3rd Day of Freedom: Attend an anti-Human Trafficking awareness event. Learn more about the issue of human trafficking. Encourage others to attend as well.
If you are interested in wanting to join the fight against human trafficking, one of the most important things you can do it attend an anti-trafficking event. Not only will you be taught valuable information about human trafficking but you’ll be surrounded by experts in the field as well as others who are just passionate about putting an end to it. If you’re interested in attending an event, but nervous that you’ll be awkwardly standing around with no one to talk to, encourage your friends to go with you. Not only will you feel more comfortable taking part in whatever type of activities there are, but you’ll be helping to educate others about human trafficking just by bringing them. There is such a wide variety of events that organizations host all over the country and world to raise awareness about this modern day slavery. If you know of an anti- trafficking organization in your area, log on to their website and check to see if they have an “events” or “calendar” page; chances are they do. The link to the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking’s calendar is: http://www.stophumantrafficking.org/calendar.html. You can also find events happening all over the country at: http://freedomcommons.ijm.org/events. These are events from just two organizations but finding ones close to home is as easy as typing “anti-trafficking events (and your city’s name)” into a search engine. Sometimes organizations will host meetings just to let people in the community know the basics about what they do, human trafficking in general, how you can get involved, etc, and those can be a great first step. Many colleges also have anti-trafficking organizations on campus that host events that are open to the public. Something to keep in mind that has been brought to my attention lately is that you don’t need to be the foremost expert on trafficking or dedicate your life to its eradication to make a difference or attend an event. I’ve felt a lot of guilt after working with community partners in school because I haven’t been able to dedicate my entire life to helping them, but if I dedicated my life to helping all of the causes I felt passionate about, I’d need about 60 lives. If you find that stopping trafficking is something you feel very passionate about, that’s fantastic! But, even of you just attend an event and spread the word about what you learned there, that can have an impact too. Maybe you’ll attend lots of events that raise awareness about a whole variety of topics from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (http://www.ciw-online.org/index.html) or the Farmworker Association of Florida (http://www.floridafarmworkers.org/index.php/upcoming-events) about getting fair wages and working conditions for the farmworkers, to Take Back the Night by the Sexual Violence Task Force of Tampa Bay (http://www.svtftampabay.com/takebackthenight2013.htm), and of you spread what you’ve learned and teach just one other person about an injustice in the world, perhaps it can inspire them to get involved. The goal of any event is to raise money to fight an injustice and/or to simply raise awareness about it. By taking part and sharing your experience, you can make a world of difference.
By: Danae Zimmer
FCAHT's Blog 