A campus student group has joined with an Oklahoma City organization this week to raise money and awareness about human sex trafficking.
The Intervarsity Christian Fellowship has been raising change to donate to an organization that fights human trafficking and fastening chains around the wrists of students to raise awareness about the issue.
A “Loose Change to Loosen Chains” table will be present on campus all week to accept donations for the International Justice Mission.
The mission works with other nations’ state departments to restrict slavery and also takes undercover video of brothels, which is used to obtain warrants necessary to shut them down, fellowship representative Chris Goree said.
Fellowship members will man a table in front of Dale Hall until Friday, where they will collect money and hand out chains to students, Goree said. Fellowship members had given out 70 feet of chain in the last two days, Goree said.
Chains are provided free of charge as a reminder that donations benefit the mission, which also provides aftercare such as medical assistance or job training for victims of human trafficking, Goree said.
Female students also take turns volunteering to pose as captive women by sitting on a mattress next to the table as a visual reminder of slavery, Goree said.
Fellowship member and computer science sophomore Isaac Sung said volunteering for the project made him feel he was making a positive impact on campus.
“Even if people don’t donate, we raise awareness and get people thinking about [human trafficking],” Sung said. “I know a lot of people who are interested in this — it is a good thing to do.”
Last year, “Loose Change to Loosen Chains” raised $1,500 for International Justice Mission. As of Tuesday morning, they had raised around $350 in change, Goree said.
In conjunction with the fellowship’s efforts, an information session will be held discussing human trafficking in the Oklahoma City area at 7 tonight in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Scholars Room, said Shannon Merchant, international studies senior.
Merchant said she will speak as a representative of the Oklahoma City organization All Things New about its work with victims of trafficking.
Blake Jenkins of the Oklahoma Justice Mission also will speak briefly, and the film “At the End of Slavery” will be screened, Merchant said.
Human trafficking by the numbers
An estimated 2.5 million people are in forced labor as a result of human trafficking.
» 56 percent — Asia and the Pacific
» 10 percent — Latin America and the Caribbean
» 9.2 percent — the Middle East and Northern Africa
» 5.2 percent — sub-Saharan countries
»10.8 percent — industrialized countries
» 8 percent — countries in transition
— Source: U.N. Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking
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ctone 1 year, 1 month ago
I love that Intervarsity is doing something to raise awareness about sex trafficking. Many students, including myself, do not realize the widespread sex trafficking happening in our own country and to a large degree Oklahoma.
Truly, the best way to support this cause is raise awareness and funds for those trained to rescue the women.