Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness

Yesterday was such a big day for me. I revisited a location that only had bad memories for me as I had been attacked the last times I had been there. I've lost count as to how many people wreaked havoc on me at this park, but some details cannot be forgotten. There were people stalking me, I was abandoned, and there was an attempted kidnapping in the early afternoon in broad daylight to say the least. At the time, I wasn't sure what to call it, but I did recognize it as a form of abuse. I had endured a lot and was not listened to when I complained and tried to report. Those who did "listen" to me, wrote down falsified information on documents or nothing at all. Some online reports have been scrapped with no trace of being able to locate them within a month or so. 

I felt so alone, yet I was so empowered to keep standing up for myself. So it was a good thing to have the opportunity to memorialize that. At an environment where my voice was getting silenced, my body being harmed, and my personality being mocked or misrepresented, I got to spread awareness of these unspoken occurrences through flyers. 

I created some posters displaying facts on Human Trafficking. Some of that information includes:

• Generic stats
• How human traffickers behave
• Trafficker preferences
• Encouragement
• Where to report

It was liberating for me with each poster I applied tape to or stapled onto a wooden pole. The walk was different than the last time my feet hit that pavement amongst the trees that cannot speak for me. 

To add to my excitement, a little squirrel approached me in curiosity. I had never had one get so close. While standing still, I had to grab my phone to take a snap at this wonderful creature. It just looked too cute to pass up. Look at those marking on its tail. There were many playing around in nearby trees. This one looked hungry.

A good walk that I got to complete even while being injured, facts about violence to help better protect me and other vulnerable people, and forest friends celebrating with me made this day turn out to be great. I'm so grateful to finally have the opportunity to do this. I just hope that people take the signs seriously, learn something, and help spread the word. Knowing that I did my part to help initiate that may help increase safety measures. We'll see how long they get to stay up.

*fingers crossed*

Another act taken in hopes to help increase protection for members of the community more susceptible to violence.

Try to #besafe.

Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.

Inspired by my true story.

Don’t forget! No matter what, you can always shine on.

#SlaveryandHumanTraffickingPreventionMonth #HTAM #HumanTraffickingAwarenessMonth #helpstophumantrafficking #geteducated #labortrafficking #drugtrafficking #sextrafficking #endsexualviolence #empowerment #sexualassault #EndRape #SunshineHeadquarters #inspirational #personal #blog #AndrelynWriting #writer #poet #UnseenFortitude

Sidewalk Blues

Image by Leroy Skalstad from Pixabay

This year, the homeless population in the United States is over half a million people.

Information sourced from WorldPopulationReview.com

My personal story of a recent experience:

Yesterday, I came across an older gentleman playing the violin in front of a store sitting down on the cold concrete. His instrument case was opened up barely filled with some dollar bills and a bit of coins. I cannot forget the look on his face when I asked him if he wanted something to eat and drink. His mouth cracked open immediately with a smile and it looked like light filled his eyes as they widened. I've been in this position many times already so I know how he feels. The only difference is that I didn't have many people provide me with offerings. Since I do not want him to have the same experience as I've had, I wanted to get him something he needed, but also gift him something that he wanted. 

"What would you like to eat," I had asked him. He was delighted to tell me that he wanted some jerky. He was in need of some protein and kindly asked to not give him anything with sugar in it. And he also asked for some water. The trunk of my car usually has water bottles in it along with another form of drink at times. I assured him that there was already a plan in place before approaching him to give him at least two water bottles. He thanked me and I told him, "I'll be right back."

While exiting the store, I gave him a small gift bag with a couple of choices of beef jerky, three different seasoned packets of tuna with crackers (these have their own little utensil to use inside for scooping the tuna that he can also use for something else later on), and a package of band aids. As I handed him his bag, I could see his jeans were already discolored and becoming more covered in dirt on the knees. 

Without making any assumptions, I offered him a little advice and told him why I gave him bandages as he didn't ask for them. Who knows how long he's already been on foot?! "You can use them for your feet when they get blisters and for anything else." It's common to get cut and scraped up while trying to sit along sidewalks or parking lot markers. Thinking back on my experience as I handed him two water bottles, it took less than a week for me to have both of my feet covered in huge blisters making it hard to walk and I couldn't afford anything to treat them. Now he's a little prepared for when he does need it.

Image by Kasun Chamara from Pixabay

A Related Issue

Homeless people are a major target by Human Traffickers. One of the strategies of these predators is to recruit for their networks by driving around on the streets to find homeless people. They can look for anyone: men, women, children, and whole families. Usually, they'll use bribery to cover their motives as a subtle technique or can go to the extremes of kidnapping with drive-by large vehicles. These methods are used for any of the many branches of human exploitation: labor trafficking, drug trafficking, and sex trafficking.

