1,600 will run in Shoreline Saturday to help stop human trafficking

Free Them 5k will be run on Saturday from CRISTA
Photo courtesy World Concern

The starting horn will sound at 9:00am Saturday for World Concern’s Free Them 5k. Now in its 8th year, the community event has raised more than half a million dollars in its history and ensured the protection of tens of thousands of vulnerable children and women living in the world’s poorest places.

Participants raise funds and awareness about the problem of human trafficking — particularly the heinous crime of child trafficking — by running or walking the 5k route through Shoreline, starting at World Concern’s headquarters on the CRISTA Ministries campus.

It’s a tangible way for families and participants of all ages to help end the enslavement of more than 35 million people around the world.

Children, women, and men are often lured with promises of jobs or opportunities, only to be trapped into forced labor, prostitution, or modern-day slavery.

World Concern works to prevent the trafficking, exploitation, and abuse of children and adults in poor communities throughout Southeast Asia by operating a hotline for reporting suspected cases of child endangerment, educating children and parents about the danger of trafficking, and equipping them with job skills to earn income safely. According to the U.S. State Department, prevention programs are key to combatting trafficking globally.

Donations to the Free Them 5k support World Concern’s anti-trafficking programs.

World Concern is a Christian global relief and development organization. Our areas of expertise include disaster response, clean water, education, food security, child protection, microfinance and health.