A Song For Exploited Children
Home-school parents Eric and Rebecca Proffitt were invited to attend the recent U.N. Forum on Human Trafficking held in Vienna, Austria. A character educator and information technology consultant who lives in Cardston, Alberta, Mr. Proffitt is also a singer-songwriter with a substantial body of work.
Horrified at hearing that 1.8 million children each year — a total of 27 million in the world today — are sold into slavery for sexual exploitation by adults, Mr. Proffitt wrote a song, “Little Child,” calling for the protection of these innocents.
The song attracted the attention of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and was played during a conference in New Delhi on the prevention of child trafficking.
This led to the invitation to perform at last month’s conference in Austria. Mrs. Proffitt, who is five months pregnant with their fifth child, accompanied her husband while their four daughters home-schooled with cousins for the week.
The Proffitts declined the wine at the pre-conference cocktail party and nursed their glasses of water. Mrs. Proffitt struck up a conversation with the only child present, a charming girl with a British accent who explained that she was there with her mother — award-winning actress and author Emma Thompson, a strong advocate for the protection of children.
When his host asked Mr. Proffitt to sing on the spur of the moment, without microphone or accompaniment, he began the haunting and powerful song “Amazing Grace,” explaining how this song, written by a repentant former slave trader, helped end legalized slavery in Britain two centuries ago.
It was later, during conference deliberations, that Mr. Proffitt was able to sing “Little Child” in front of 1,600 delegates, bringing hundreds of international leaders to tears.
“The room went silent; people leaned forward in their seats, eyes glued to the huge screens behind him,” Mrs. Proffitt reported, and her husband sang as pictures of innocent children flashed on the screen. When he spoke of his inspiration — his own young daughters — the applause was thunderous.
Despite the heady experiences, the Proffitts were more than a little overwhelmed by the information given at the conference.
“You felt like you were David, put up to fight the biggest, ugliest Goliath, and the chances of winning were so small that you didn”t want to try,” Mrs. Proffitt said, referring to the sheer numbers of children forced into prostitution, their living conditions and the violations they suffer. “But David had one thing on his side — God.”
Home-schooling families, by definition, care deeply about children and giving them a better future than the haphazard and shifting standards of remote educational systems. It’s inspiring when they can take this to a larger level, working for the liberation of millions of other children, raising their voices to end a slavery that would be unconscionable even if only one child were subjected to it.
As home-schoolers and caring families, we can play a vital role in raising awareness and demanding change, just as the Quakers and other conscientious abolitionists, though few in number, were able to catalyze public opinion and action to outlaw slavery.
If you would like to join the Proffitts in fighting child sex slavery, you can download the music video and slide show of “Little Child” from the Web site www.ericproffitt.com for a contribution of $1.99 and share it with others. Statistics and reports about the commercial exploitation of children can be found at www.ungift.org
