Unfortunately, most members of Congress and state and local officials aren't aware of the most horrific of crimes -- child trafficking. I recently met briefly with U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who is renown for being an effective workhorse in Congress, and briefed her on the severity of the crisis, which surprised her.

According to the latest State Department report, child trafficking is a global epidemic with tentacles that touch every nation and multiple successful industries beginning with pornography on the Internet down to state-run orphanages.

After weapons and drugs, children have become the third most important commodity to organized crime syndicates the world over, led by the Mexican cartels and closely tied with the Russian and Ukrainian cartels.

The 2008 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report confirmed that child trafficking is a $67 billion annual worldwide business larger than Nike, Starbucks and Google combined. According to multiple studies and government reports the economic aspect of the trade that is the supply and demand structure of the global economy makes child sex traffic a lucrative business and difficult to eradicate.

This century's version is a nondiscriminatory business: race, age and socioeconomic status are immaterial to the trader. The challenge: lack of awareness about the prevalence of child slavery and not enough money to eradicate it. Three hundred times more money is spent fighting drug trafficking than child trafficking, according to numerous reports.

Our local and state officials need to rethink strategy, reallocate the budgets and train the ``foot soldiers.'' In the meantime, appoint local and interested citizens to organize into small groups that will eventually become a nationwide initiative.

With committed leadership and grass-roots support, the world's enslaved children shall be ``free at last.''

CONCHITA SARNOFF, board member, Innocents at Risk, Washington D.C.