For more information or to read additional personal experiences on these topic, you can visit my website at:

https://andrelynwriting.wixsite.com/website/blog

People who are stuck outside on the streets need so much help. More often than not, they are out there involuntarily as consequences for someone else's actions instead of their own. As humans, it is our duty to look out for each other especially those who are less fortunate than us. It is the moral thing to do. It is for humanity. By supplying the homeless with a necessity, you can also save them from being recruited or forced into a Human Trafficking Ring. 

#helpstophumantrafficking

Image by Aamir Mohd Khan from Pixabay

The Power of Giving

Many people are unsure of what to give out to the needy they encounter on the streets due to several stereotypes. The most common one being that if you provide money to the homeless, they'll just use it for drugs instead of buying food or water. What many people do not realize who do not pay attention to price tags is that there is hardly any products out there that is easily accessible in stores that costs $1 or less. So if a person does not see any of the homeless rushing into the store immediately after receiving money is due to still not having enough to afford it. Another way to get over this stigma that people carry is to take matters into your own hands and just buy something for them instead. There is always something that you can do to help.

Even if the chances are that you do not have any food or beverage on hand or any cash, check your surroundings. In the car, you may have an extra bag. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a bag these days? Many places offer them with a price. They are no longer free. Try to see if you can find one with handles, which is even better. A nearby store may have a cup of ice. You can help them begin creating a first aid kit. Maybe you can check out the beauty section and provide a travel size beauty product or comb. How about a pair of socks? There are so many options. The list is endless!

Please do think twice before passing someone on the street. A helpful action can help save their lives especially gifting nourishment and hydration. Never underestimate the power of giving.

Bibliography:

1. World Population Review. Homeless Population By State  2023: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/homeless-population-by-state, 2023.

Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.

Inspired by my true story.

Don’t forget! No matter what, you can always shine on.

#sidewalkblues #homeless #people #lessfortunate #helptheneedy #stereotype #stigma #SlaveryandHumanTraffickingPreventionMonth #offering #powerofgiving #helpstophumantrafficking  #labortrafficking #drugtrafficking #sextrafficking #endsexualviolence #gifting #providing #SunshineHeadquarters #inspirational #personal #blog #AndrelynWriting #writer #poet #UnseenFortitude

Spread Kindness

 

The usual tradition ensues as we approach the New Year of setting resolutions for us to tackle throughout the year. Some of these new goals can be a feat and take a very long time to achieve. Don't forget the small, manageable goals though. Even the simplest one that people may forget to add in: Spread kindness wherever you go. Like wildflowers that grow with just a tiny sprinkle of raindrops without much effort, we can do small acts to make someone else's day.

Greet more people.

Share more smiles.

Give a compliment.

Show some love.

Pass on credit to where it's due. 

Shine a little light to cheer up someone.

These are just a few.

There's always a little something that you can do and it won't go unnoticed.

Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.

Don’t forget! No matter what, you can always shine on.

#SpreadKindness #smile #compliment #love #smallacts #SunshineHeadquarters #inspirational #blog #AndrelynWriting

She Speaks With Wisdom

Caution: this article may be triggering as it involved both religion and politics.

This is your opportunity to break away or if you're brave, feel free to read on. 😀

A reminder that this is written with good intentions for women and the purpose is to spread truthful information that is being misrepresented elsewhere around the internet.

 

In the Book of Proverbs Verse 31:26 from the Bible, it states, "She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue." It is not mentioned often, but even the Bible says that we should be listening to women as we are filled with wisdom. And in today's modern world where we are still speaking about equality, this is truly relevant in our time. 

With much of the most controversial topics centering around women, it seems baffling that women's words are not taken too much into account. While scrolling through the news on abortions, I've seen women having to ask tough questions to men trying to preach about what God means for us to do when it comes to babies. The questions these female anchors ask to have to do with trying to find out what are the plans for the women (single or already with family) who are being forced to have children and how will they be supported during those life's challenges.

This image shows Oklahoma's statistics relevant to the position in question on the consequences of not having an abortion.

For accessibility purposes:

State of Economy for Oklahoma Families

21.3% of children live below poverty line.

71% of SNAP participants are in families with kids.

Oklahoma 42nd Overall in Well-Being.

I tweeted about this earlier particular example earlier. Here is the link to view the specific video clip:

https://twitter.com/andrelynwriting/status/1535399546599010304?s=20&t=2bEY9L8gc-7eSeC_98j85g

Yes, this is the realm of politics. No, it is not okay to mention the opposing side when asked the question about what the Governor's plan is in terms of executing additional support for women while holding a State's seat. You can't help, but think: 

What does this have to do with women by mentioning a political party or viewpoints on them?

