Girl Gone Smart: Child-trafficking; here's how you can help. Really.
My timeline is overrun with "pizza gate" conspiracy theories accusing everyone from Tom Hanks to Bill Gates of child molestation and child-trafficking. Fact checkers around the world have determined the majority of those posts are fake, but here's what's real:
In 2019 NCMEC assisted law enforcement and families with more than 29,000 cases of missing children.
Case types:
91 percent endangered runaways.
4 percent family abductions.
4 percent critically missing young adults, ages 18 to 20.
Less than 1 percent nonfamily abductions.
1 percent lost, injured or otherwise missing children.
Of the nearly 26,300 runaways reported to NCMEC in 2019, 1 in 6 were likely victims of child sex trafficking.*
If you really are concerned, are you willing to do something other than click the share button?
My friend Brian is. On September 19-20th, he will be biking about 150 miles from Syracuse to Albany to raise funds for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) during their virtual Miles of Hope campaign. At its core, Miles for Hope is about raising awareness and spreading a message of prevention and hope and the NCMEC leads the fight against abduction, abuse, and exploitation.
His goal is only $1,000, but I'm betting we can do better than that. Please visit Brian's personal fundraising page to support his bike ride from Syracuse to Albany. Let's do more than share - let's help and provide real support for an organization out there on the streets every single day helping families and law enforcement find these kids.
*Source: MissingKids.org