“The early bird catches the worm.”
Birds are pretty strategic when it comes to getting their worm. They know the weather – rain is preferable – and they watch carefully for emerging worms. Then they go to work. They will stretch and pull and work at that precious worm until they get it out of the ground. They may be literally birdbrains, but they know the value of the worm and they’ll stop at nothing to procure it!
Early Awareness Prevents Victims
We at Beautiful Dream Society view our efforts to prevent human trafficking along the same lines as “the early bird catches the worm.” Our targets are far more precious than the worms our avian friends pursue. We pursue those whom traffickers are most likely to set their sights on. We’ll take a look at teens who center their lives around social media (Part I); American youths in a difficult family situation who may be prone to run away (Part II); orphaned children in Lesotho, Africa who have no one to look after them (Part III).
Teens and Social Media
Teens on social media may participate in activities they don’t realize are risky. They can inadvertently open themselves up to being approached and manipulated online by traffickers. Beautiful Dream Society not only provides training to kids in Oklahoma in school and youth groups, but also community and parental groups about Internet Safety and how to spot the methods used by someone trying to lure kids into human trafficking. The earlier we can reach teens with information about internet safety, the more likely we can prevent them from falling victim to traffickers’ tactics.
Early action is all about getting to these vulnerable populations before they find themselves in dangerous situations. Beautiful Dream Society is dedicated to a broad variety of prevention efforts so that we can be the early birds who get to the precious ones before traffickers can!
BDS Early Birds
Want to be a BDS Early Bird? Here’s a simple way: register to run or sponsor a runner in our Run for the Dream race! If you register BY MAY 22, you can get our Early Bird Registration of $25 ($35 after May 22). Your support of this fundraising event will help us be the early birds when it comes to reaching vulnerable populations. YOU can help us get to them before traffickers can reach them!
Run for the Dream will take place Saturday, June 6 at 8:00 a.m. Meet at Stars and Stripes Park at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City. You can register to run or walk in our 2K Fun Run, our 5K or 10K races, or to sponsor a runner at: www.beautifuldream.tv/events/run-for-the-dream.