Contact: Sarah Rode, Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000 ext. 127

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 /Christian Newswire/ -- Concerned Women for America (CWA) joins with other faith-based organizations in sponsoring the Second Annual International Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for victims of sex trafficking.  CWA encourages Christians to join others around the world in praying and fasting September 28-30, 2007.  CWA's website has prepared a church bulletin insert available at www.cwfa.org that can be printed out and inserted in church bulletins distributed during services over the weekend. 

Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Director and Senior Fellow of CWA's Beverly LaHaye Institute and an international leader in the anti-trafficking movement, encourages people to call their church offices to request that the bulletin be used during services September 28-30.  She said, "Many people are still unaware that sex slavery is a modern-day crime that uses human beings as commodities to be sold and enslaved.  This horrible crime is now the #2 international crime just behind drug trafficking as the most profitable and extensive crime in the world."

Every year, the U.S. State Department estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders.  It is estimated that 14,500 to 17,000 are trafficked into the United States every year.  The majority of these victims are women and children destined to be exploited in the commercial sex industry.

Dr. Crouse said, "By joining in the Second Annual International Weekend of Prayer and Fasting, Christians can become involved in the fight against modern-day slavery.  Women are the primary victims of this crime with 12-14 being the average age at which a girl is prostituted." 

Crouse continued, "In other words, many of the victims are just children and they are being exploited in the worst possible ways."

The figures listed above do not include victims trafficked within country borders.  There are victims of human trafficking in the United States that are transported between cities and states every day -- and many are American citizens, American children.

Other Prayer Weekend resources may be found on the Salvation Army's website, www.salvationarmyusa.org/trafficking.

For more information about human trafficking, please go to www.cwfa.org/bli and see the Sex Trafficking section and the BLI Links section.

Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.