On October 22nd, the UConn love146 task force held a speaker series event including Hollywood actress, Annalynne McCord known for 90210, in the Konover auditorium of the Dodd center on the Storrs campus.
The first to speak was thirty-year-old recognized humanitarian and speaker for social justice and sex trafficking, Jessica Minhas.
Minhas’ passion really came alive for her after she returned from her trip from India and she wanted to give children a voice. She began to talk about it with people but would often get a response like;
“That’s really uncomfortable for us” and wanted Minhas to stop talking to them about sex trafficking.
After winning Miss Florida State, Minhas now had a platform to share her passion and partner with organizations like the Blind Project to make a change.
Minhas shared these statistics with the audience:
- 1 in 4 girls have been sexually assaulted
- 28.9 million are enslaved right now
The second speaker was twenty six-year-old Hollywood Actress, Annalynne McCord. McCord left home at the age of 15 to pursue a career in acting, she feared for her life growing up living in an abusive household. When she finally got her break with 90210 she originally was going to turn it down.
“I’m going back to NY to work at Starbucks,” said McCord to her agent.
After calling her longtime friend, Minhas, she realized that she could use 90210 has a vehicle to share and spread the message of sex trafficking. McCord, herself also has a passion for the cause and personal connection because she was raped by a friend at the age of 18. McCord shared that during her rape she had laid on her bed and pretended to be asleep so that it would stop, the assailant was someone she called a friend, 85% of women who are raped are raped by someone they know.
“Don’t talk about that in front of her, she was raped,” said McCord about people’s reactions. “I have sexual fantasies,” said McCord. McCord emphasized that we need to start talking about sex, which has become taboo and that repression is our biggest problem.
“We sleep, we eat, we have sex…these are bodily functions,” said McCord.
In Cambodia girls are told that you are going to get married and your husband is going to do something to you, just let it happen, said McCord for an example of the repression of sex.
“Talk about it, talk about it, talk about it!” said McCord.
The final speaker of the series, Rob Morris, is the Co-founder and president of Love146, an organization working to end child trafficking and exploitation. At the beginning of his talk he listed three commandments that should be added to the Catholic religion’s Ten Commandments;
- Thou shalt not be a victim
- Thou shalt never be a bystander
- Thou shalt never be a perpetrator
“I think we forget that we’re talking about human beings… not numbers,” said Morris. “This is about someone’s child.”
Morris told the story of how he went into a brothel with undercover cops and stood behind the glass and viewed all the young girls being sold for sex. There was one child with light left in her eyes, her number was 146. Morris says that it is not a cause, it is not an issue, it’s a human being.
Morris was told by a woman when he was abroad, ‘You know what your problem is as Americans, you don’t think, you react.’ We (society) move too fast on solutions that may not work. It is more effective to take more time to figure it out. Morris says that it is not going to be love146 that will end slavery; it will be a collective effort.
He told a version of the starfish story about how a boy notices starfish that got washed up on the beach in the morning and he is running around the beach trying to throw them back in the ocean before the sun comes up. His dad notices him doing this and asks him if he realizes that he will not be able to save all of them. He does but his reply, “yea but for that one, I’ve changed everything.”
Morris questioned why that kid was the only one picking up starfish. We need to call people to the beaches of injustice, said Morris.
What you can do:
- Become a conscientious shopper; know what your buying isn’t made by slaves. Free2work.org
- Educate yourself, read! http://www.halftheskymovement.org/
- Never be a bystander
- Save the National Human Trafficking Hotline in your phone 1-888-373-7888
- Learn what more you can do at www.146taskforce.org