DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

AWARENESS is where it all starts and for me it started with a freshman english class. We spent then entire semester exploring topics related to social justice and we came across human trafficking. I found it particularly interesting but I did not feel the personal connection until I read Nicholas Kristoff's book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity Worldwide. He and his wife Sharon WuDunn wrote about the grave injustices and harsh realities that women face all around the world but also gave success stories of how regular every day people had the courage to do something about it. 

"Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance." Kofi Annan, former General Secretary of the UN

 

There is a global effort to end human trafficking in its various forms. Technology is being used to monitor travel patterns of traffickers who take trafficked persons across borders. Travel agencies and hotels are training their staff to be alert and aware of red flags when individuals appear to be not acting and moving at their free will. There are projects and conferences being held all over the United States to raise awareness including one that I attended at St. John's titled Human Trafficking: Whose Business Is It? This conference made me more aware of  the number of organizations and individuals involved in the 21st century abolition movement. There are a number of documentaries revealing the many different ways people are being abducted and trafficked both inside of their own borders and also being taken abroad. Among those films is Flesh a shocking documentary, which calls into question our definitions of slavery, human trafficking, and prostitution in the United States.  This is a story told by girls who have escaped and by those still enslaved.  It is told by former and current pimps.  It is told by the abolitionists of today, including numerous directors of non-profit organizations, a former U.S. Ambassador, LAPD vice and the L.A. City Task Force on Human Trafficking.  

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.