UA News

UA students coordinated the Human Trafficking Awareness Week to educate students and the local community about trafficking victims around the world and what must be done to help them.

Numerous news stories have focused on the global problem of human trafficking.

Such accounts point to incidents and cases in the Phillipines, India, South Africa and other countries. Supermodel Petra Nemcova recenty said she witnessed human trafficking firsthand during a trip to Cambodia.

To help raise awareness about the practice, students at The University of Arizona have organized a week of events focusing on human trafficking, its perpetrators, victims and the organizations that are trying to banish the problem.

Members of the Social Justice League, a UA student organization, coordinated Human Trafficking Awareness Week, which begins Monday.

"When you think about slavery you might think that it is something in the past," said Hali Nurnberg, Social Justice League president.

"But slavery still exists today. It's scary when you think about it," she said. "We want people to learn about it and to be informed about it."

The U.S. Department of State estimates that about 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders, with about 20,000 being trafficked into the United States each year, though some agencies and organizations say those numbers are too. Many organizations say the majority of most victims are women and children who are forced to work or become prostitutes.

The Social Justice League, the UA's Social Justice Leadership Center, the Emancipation Network, the Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking (ALERT), Achieving Sustainable Social Equity Through Inormation and Computer Technology (ASSET) and numerous other organizations are working together to coordinate the week 's events.

The events are meant to make people aware of the "atrocities of modern-day slavery" and also to help people figure out ways they can get involved in the movement to counteract human trafficking, Nurnberg said.

Nurnberg decided to work with her organization to introduce an awareness week after attending a film screening about human trafficking and a fair in Boston that featured products made by survivors.

Both events had such an impact on Nurnberg that she decided to work with the organization to coordinate an event that would raise awareness about human trafficking.

"It was my first experience and I figured if it was something I didn't know much about that it might be the same for a lot of other students," she said.

The week's events are:

April 21 - A film screening of "The Day My God Died" will kick off the week. The film, about young girls forced into sexual servitude and the nonprofit organizations working to rescue them, will be shown Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Gallagher Theater in the Student Union Memorial Center. Ashley Cassidy, the Arizona Ambassador to The Emancipation Network, will speak after the screening.

April 23 - A Made by Survivors product fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the UA Mall. The Emancipation Network supports survivors of human trafficking by helping them to sell their handicrafts. Jewelry, bags, notebooks and other handicrafts made by survivors will be on sale.

April 23 - Beginning at 7 p.m. at the UA's Park Student Union, 615 N. Park Ave., two films will be screened. "Slavery: A Global Investigation" is an award-winning documentary about the modern-day slave trade in countries that include India, Africa and the United States. Another film, "Dreams Die Hard," about individuals trafficked into the United States, will be shown after the first film.

April 24 - Speakers and performers from the Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking, ALERT and the Al-Haneen Arabic Dabke Dance Troupe will be part of a noon to 1 p.m. event that will feature readings of true stories written by trafficking victims.