Global social issues like human trafficking, female genital mutilation (FGM), and child marriage are widely known about and I think there’s a worldwide consensus that they are problems and should be resolved to improve our societies.

Even though the term “global” would seem to imply that every country around the world is affected by these issues in some way or another, these specific problems, among others, are ones that many associate with underdeveloped nations or third-world countries, and therefore we often deny their presence within our own society.

Exact numbers and concrete facts can be hard to define for any one of these issues as they are extremely widespread but silenced crimes. However, that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to obtain information and doing something to help.

The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking believes the number of children trafficked in the U.S. to be in excess of 100,000. DoSomething.org estimates the number of people trafficked every year in the U.S. to be between 14,500 and 17,500. Whatever the correct numbers happen to be, one human being forced into sex slavery or any other form of servitude anywhere in the world is one too many, let alone in a country that claims to be as great and powerful as the United States.

According to a 2016 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of female genital mutilation in the U.S. has more than tripled since the 1990s. They estimated that 513,000 women and girls in the U.S. have undergone or are at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation.

While there are surgical procedures designed to help victims of FGM, many victims either don’t have access to the right kind of health care or they are too embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help.

The minimum age for marriage in most states is 18 years old. However, most states have “parental consent” laws that allow teenagers to get married at 16 or 17 with a parent’s signature on the marriage license and lack laws that forbid forced marriages. There is also the exception of judicial approval which lowers the marriage age below 16 in many states and doesn’t specify a minimum age.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 3,481 children were married between 1995 and 2012 in New Jersey alone, 163 which were children under the age of 16, and 91 percent of which were married to legal adults.

These global issues clearly present themselves within our own country if only someone cares enough to look at the problem. The first step in taking action and creating hope for change in regards to any social issue is fostering awareness.

We have become desensitized to real world suffering because we are bombarded by headlines and images of it every day. We need to wake up to the realities of injustice within our own country and become uncomfortable with ignorance.