Have you noticed people walking around today with a red "X" on their hands and wondered what it stood for?

Did you know?

Did you know that slavery exists? Did you know that there are still over 27 million slaves? 80% of which are women.  Did you know it can and probably is happening within yards from you? Yes, yards. Slavery is happening in over 160 countries, 200,000 are being affected in the United States, and you can help end it.

If you were unaware of slavery still existing (I know I was up until a couple weeks ago), this news may come as a bit of a shock to you. There are three main types of slavery - bonded labor, forced labor and human trafficking.

You may be thinking, "Great, but what does that really mean?"

There are three types of slavery:

Bonded labor may best known as debt bondage. This is when a person performs labor as a form of payment for a loan. This is also the most widely used method of slavery.

Forced labor is just as it sounds, labor that is being forced upon a person against their will and involving punishment if uncooperative. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has estimated 20.9 people are victims of forced labor.

Human trafficking may be the hardest to grasp of all three, this method involves the transportation of people away from where they live and are forced to work against their will involving violence, deception or coercion as punishment. If a child has been moved into a exploitative situation, that is enought to be considered trafficked. Sadly, this happens in every country. The ILO estimates at any one time there can be 2.5 million people who have been trafficked and are subjected to sexual exploitation. A majority of victims are women and girls (98%).

How does this relate to healthcare staffing and professionals?

More and more physicians are being trained to be able to indentify, help and treat human trafficking victims. The American College of Emergency Physicians accepted a proposal for a continued education program training ER professionals as they the first to see/treat/examine these victims. ER professionals may also serve as the first person the victim is in contact with making it critical that the professionals know how to understand and treat these cases.

How can you help?

Put a red "X" on your hand - someone will probably ask you why you have it, and you can always say you went out the night before but you can also tell them that there are still over 27 million slaves and they can find out more and EndItMovement.com

Spread the word via social media! Be sure to use #EndItMovement on Twitter and Instagram

Sport some merch from the EndIt store.

Contact your local support centers to see how you can get involved.