March 30 2009 17:55 PST
Akon is well known for his catchy hooks and massive hits, but always takes time out to be charitable and support causes he believes in. Well this one is about a problem that affects the world that goes under the radar. Akon is teaming up with Peter Buffett, the son of billionaire businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffett, to spread the word and even more important, the awareness of what is now the fastest growing criminal industry in the world.
Akon and Buffet created a website called IsThereSomethingICanDo.com focusing on human trafficking. Akon said, "What this site is, it gives anyone information related to foundations. Some people are like, 'I want to help somebody' or they want to donate money to a foundation, but don't have the means to find out how to do so - this site is almost like a Google for that. Anybody that wants to do anything philanthropic can go to this site and get more information on it. What we do every quarter is focus on a topic - this quarter is human trafficking. It's something that's been happening around the world. That's the focus, and we're launching a song we did called 'Blood Into Gold.'
Akon is referring to a song he recorded to continue to get the word out. He performed this song at the United Nations last Wednesday so the song should be circulating online if you want to listen to it yourself.
While Akon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, he was raised in Dakar, Senegal, a country in West Africa that is heavily affected by human trafficking. He has been outspoken on the environment he grew up in as well as the issues surrounding Africa. For those that aren't sure what human trafficking is, it is the exploitation of people, sometimes even small children, for financial gain, basically modern day slavery. This is a worldwide problem, from countries like the US and France to poorer countries such as Iran and Sudan. In India, 20-60 million people are modern day slaves, working to pay off generations anf generations of debt. 300,000 of these workers are children and 800,000 people are sent to other countries forced into prostitution, sweatshops, domestic labor, farming and child armies. Human trafficking in India has been standard practice for nearly 2000 years.
"You can raise the awareness of it," Akon said. "[There's] a lot of that going on around the world, people being sold - even here, pimping is human trafficking, if you look at it. You got these women in brothels and whorehouses against their wills. A lot of people don't know what to do or where to start, let alone how to stop it. We're just trying to find a solution. Our involvement is not profitable; it's just to raise awareness. The more people who know about it, the solutions are eventually gonna come. That's how you start - people who aren't aware, make them aware."
This is absolutely a site you have to check out if this is a subject that interests you. You can make just as much of a difference regarding this topic as Akon can by checking out the site and doing whatever you can to help. Tell us what you guys think of human trafficking and what you think of Akon and Peter Buffett's efforts to slowly but surely call attention to stopping human trafficking.
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