Do It Yourself: Make a Difference

Before Thanksgiving break there was a Uni Period workshop on human trafficking and and a movie--Very Young Girls--later. Unfortunately I was unable to go to the movie night, but I still think this is an important cause. All over the world adults and children are tricked into or are forcibly moved to another location to work. A majority of these trafficked people are forced to be sex workers. The people made to be sex workers are often young girls, starting at age 12. This issue is especially prominent in India where the caste systems keeps women and girls in the lower-caste families where their only source of income will be prostitution. Girls denied education and training are perceived as having no worth, no way to bring income to the family. So, they can be married at age 13 and sold into prostitution by their husbands, or be put into prostitution by their families. Either way, many women don't make it out and remain in sex work for as long as they are "marketable."
But, all is not lost. We can help.

What you'll need:

• The guts to reform yourself and your community
• Cloths
• Resources to stay connected to the movement (provided at the end of this blog post)

Tutorial:

1. First, you need to choose to change. To stop normalizing the sex trade is going to be difficult because it's already so normal to us. 
• Stop jokingly using words like "pimp," "ho," and "whore." Challenge people when they do use this language. 
• Stop jokes that are sexist, racist, or otherwise offensive. 
• ^These two step are probably the most difficult. I realize it's hard to stop a practice ^ you've been doing forever. 
2. Donate clothing to victims of sexual exploitation. Sweat pants and sweat shirts should be donated to rape crisis counseling services. 
3. Fundraising and donating money will always be a help to these volunteer organizations that help victims. It's not important to give a lot, it's important to give what you can.
4. Finally, get involved with organizations that help with these things. Actually working with and volunteering for centers and charities is needed too. 

Resources and organizations:

• The National Human Trafficking Resource Center- a toll free hotline that receives tips and give information about trafficking. The number is 1-888-3737-888.
• ECPAT International and The Body Shop-  "Stop Sex Trafficking of Children & Young People" is aimed at stopping the 1.2 million children domestically trafficked. The website is: ecpat.net/TBS/en/about_campaign.html
• Project Futures- Project from the Somaly Mam Foundation which helps volunteers to fight against slavery. Website: projectfutures.somaly.org
• Say NO- UNiTE to End Violence against Women- launched by UN Women to end violence based on gender. Website: www.saynotoviolence.org

Human trafficking isn't going to go away by itself. If everyone pitches in and does what they can, hopefully forcible sex trade and human labor trafficking will become less normalized and begin to end.