On Monday, January 16, I attended Agnes Scott College’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. day of service, which this year focused on the phenomena of human trafficking in Decatur and around the world. Scotties who attended the event could either pack care kits or educate businesses in Decatur on human trafficking. However, before we began our volunteering, we had to ask ourselves: what does human trafficking mean, where does it take place, and what can we do to stop it?
In short, human trafficking is slavery. It can be forced or coerced labor in any field. Scottie Tatiana Nigh, ’20, who lead the event, started our meeting by asking us to brainstorm areas where human trafficking was prevalent. Our suggestions ranged between agriculture, industry, food service, hospitality, and sex work. We learned that it can take place everywhere from a neighborhood restaurant to a distant factory, and it has wormed its way into everything from clothing to diamonds to toothpaste.
So what can we do? To start, we can visit the website for the Abolitionist Movement (http://www.humantraffickinginfo.org/) to learn the signs of human trafficking and call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (1-888-373-788) when we think we’ve seen someone being trafficked. In addition, the slavery footprint site (http://slaveryfootprint.org/) can tell you how many slaves around the globe work for you and suggest ethically sourced alternatives to common products. Agnes Scott will also host a film screening of “Call + Response” on January 24th at 7pm in the Frannie Graves Auditorium for those in and around Decatur.
Unfortunately, the fight against human trafficking on a global scale is still a pretty young one. That means that there simply isn’t the infrastructure needed for large scale protests and change. Let’s be that infrastructure. When I canvassed Decatur businesses, I can safely say that people were overwhelmingly positive — they want to learn and help. If you can share links and information, please do, so we can effect change for people in bondage.