So, where does it mention that babies help contribute to paying bills? Or make bills less expensive in any way?

Questions like these keep getting avoided by Republican politicians who are trying their darndest to ban abortion legislation in multiple ways or instill additional restrictions on accessing abortion procedures, including Roe v. Wade. God is being used as an example of why abortions should be illegal. But again, the Bible mentions listening to the wisdom of women. At this point, whose words do we follow then? The politician's viewpoint on what he interprets as God's words, or the scripture itself that was written through God's actions and intentions? If religion is the focus of the defense, then it should be represented truthfully, and the answer is obvious.

The takeaway from this is to hear what the women have to say about their own bodies in order to produce a solution to a problem like expanding our healthcare and access to resources in obtaining that healthcare rather than restricting or banning parts of it.

This also raises another question in this matter, how many women are being interviewed on this topic instead of the people trying to shut down our rights? More airtime on media is given priority to those who wish to ban women's rights and focuses on the male perspective of our bodies, household roles, and what they believe is our purpose in life when it comes to reproduction. Try it for yourself and see what pops up on google searches or even scrolling through social media. How many female points of view are you seeing being circulated around the internet on this most critical issue? Feel free to leave a comment below on what you have discovered. I'm genuinely curious if you're seeing the same things that I am because these have been the results that I've come across for the past couple of months since I've heard about Roe v. Wade being threatened. The majority of what I see is "don't kill babies" and "women should have babies from rapists". YIKES!!!!

What world do we live in again? Is this truly the land of the free? Increased questions keep approaching that stay unanswered for the sake of redirecting back to political rally trendy quotes opposing abortion. There has not been any feedback listed on what should be done to help the poverty crisis, which these abortion bans are contributing to. There are no plans for increasing resources for people who are being denied them. And racism is still being ignored by those saying that it still doesn't exist, while black women still have the highest birth mortality rates. Hispanic and Latin women are still being treated as if all have jumped over the border wall and "need to be sent home." In what area are women free?

I'd like to encourage you to exercise a bit of courage today and react to at least 5 social media posts today expressing support for women's rights from everywhere including the U.S. Write a post on any of your social media profiles stating that Women's Rights are Human Rights. It can be a hashtag, added to a graphic, a gif, a quote, only text, whatever you want! As much effort is being focused on restricting women's access to resources or heavily trying to bury women with sexist propaganda, try to put out at least one post, shared or created, on an important woman in your life or your opinion on where we can improve on providing more equality for women.

View my Twitter page for more inspiration:

https://twitter.com/andrelynwriting

Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.

Don’t forget! No matter what, you can always shine on.

#shespeaks #wisdom #religion #abortion #politics #RoevWade #SunshineHeadquarters #inspirational #blog #AndrelynWriting

Imagination is Everything

This is relative to the quote - "If you can dream it, you can do it."

It's also in conjunction with planning before performing an action. Or for writers, outline before you start a large writing project.

It's confirmation to oneself that things are possible after envisioning them.

It's the reason Alice from Alice in Wonderland mentioned about striving to attempt at least 6 impossible things before breakfast. This one is my favorite.

For every mention, there's a whole group of people to put you down and tell you that you're incapable for whatever reasons. There's skepticism and then there's just plain hatred. Celebrating hate is the norm of our human culture whether we'd like to admit it or not. There's usually more than one person to jump up and say, "No, we can't do that." Most of the time, if you would try this on your own if you haven't done so already, if you ask why, there's no supporting reason for it. Sometimes things get pulled out of the air and the rest of the time, there's talk about something that has nothing to do with the subject you are trying to pursue. This means that they have nada. 

Things would not be invented if it were not for the dreams of the inventors. We would just be using the same tools. This still needs to be convinced to so many people trying to avoid modernization through new technological software at all times. ugh But that's a work in progress as well. Even though the power still goes out so much during harsh weather, we're still grateful for the lightbulb. 

We wouldn't have been introduced to the movie villain, the King of Nightmares, Freddy Kreuger if it weren't for Wes Craven's dreams. And we sure wouldn't be hearing over and over that Martin Luther King had a dream.

So let your head roam around in the clouds and catch some extra z's. Imagination brings about creativity and creativity directs us to a better future.

Don't be afraid to imagine. You never know what you're going to get.

Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.

Don’t forget! No matter what, you can always shine on.

