Sexuality Tuned in to Trafficking

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Tuned in to Trafficking

EFFECTS OF SEX TRAFFICKING AND HOW TO ADVOCTATE AGAINST IT.

Words | Gracyn Freiling

Slavery exists in every city in the world, with over 40 million people currently enslaved worldwide. One in four of these slaves are children. While it’s easy to push these numbers away and pretend like they don’t exist, slavery is a real, urgent problem that needs to be addressed. Human trafficking generates $150 billion a year, and that isn’t slowing down. This issue can feel foreign and inapplicable to our lives, but it is not a problem we are immune to and occurs in high volumes right under our noses.

San Antonio is a part of the hotbed for trafficking in Texas because major highways such as I-10 and I-35 provide easy access to transportation and escape. The area between San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Houston produce human trafficking rates that are especially high. “[They] create this little triangle in Texas where we see an uptick of trafficking occurring because of the proximity of all of those cities,” Sarassa Inglis, Director of Operations at Ransomed Life said. “Those are some of the biggest cities in Texas so there’s just a higher demand.”

However, it’s not just the big cities that are affected. Inglis warns that small towns have need for concern as well. She remembers checking the amount of sex ads posted with a colleague one day and was shocked to find that over 6,000 ads had been posted in a single day in the hill country alone.

“People often think that if [they] live in a smaller town, it won’t happen there, but the reality is, it does,”

Inglis said. “We try to tell people all the time that it’s absolutely happening where you live too.”

The organization she works for, Ransomed Life, is a ministry that seeks to equip and empower exploited youth to experience freedom and purpose with the ultimate goal of seeing them redeemed and restored. They aim to achieve this largely through their counseling services, mentoring and community engagement. Ransomed Life operates from a Christian worldview with the hope of sharing the good news with the girls in the organization.

“We have [brought] in a bunch of speakers that talk about how they’ve overcome trauma in their own lives, specifically in relation to how their relationship with Jesus got them through that trauma,” Inglis said.

Despite the girls being victims of trafficking and having obvious trust issues, Inglis explained that Christian messages are generally well-received. “Most girls we have worked with have been very open to these ideas, and the peace and calmness that this environment has brought to them has been really neat to see,” she said.

They currently serve as the teaching arm for the Bexar County Sheriff’s department and fulfill speaker requests, traveling to various schools, businesses and medical environments to educate people on the harsh and frightening reality of the trafficking that surrounds us. A large part of their awareness training is directed towards kids, teaching them to recognize the signs of potential trafficking and showing them how to be safe both online and in public.

“We want to be on the front end of preventing any kids from ever falling into a trafficking situation,” Inglis said. Such a large issue requires an extensive amount of support to make an impact. Luckily, Ransomed Life is not alone in their efforts. Another organization called Dressember also seeks to spread human trafficking awareness, but in a completely different way.

It began with college student Blythe Hill. A fashion enthusiast, she challenged herself to wear a dress everyday for the whole month of December. She never intended this to be anything more than a way for her to quench her own style boredom, but as multitudes of friends quickly joined in, Hill wondered if this silly game she created had more power than she thought. As a victim of childhood sexual abuse, human trafficking was a cause close to her heart. Because of this, she decided to repurpose the project to spread awareness for human trafficking. In 2013, she partnered with the International Justice Mission to expand her vision’s horizons. These

humble beginnings knit together a community that would eventually raise $10 million for anti-trafficking organizations worldwide. What started as a fun little fashion challenge quickly transformed into a movement. Students can join a group and set a financial goal to raise money. Commiting to wearing a tie or a dress every day for the month of December is a conversation starter to create awareness. The fundraising comes from social media pages on instagram or facebook

Now an organization that has quickly gained notoriety after being featured in Good Housekeeping, Town and Country, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, Glamour, InStyle, Vanity Fair and other well known news sources, Dressember is a movement with a mission. “Our [goal] is to equip and empower everyday people to find their voice in the fight to end human trafficking,” Madeline K r o n e n b e r g , C o m m u n i c a t i o n s Manager at Dressember, said.

Kronenberg agrees that the best way to keep yourself safe is to be informed and aware. There are lots of common misconceptions when it comes to human trafficking.

“What started as a fun little fashion challenge quickly transformed into a movement.”

“While sensationalized stories from the media might have us believe that traffickers are following us around in IKEA or looking to kidnap us as we walk home, the reality is that these cases are incredibly rare,” she said. “Human trafficking often occurs instead by family members or romantic partners.”

Knowing the signs of trafficking and understanding what healthy relationships look like are vital steps to avoiding becoming a victim yourself.

Dressember has become so popular that many members of the Geneva community have taken part in the movement. Audrey Ryden (‘18) is one of several Geneva alumni who have taken on the challenge. After seeing other people’s involvement, Ryden decided to join the cause this past December. “Being able to make an impact in such a small way as wearing a dress and fundraising for it seemed like a good idea,” she said.

The idea of wearing a dress every day for a month may sound daunting, but advocates don’t have to have a closet full of dresses to participate. All that is required is a

few pieces and enough creativity to last 31 days. Repurposing and redesigning dresses to put together several outfits is part of the challenging aspect of the project.

“Two of my roommates did it with me, so we would share dresses and help each other out with outfits,” Ryden said.

Also, because human trafficking exists across both genders, men are encouraged to participate in Dressember as well. Instead of donning dresses, however, guys commit to wearing a tie every day of the month.

No matter whether you’re wearing a dress or a tie, the significance is symbolic. “The dress or tie serves as the conversation starter to educate your community about modern slavery,” the Dressember website says. The organization also seeks to educate people about the origin of the clothes they buy. “The biggest thing [for me] was being more aware of what I buy. Ethical branding is such a big part of our jobs as consumers,” Ryden said.

Organizations like Ransomed Life and Dressember are fighting for the inherent dignity of all people. While human trafficking and its consequences are depressing topics, their importance is paramount. Protecting our loved ones and ourselves is important, but we must also lend a hand in fixing the damage that has already been done. By volunteering our time or money, we can help pick up the pieces of the lives that human trafficking has destroyed. Even something as simple as wearing a dress or tie for 31 days straight can make a bigger impact than we think.

Graphic | Sophia Baldwin

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