articles and studies, it would seem to me that you as radKIDS Instructors are on the front line and for that I am both thankful and grateful.

No, we do not discuss human trafficking directly with our children but we do help them fight off the evil of predatory violence including human trafficking when sharing your radKIDS skills and personal empowerment educational philosophy.  

Our three foundational principals are the front line and a large part of the prevention of victimization we can help empower our children with. When a child accepts as their own foundational boundaries that:

No One has the right to hurt them BECAUSE they are SPECIAL (important, valuable, one of a kind) it builds their Self Value and Self Worth.

radKIDS also know that they don't have the right to hurt anyone else, UNLESS that person is trying to hurt or trick them and they HAVE THE RIGHT TO STOP THEM. In radKIDS you can and do show them how to stop both emotional and physical abuse. This in turn can shift the power and opportunity for a child to recognize, avoid, resist and if necessary escape and lessen the fear power and opportunity of the predator.

And possibly the most important principal of all for our radKIDS to know especially in the area of victimization and coercion by ANYONE is

If ANYONE ever hurts you, makes you feel bad (inside or out) or maybe has hurt you in the past it is NOT YOUR FAULT! And since it is not your fault, YOU CAN TELL and KEEP TELLING until someone helps you. (Because remember you are Special and NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO HURT YOU.)

It is our hope here at radKIDS HQ to continue to provide you up to date information in the battle we are fighting for our children. As a nation we can no longer deny that violence and victimization of our children is much worse than in the past. Thanks to technology our children are exposed to much more information both good and bad than any generation before them. We have the information but where is the "context"? (the right and the wrong, the when we can and when we can't). Many families and educators like yourselves are helping our children but sadly many lack the familiar resources or structure to build their own self-value and self-worth and establish their personal boundaries.

That is why the front line in this fight is you. Empowering these children with life skills education including, self-value, self-worth and the establishment of their own boundaries makes it harder for the predators to manipulate/abduct our children.  It won't 100% stop this pandemic, but it will make it harder, and then we can enhance the reactionary steps of trying to recognize, report, stop and recover.   

Most likely we will continue to lose the battle if we insist on hiding the information from the public or just focus a light on the outrage. (awareness and condemnation) The fact that many, if not the majority, of these children are targeted because they are unprepared for the tricks and skill of their predators. Along with a diminished or lack of confidence and or personal boundaries (self-value and self-worth) and the skills on how to escape if threatened or in fear clearly shows the need to fight back through prevention not just awareness.

Together we are making a difference and with every child you share radKIDS with, you are not only helping them create their own boundaries and skills but you are reinforcing their self-worth through your belief in them. Thank you again for all you do and we look forward to your class rosters and great success in 2015.

Respectfully and always in support

Mr. Steve 

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