The good thing about being a celebrity isn’t just the attention by the wide public and the status, but also the influence and the ability to change the things for the better.
In fact, many famous people do support different causes and fund different projects that aim to improve the life of those who are less fortunate, and we are deeply thankful for their commitment.
One of these people is actor Ashton Kutcher. He’s not only loved by millions because of his great looks and incredible acting skills, but because of his heart of gold, too.
President @realDonaldTrump “vowed to fight for the forgotten men and women of this country—and there are few that are more voiceless and more forgotten and really in the shadows than those who have been victimized repeatedly and trafficked,” @IvankaTrump said. pic.twitter.com/mgXisFg9oL
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 21, 2020
Back in the day, when he was married to actress Demi Moore, the two founded Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children. This organization aims at identifying and rescuing child sex trafficking victims, and since 2012, it helped rescue around 6,000 humans.
Kutcher is very much dedicated to the organization and can proudly say that together with the law enforcement, it helped identify 5,984 child sex trafficking victims, and rescued 103 children from “situations where their sexual abuse was recorded and distributed.” At the same time, Kutcher’s organization helped track down 6,608 perpetrators.
Speaking to 48 Hours, the That ’70s Show star said: “What we do at our core is we build technology to help fight sexual exploitation of children. You can roll up your sleeves and go try to be like a hero and go save one person, or you can build a tool that allows one person to save a lot of people.”
In 2017, Kutcher was invited to speak in front of the Congress. In his speech, he urged the Congress to take more active role in the prevention of sex trafficking and help vulnerable children and women.
“I’m here today to defend the right to pursue happiness. It’s a simple notion: ‘the right to pursue happiness,’” the actor, model and enterprener said.
“It’s bestowed upon all of us by our constitution. Every citizen of this country has the right to pursue it. And I believe that it is incumbent on us as citizens of this nation, as Americans, to bestow that right upon others, upon each other, and upon the rest of the world. But the right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away — it’s raped, it’s abused, it’s taken by force, fraud, or coercion. It is sold for the momentary happiness of another.”
However, as a huge number of people praise him for what he does, there are also those who say he should “stick to his job,” that of acting. Answering to these individuals, he brought up a case and said:
“I’ve seen video content of a child that’s the same age as mine being raped by an American man who was a sex tourist in Cambodia, and this child was so conditioned by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play.”
“I’ve been on the other end of a phone call from my team, asking for my help because we had received a call from the Department of Homeland Security, telling us that a 7-year-old girl was being sexually abused and that content was being spread around the dark web and she had been being abused and they’d watched her for three years, and they could not find the perpetrator, asking us for help.
“We were the last line of defense—an actor and his foundation was the potential last line of defense. That’s my day job, and I’m sticking to it.”
Thank you Ahston Kutcher for everything you do. You change one life at a time and we are all forever grateful to you and your organization.