The Current
Advocacy News + Updates
TOP STORY
This spring, advocates across the nation rallied together to speak up for the 40 million people trapped in slavery (Global Slavery Index, 2018). As a movement, thousands of you leveraged the power of digital tools to raise your voices to your members of Congress through tweets, emails and online petitions. Together, we urged Congress to ensure that the State Department’s Program to End Modern Slavery and the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office are fully funded in the 2020 appropriations bill. Here is a breakdown of the momentum you’ve built:
With deep mourning, we announce today that three individuals associated with the organization, including staff member, Willie Kimani, IJM client, Josephat Mwenda, and taxi driver, Joseph Muiruri, were killed following their abduction in Nairobi on June 23rd.
The bodies of the deceased were found in the Ol-Donyo Sabuk River to the northeast of Nairobi on July 1, following an extensive search led by Kenyan police and IJM staff. The group went missing on Thursday, June 23, as they were returning to their homes following a court hearing.
Top photo: Tony Hale and some of the IJM crew at the beginning of our day.
True confession: I’ve never watched “Arrested Development.” (Huge pop culture FAIL, I know.) I'm not caught up on "Veep." So when I found out I was going to be accompanying Tony Hale around Capitol Hill for a day, I was worried the whole casual conversation thing was going to be a little awkward.
Last month, over 80 anti-slavery activists visited 78 Senate and House offices to support the End Modern Slavery Initiative, EMSI. The group included pastors and advocacy leaders who were in Washington (with 1,600 others) for International Justice Mission’s annual Global Prayer Gathering. The advocates spent an extra day and night in DC to let their members of Congress and senators know that they supported the End Modern Slavery Initiative and urge their support.