#imagination #alberteinstein #SunshineHeadquarters #inspirational #blog #AndrelynWriting

Day and Night

 

God divided the day from the night 

for us to have opportunities 

to receive and appreciate 

the beauty of each one.

To see the stars, 

decorate the background of the moon, 

and experience a light so bright 

that is the burning sun.

Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.

Don’t forget! No matter what, you can always shine on.

#dayandnight #Bible #scripture #religion #poetry #SunshineHeadquarters #inspirational #blog #AndrelynWriting

Wisdom

 

Image by Andrelyn

Church this past weekend was wonderful with their Mother's Day special. While I'm not considered an official mother, I still have two fur babies at home, my two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. They are forever like children no matter how old they are even in dog years. On the stage, they had a panel of two pastor couples (Pastor Josh and his wife, Pastor Stu and his wife) on stage speaking their individual points of view and blending them together beautifully in grounding their words in scripture. 

Some of the things the wives mentioned really sunk in and made me reflect immediately in my life. 

"I'm only as happy as my saddest kid."

This helped me to realize that I have held too high of expectations for my mother and our relationship. Despite our differences, we keep trying to stay bonded. One of those things holding me back is the expectation that I should be able to say everything that is considered to be bad, and it should be accepted without having to guilt me for it. But given our recent talks about climate change, she cannot handle all the sad news. Then we moved onto another topic of politics, there's much more shocking and unwelcome news there. Then we talked about other things, and it was just one dreadful thing after another. I can empathize with her on how overwhelmed she feels with all that bad news. It saddens her and gives her the impression that I'm incredibly sad about it as well. It made me realize that my expectations were too high and that another thing to help us that I can take charge of is helping her focus on the positive for both of our sakes even though for me, it's not an issue to handle personally. So, it's begun this week and is slowly picking up much more positive results. For our relationship, I'll continue to show her how these terrible situations do not sadden me and in fact, made me stronger because I've seen her go through some of them too. To me, that's a win-win that is not only positive but a compliment that makes a lasting impression. Talk about taking church literally and using the lessons to learn from. 

There were so many wonderful things mentioned, but there's the other one I can relate to that is shown in the picture above:

"Take the wisdom around you and use it."

When one of the wives mentioned this, she was advising everyone to use other moms as wisdom as well, or parents in general. Each parent mentioned how insecurity can creep in at times. If you find yourself at a park, don't compare your parenting to another to bring you down and beat yourself up. Instead, turn it around and use it as a lesson for improvement. Your partner chose you to be the best parent for the child the two of you share. Be grateful for that opportunity rather than focusing on a negative that can be meaningless. As Pastor Josh mentioned, "Your child is your report card," not other people when it comes to the children's happiness.

Here's another takeaway from this quote:

I feel like another way that is the best opportunity for me to do this is with books. Lately, I've been trying to surround myself with books as they are inspirational and motivational without having to open them. Then there's the wisdom that pours out of every filled page that provides additional inspiration. What better place to apply this quote! Books go with everything. There's no end to their correspondence and there are so many ways to apply the information.

Wisdom is something that is highly cherished and respected although, throughout history, people's actions have shown otherwise. Scholars of the highest stature in their fields are looked up to for their knowledge because everyone looks to them as a bar to reach or a level to achieve. For some, it takes a small amount of time and for others it takes a lifetime. However long it takes, it's doable for anyone. I believe that people can limit this and make things go in other directions that they're not supposed to. People in history have been quick to turn on scholars as well to accuse them of absurdities and craziness for concepts that they do not understand. Geniuses have gone through such horrible experiences, and some are not recognized for their acquired smarts until after death. Why is it that humans do these kinds of things? It's sad, but overall, there's still respect for those who do get the wisdom and apply it in the correct manner. 

Another quote comes to mind: "Don't hate, appreciate."

Some of the younger folks may not know this one yet as it's considered to be old-school. lol But the point is to celebrate another one's intellect. Use that wisdom for something that may benefit you or someone you know too. We can all learn something new. The good news is that there's no cap on learning. There isn't a maximum or an unbreakable ceiling. Every day is an opportunity to learn something new, gain more wisdom, and use it for good. Here's your challenge: take a step back and you try it too.

If the quotes from the sermon interest you, feel free to stop by and join us.

Bethany Baptist Church in Puyallup, WA

All are welcome on Saturday evenings at 6:00pm or Sunday mornings starting at 9am or 10:30am.

We're also online too!

https://www.bethanysite.com/

Hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day!

Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.

Don’t forget! No matter what, you can always shine on.

#wisdom #MothersDay #BethanyPuyallup #church #spiritual #personal #experience #SunshineHeadquarters #inspirational #blog #AndrelynWriting