Lila's Ride

In 2005, while I was working at the Korean American Community Services (KACS) in San Jose, we received a call requesting translators for a group of 100 women found in a San Francisco brothel bust - the police didn't know how to communicate with the Korean women who couldn't speak a word of English because they had been held captive inside ... these women who had limited economic opportunities in their home country were lured by the promise of visas and work in a foreign land, which is a common way of baiting victims of human trafficking. According to the US Department of State - Trafficking in Humans Report 2013, Korea is a source, transit and destination country for people (women, children, and men) subjected to forced prostitution and forced labor.

So, while most spend the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holiday stuck in traffic, heading to the rural outskirts of Seoul, a group of advocates are taking a stance to bring awareness to the plight of modern day slavery ... and riding against the traffick (an approx. 500 km bike ride from Busan to Seoul over the course of 3-5 days) ... including me *gulp.

Each rider is contributing their own money for the costs associated with the ride, so all proceeds donated here will go to House of Hope - restoration center for rescued victims of trafficking (http://give.whckorea.org/houseofhope or http://www.hopeberestored.org/) and the Oak Tree Project - scholarship giving orphans* the opportunity to attend college (http://www.oaktreeproject.com).
*Orphans are a key vulnerable demographic to human trafficking as they lose government assistance after they turn 18, and often have limited economic opportunities and social supports for sustenance.

Please support us by donating through this site and spreading the word!
#rideagainsttraffick2014 #endhumantrafficking

UPDATE: We have exceeded our original goal of 20 million won! Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed so far. But it's not too late to give! Let's see if we can hit 30 million now!

Details:
Dates: 2014 Chuseok weekend Sep 6-10 (Saturday to Wednesday)
Route: 4 Rivers Cycle Path from Busan to Seoul (riders will take the KTX to Busan, and the bikes will be sent via truck ahead of time). We'll cover approximately 120-135 km per day.
Worship and Prayer: Each night we'll have an optional worship and prayer meeting.  Sunday morning we will have an optional worship service before we depart for the day.
Cost:  Still TBD, but in the neighborhood of 120,000 - 150,000 plus money for meals.
Who:  Anyone who is cleared physically by a doctor to join and willing to train.  Novice to expert levels are welcome.  We are also in need of support crew volunteers.
Sign Up Deadline:  Cyclists and support crew volunteers should contact John Choi (johnchoi80@gmail.com) by June 15th.  After June 15th cyclists will be put on a waiting list.

Objectives:
1. Raise awareness about the injustice of human trafficking, especially sex trafficking, as well as the plight of orphans (high risk targets of pimps/traffickers) in Korea. Awareness is spread through each involved person's relationships, social circles and social networks - there will be daily updates as we bike from Busan to Seoul.
2. Raise funds for House of Hope (Korea's only gospel-centered restoration center for trafficked victims) and Oak Tree Project (college scholarship and mentoring program for true orphans).  We raise funds through our website www.rideagainsttraffick.org
3. Pray for leaders, laws, law enforcement, society/culture perspective, pimps/traffickers, johns, and victims. Pray for justice. Pray for churches and Christians to rise up, live out the gospel in caring for the orphans, marginalized, and oppressed.

Requirements:
1. A road bike or hybrid bike, front and rear lights, helmet. Biking shorts highly recommended.
2. Physical / doctor approval of health
3. Training - Cyclists must commit to ride 20 km 3x a week and to taking one longer ride per week.  We have a group that is already training in Seoul and the Incheon group will start next week.