IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE… @KarensStories @RRBC_Org @RRBC_RWISA @Tweets4RWISA #RRBC #RWISA

In this piece, Author, Karen Black gives us the facts and stats on the case of missing children.  This piece will make you think and encourage you to keep a watchful eye on your kids, young and older. 

This piece is not intended to scare you, but if it does, good.  Maybe we’ll have fewer missing kid reports due to that.  

In honor of all the young innocent lives so senselessly stolen from their loved ones, we will never give up looking for you, and bringing the kind of attention abductors do not want, to this horrible crime.

***

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

There are bad people out there.  It does not take a lot of research to find information about the horrors that occur within society daily. We read about it on the internet, in newspapers, and in magazines, hear about it on the radio and see it on television. Crime is an everyday occurrence, and unless it directly affects family, friends, or even little-known acquaintances, it is easy to skim over and move on to something more pleasant. But can you even imagine the horror of the disappearance of a child?

When human trafficking hits the headlines, sexual slavery frequently comes to mind, but sex isn’t the only reason that children are taken. There is a market for farmworkers, dockworkers, nannies, or housemaids. They are dependent on their abductor for food and shelter and receive little else in return for long hours of backbreaking labor.

Drug abuse, malnutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, and suicide are frequently the outcome for those forced into slavery. Most children who are affected range in age from eleven to fourteen years old. According to Ark of Hope for Children, the average life expectancy for an abducted child is seven years from the date of abduction. Frightening, isn’t it?

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that one in seven runaways become victims of sex trafficking. Sadly, the promise of friendship, money, prestige, and most of all love, draws many young people into a life of regret, pain, and depression. It is a horrible, but lucrative big business that lures children and young adults every day.

But toddlers and infants are also targets; they, however, are simply stolen. In the USA, three-hundred-fifty children are abducted by strangers each year. That is one child almost every day.

According to UNICEF statistics, a little one can be sold for $15,000.00 to $20,000.00 to a family who wants a child. With a small investment and knowledge of someone willing to pay the price, there is no lack of scumbags willing to steal a child in exchange for a substantial monetary gain.

Child kidnappings can happen anywhere;  a department store, a playground, even the child’s backyard. But the more common abductions occur where there are crowds and a lot of chaos, like at an amusement park, a national border, or an overcrowded shelter. A child can be taken in the blink of an eye.

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND THEY’RE GONE is not a true story, but it could be.

###

Browse the Magazine