Music video by The Killers raises awareness about trafficking and sexual exploitation
The series launched last year with an award-winning film – produced by MTV EXIT – that featured the Radiohead single ‘All I Need’.
“There is almost no country in the world now that isn’t affected by human trafficking in some way,” said UNICEF Chief of Child Protection Susan Bissell. “The statistics are staggering. More than 1.2 million children are being trafficked each year and nearly 80 per cent of all trafficking is for sexual exploitation, and the most at risk are girls.
“We see this music video as a powerful way to reach out and raise awareness among young people, across borders and across language barriers,” she added.
The Killers commented, “We are deeply shocked and appalled that women and children are forced into such exploitative situations. We hope that through MTV’s efforts and this powerful video millions of people across the world learn about this tragic form of modern-day slavery”.
This music video represents an innovative and creative way to fuse musical content with MTV’s pro-social messaging. The Goodnight, Travel Well video will be released globally across all of MTV’s platforms in 168 countries. It has the potential to reach more than 500 million households worldwide.
“Trafficking is a crime which violates the basic rights of all people: the rights to freedom, equality, and dignity. Through MTV EXIT and MTV’s global networks reaching over two billion people in 160 countries, we are uniquely positioned to support and advocate these rights. We are committed to raising awareness and empowering our audience, many of whom are particularly at risk from human trafficking,” said Bill Roedy, Chairman & CEO MTV Networks International.
“There is almost no country in the world now that isn’t affected by human trafficking in some way,” said Susan Bissell, UNICEF’s Head of Child Protection. “The statistics are staggering. More than 1.2 million children are being trafficked each year and nearly 80 per cent of all trafficking is for sexual exploitation, and the most at risk are girls. We see this music video as a powerful way to reach out and raise awareness among young people, across borders and across language barriers.”
The Goodnight, Travel Well video is directed by David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy) through renowned production company Anonymous Content. As with the 2008 Radiohead video, the creative concept was developed by Australian advertising agency CRC, with support also provided by UK music consultancy Huge Music. It provides insight into the realities of trafficking, in particular the trafficking of children and adolescents into forced prostitution, and provides a link to information about how people can help to end exploitation and trafficking.
How You Can Help?
UNICEF does a lot of things for a lot of people all over the world. If you are wondering, what can one person do, I used to think exactly the same way. This isn’t a press release or some canned speech, this is me R.P.M. speaking candidly about this cause, about stopping slavery of any kind, especially children. We are talking about young girls, who against their will and without the strength or resources to fight get put into a dark, sick world. Did you know that children as young as 4 years old are being used, sold and exploited in ways to depraved to explain in detail, use your worst imagination and multiple it times 1,000 and you get the picture.
How real is it? According to the stats above we are talking about 960,000 young girls and boys too getting put into a position where they are being sexually exploited. That is more young girls being raped and used as sex slaves than the amount of people living in Detroit, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and on and on. The fact is that number alone would make it the 10th largest city in the United States of America according to 2008 Census Bureau statistics.
This is a worldwide epidemic, more dangerous than some of our worst diseases. Let me make it clear, there are more children being exploited, put into slavery and used for sexual exploitation is more than the DOUBLE the amount of people who died from Cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and is projected for 2009 according to the CDC and the American Cancer Society statistics.
Is that real enough for you?
It is for me. So please take a moment, check out these links and educate yourself on how you can help. Remember this, help does not always mean “give money”, a lot of times help can be as simple as printing out a few fliers of missing children, put a gift in your will, get a UNICEF (MBNA) credit card no different from any other Visa or Mastercard only every time you use it, money is raised. There is a newsletter that shows you exactly how your help is used and gives you a plethora of ideas on how to help.
Please just take five minutes and check out what is going on at UNICEF and other organizations, that like The Killers and Radiohead, are dedicated to helping stop child pornography, slavery and exploitation of any kind.
Goodnight, Travel Well - 99 cents at Amazon.com
-There are at least 30 million victims of modern day slavery in the world today (US Trafficking in Persons Report).
-Each year it is estimated that there are 1 million new victims of human trafficking (The US Department of State).
-Estimates as high as 80% of trafficking victims are women and over – 50% in slavery are children (US Government).
-Human Trafficking generates approximately $9.5 billion each year. It is second only to drug trafficking in international crime (US Trafficking in Persons Report).
-“…Experts say that at any given time, some 2.5 million people are being trafficked …” (http://www.makewaypartners.org/effects.html)
-The USA is the number one country of destination for trafficked victims. The land of the free and the brave has become the receiving country for sex-slaves and forced manual workers. Run-away or kidnapped children are also sold and exploited within our borders and Internet child pornography or solicitation is thriving. (http://www.makewaypartners.org/effects.html)
-A child goes missing every 40 seconds in the USA.
That is more than 2,000 a day and more than 800,000 every year.
Another estimated 500,000 disappear without being reported.
For most, these bodies are never found.
What happens to them? (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
-Rising tide of human trafficking by Americans against other Americans – between 1.3 and 2.8 million runaways and homeless youths living on America’s streets are one of the most at risk populations for exploitation. (PR Newswire)
-1 in 7 teenagers in the USA run away from home. Living on the streets, one out of every three teens will be lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. And the longer they are gone, the more likely they are to engage in “survival sex.” After three months away from home, 90 percent of children will turn to sex. (National Incidence Studies of Missing, Runaway and Throwaway Children)
All of these statistics are from May Way Partners, January 16, 2008
audreyw@makewaypartners.org
Phone: 205-240-8597
UNICEF YouTube Channel Video Highlights Player + ‘Goodnight, Travel Well (full ver.)
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zeer interessant, bedankt