There are real horrors in the world worse than any movie could possibly portray. These horrors are happening right under society’s nose and we are not even aware of them.
The International Justice Mission and Student Activities Council will present Not My Life at 7 p.m. tonight in the Education Auditorium. The film is a documentary about the horrors of human trafficking.
The documentary presentation kicks off Justice Week, an entire week of events designed to raise awareness about human trafficking. From 3–4 p.m. Friday in the Family Room of the Wyoming Union, students can attend a seminar discussing the Arts Aftercare program, and at 7 p.m., Jubilee will perform in the Education Auditorium. At 7 p.m. Saturday at Suite 107 located at 1575 North Fourth Street, students are invited to take part in the Justice Prayer Night.
Finally, from 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 in the Business Auditorium, IJM and the Polaris Project with host an advocacy training session. Lunch will be provided for the event.
Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery and forced labor. “Every year in the U.S., approximately 100,000 children are sold into prostitution or pornography,” Rachel Dowd, spokesperson for IJM, said.
In the last 10 years, there have been 13 alleged cases of human trafficking in the state of Wyoming. “Wyoming is the only state without any sort of trafficking laws,” Daniel DeCecco said. IJM, along with the Polaris Project, is working with legislators to provide some sort of framework within the next year so state law enforcement will be better able to handle trafficking cases at a state level, DeCecco said.
Raising awareness is of the utmost importance. “The biggest problem is so many have the misconception that sex trafficking only happened to little girls in brothels in India,” Dowd said. “People are not aware that the problem is present here in the states.”
The more people are aware of issues like this, the easier it would be to fight them. That is where Not My Life comes in. “Now is an awesome time to get on board and get behind the push to get human trafficking legislation in place,“ Dowd said.
“The International Justice Mission is a human rights agency working in about 12 countries around the world,” Dowd said. Here at UW, it is a faith based RSO and anyone is welcome to join.
