Press Contact: Jon Pattee
202-591-5778, jpattee@lirs.org
Washington, DC, Feb. 7, 2013 — Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) today releases its Human Trafficking Mythbuster, a unique infographic resource that empowers congregations and communities to debunk misinformation about a crime that affects tens of thousands of men, women, and children in America each year.
“The Human Trafficking Mythbuster meets an urgent need for hard facts about this burning humanitarian issue, because the simple truth about trafficking is so much more powerful than all the misleading rhetoric that gets picked up and repeated,” said LIRS President and CEO Linda Hartke. “If you have friends, relatives, or colleagues who think human trafficking ‘isn’t an issue’ in America or their hometown, or believe other myths, this is the go-to resource to share with them.”
The Mythbuster is part of the LIRS End Human Trafficking campaign, which LIRS launched in partnership with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod earlier this year to invite Lutherans to commit to help stop human trafficking. The new Mythbuster complements the campaign’s other educational videos, e-learning modules, and congregational resources, as well as previous Mythbusters on Immigration and Refugees.
“We’re very thankful to the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod for providing the support that made the Human Trafficking Mythbuster possible,” said Hartke. “The Mythbuster is a crucial piece of our partnership with LCMS on the larger LIRS End Human Trafficking campaign, because it enables us to engage a far wider audience in the work of protecting these vulnerable men, women, and children.”
The Mythbuster, downloadable here, is uniquely formatted to convey facts online or in print, e.g.:
The LIRS Children’s Services Dept. serves foreign-born survivors of trafficking. Some children are trafficked for labor, others for sex work. LIRS child specialists and local partners ensure that these survivors receive critically needed social and immigration services. LIRS is also active in advocacy, calling on Congress and the White House to protect trafficking survivors with federal laws.
LIRS is nationally recognized for its leadership advocating on behalf of refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, immigrants in detention, families fractured by migration and other vulnerable populations, and for providing services to migrants through over 60 grassroots legal and social service partners across the United States.