If you would have asked me six months ago whether child slavery exists in our world today I probably would have said absolutely not. I had no idea that children as young as five and six are forced to work in mines, brothels and coffee shops every day around the world and right here in our American communities. In fact, there are more slaves in the world now than any other time in  history. It wasn’t until my friend Roland Bergeron returned from India with photos and stories of barefoot orphans picking away at slate quarries that this horrible reality was brought to my attention. And if I had no idea, I was sure other people didn’t realize either.

I figured the best way I could help was to bring it to my editor’s attention who graciously allowed me to write about child slavery and trafficking for the March issue of REDBOOK. The piece highlights seven simple ways you can stop this rampant injustice. I could have easily filled 20 pages on this subject, but I’m thankful for the opportunity to have learned more about child slavery and share some of that knowledge with our readers.

Please take some time to read the article and commit to doing just one thing on the list– whether it’s giving up your coffee once a week for Mercy 29′s Lattes for Legacies campaign, buying jewelry made by trafficking survivors or taking the 11-question survey at SlaveryFootprint.org to find out how many slaves work for you. I hope that you’re like me– now that you know that millions of children are forced into slavery you’ll do what you can to put an end to it. If we all do our small part then we can all be a part of the solution.