Page 42 - How We Lead Matters

Security Alarm

It is not commonly known, but slavery is not extinct. It continues to exist
and is growing at record numbers in every corner of the world. Millions of
people are entrapped in this atrocity, and sadly, much of this illicit activity
involves children forced into prostitution. Officially, the number of children
exploited in this way is reported to be two million at any given moment, but
experts warn that that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Fortunately, there are many good people working to protect vulnerable
children, most notably Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden, at whose
request Carlson was pleased to become a co-founder of the World Childhood
Foundation, an organization that works to care for the world’s street children
and abandoned youth.
The sense of responsibility we must share for the world’s children hit
me like a thunderbolt many years ago as I was welcoming our newborn grand-
child to our home for his first overnight visit.
I had prepared a nursery as any grandparent might, and entering it on
the first morning of the visit, I felt an indescribable joy as I lifted him from
the bed. It was a perfect moment: The sunlight even shone through the win-
dow, creating a glow around this perfect baby’s head.
Suddenly I had a profound insight: This child is so loved by so many,
yet all of our personal success and nurturing won’t be able to protect him if
we don’t do something on behalf of those children in the world without a
family, without hope, and without a future.
The truth is that there are no walls long enough or high enough to sep-
arate those we love from those who have known only abuse and pain.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 25