Gillian Anderson: film Sold exposes the horror of child sex trafficking
Girls' education
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The practice of child sex slavery has been branded as 鶹APPdisturbing and so ugly鶹APP by the actress Gillian Anderson.
But the X Files star is determined that the plight of 1.8 million children who are trafficked into sexual slavery each year is highlighted to a global audience.
Gillian appears in a new film called Sold 鶹APP about a 13-year-old girl in Nepal sold unknowingly by her poverty-stricken parents to an Indian brothel.
Ahead of its American release on April 1, she told : 鶹APPIt鶹APPs always important to choose the causes that break our hearts and this, the thought of children being trafficked for sex, breaks my heart. So I feel quite empowered and impassioned.鶹APP
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More than 20 million people are enslaved today 鶹APP over 5.5 million of them children, according to the . The global child protection network says the average age of a trafficked child is 13 鶹APP the same age as Lakshmi in Sold.
Child trafficking robs its victims of their fundamental human rights. They are deprived of education, proper healthcare and the opportunity to be in a safe environment with their families and other children.
The chaos in Nepal after last year鶹APPs earthquakes has meant a rise in child trafficking. Dr Tshering Lama of recently estimated that 鶹APPhundreds if not thousands of children will have been trafficked as a direct result of conditions caused by the earthquakes鶹APP.
Gillian, best known for her role as Agent Dana Scully in the hit American TV series and films, plays a photographer who joins forces with an activist group trying to rescue enslaved women and children.
She said of child trafficking: 鶹APPIt is so disturbing and so ugly but what鶹APPs important is that it is in our face so that we are moved to action.
鶹APPIt鶹APPs a very difficult movie. It鶹APPs a difficult subject matter to talk about children being systematically raped but we need to get past that.鶹APP
A shorter version of Sold has been made, which is suitable to be shown in schools. Communities can also ask for the film to be shown at a local cinema.
Director Jeffrey D. Brown said: 鶹APPWe hope Sold will focus world attention on the plight of sexually exploited children in the way a film like An Inconvenient Truth galvanised awareness for global warming.鶹APP
Emily Pasnak-Lapchick, End Trafficking Program Officer for the US Fund for UNICEF, said: 鶹APPSold humanises the issue of child trafficking. By pulling us into the world of one child who is trafficked, the film provides insight into the horrors children experience but also illustrates the resilience they have to overcome such horrible situations.鶹APP
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