Human trafficking week: film screenings, discussions attempt to raise awareness, promote campus activism

Do you know where your Thanksgiving meal will come from?The members of Omega Phi Beta sorority, Feminista! and Amnesty International hope many students will return home next week cognizant of the ways in which human trafficking may be affecting their lives, their community and their Thanksgiving meal.

Human trafficking, an international crime and human rights atrocity, has claimed up to 27 million victims worldwide. It is the third largest criminal activity in the world, behind drugs and arms sales. Although usually stereotyped as an issue only affecting women in other parts of the world, human trafficking is an issue that hits much closer to home.

Across the Midwest, there are numerous stories of immigrants that have been lured to America under false pretenses of professional jobs. Instead, these workers are kidnapped and forced to work as maids, farm workers, factory workers and dishwashers, among other occupations.

Junior Ashley Slupski, president of Feminista!, said it is important to think about every day behaviors in a broader context.

"We are going to have a big Thanksgiving dinner next Thursday," she said, "but we don't even know if the workers who are picking and growing those foods for us were trafficked or not."

This week Omega Phi Beta hosted a letter-writing event asking Nestlé - the food processing corporation - to end its support of human trafficking, and a screening of the movie "Very Young Girls," about the sex industry in New York City. There was also a discussion with Feminista! on human trafficking as it relates to farm workers' rights, and a conversation with Amnesty International about human trafficking and human rights.

The events, which took place Wednesday and Thursday, were co-organized by the organizations in hopes of educating the DePauw and Greencastle communities about human trafficking.

Senior Stephanie Rivera, president of Omega Phi Beta, said she hopes the events leave a lasting impression on participants.

"I want conversations to spark," she said. "This is not something we can close our eyes and be like 'this doesn't happen here,' and continue this elitism that things that affect the world doesn't affect us."

Similarly, junior Ally Walker, president of Amnesty International, said she wanted to make sure human trafficking does not continue to get "brushed under the rug."

After attending Wednesday's events, junior Eliza Scanlon said she better understands human trafficking. She also said she hopes that further activities create campus awareness.

"I think we take for granted where we get some of our resources," she said. "We just consume."

Slupski said she wants the week to unite DePauw students' disapproval of human trafficking.

"My greatest goal is to get DePauw to come together to say this is something we won't tolerate at DePauw and in the world," she said, "to find the corporations that are doing these things and say, 'We're not going to accept your business at DePauw.'