The moment I discovered that I was going to become a father, I was filled with the excitement of bringing a new life into the world. I began preparing myself for fatherhood in the only way I know how: studying. I'm an avid reader and thoroughly enjoy doing research so I began my foray into fatherhood with articles, websites and books of all sorts about parenting and how to care for a baby. As I thought more and more about how to best prepare for my child, my wife and I realized that there are some things that are even more important than diapers and baby clothing. We thought deeply about the world this child would enter. Browsing the news brings new stories about the tumultuous state of our world. Violence, terrorism and all sorts of hate festers everywhere. We realized the one meaningful gift that we could give our child. We will give her the legacy of our battle against injustice and our fight for human rights.
I was born in a small, South American country called Ecuador. Ecuador borders Colombia and Peru. I remember hearing terrifying tales of missing children and would see the horror in the eyes of the women who couldn't find their kids. I remember neighbors who talked about it and the ever present announcements filling our news of the missing children. Young people in third world countries simply aren't able to be protected from the ugliness of reality. Children who grow up in the third world learn only by being exposed to the truth. As a boy, I learned to always be on guard. I learned to never put my trust in strangers. I had to actually assume that kindness from a stranger was potentially a way to manipulate me.
When a mother sends her child to school with fear in her eyes, we have a problem. When she is afraid that her child may simply become another lost child that is never seen again, we have a serious issue that needs to end. These children fall victim to human trafficking. The children are removed from their homes and forced into violence or the drug trade. Many of them are victims of sex trafficking. Human trafficking is a problem even today. It is an inherent evil, there isn't any other way to put it. There is no possible excuse or redeeming quality to this most heinous of crimes. Children, women and all people have the basic human right to be free. We are not property and I refuse to accept that trafficking people is just some sort of unfortunate by-product of poverty. That is simply ignoring the issue. Only by standing up against it in every way that we can will it ever end.
My brother and I own a startup company that sells handmade jewelry. We have decided to use this business as a platform to provide financial support in the fight against human trafficking. We have partnered in this fight with some great organizations like the "Nomi Network". We must fight not just for my daughter; we have to fight for a better planet. We choose to leave her a legacy of our battle in the hopes that one day, she too will choose to stand up for what is right and fight against the violation of our most precious of rights: freedom. We choose to teach our daughter by our example. We choose to never sit quietly and let evil continue and terror to reign. We choose to fight so that, one day when our baby is faced with the option of flight into apathy or engaging in the fight against what is immoral, she will always choose to fight. To my soon-to-be daughter and to all the children entering this world, it is our desire at Martin Cruz that you remember to always stand up and fight for what is right.
Join us in this battle: WWW.MrtnCruz.com
to learn more about the fight against human trafficking visit: WWW.NomiNetwork.com
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