http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=165313296860078&saved#!/video/video.php?v=134077406650334&oid=69204568672&comments

Fashion Fights Back was the launch event for our week long human wrong campaign and what a launch it was!

“Fashion Fights Back” was intended to show a different and innovative way to combat human trafficking. By using clothing that is 100% conflict free and future goal is to put 100 percent of the clothing proceeds toward fighting against human sex trafficking. The designer of Elegantees, Katie Behnke, plans to provide future employment for women who have been rescued from the sex trade, offering them a fresh start by learning a new skill.

Shoes from Shoe Revolt, a company that resells donated shoes, were also featured in the show.  Shoe Revolt uses the profits of its business to provide housing and rescue shelters for victims of the sex trade, as well as educational scholarships.

Also the backdrop from the show was a heart wrenching art piece by James Davis who gives 50% of his art sells to Not for Sale Campaign. His backdrop made the starling statistic that, a sex trafficking victim can take up to 50 clients a day, come to life right before our eyes.

The atmosphere was very upbeat with, a local TV personality Kelcey Bridges ,from Mytvz, as the MC and funny side jokes, hip hop dancers with their new ticking techniques mixed in, FREE FOOD, giveaways donated by local businesses, and of course the fashion show with styles by Elegantees and Shoe Revolt, also styling done by the models themselves. Also my hair salon pitched in to do the models hair and several different make-up bussinesses came together to finish the girls up, such as Mary Kay, the Body Shop, and a local celebrity make-up artist. Also Premiere Jewelry pitched in to help the girls accessorize.

Check out article on fashion show and behind the scene phootage: (here)

Check out more photos: http://elegantees.com/regent.html

From March 27-April 4th we put 2,700 flags on our campus main lawn representing 27,000,000 people enslaved in the world today. To accompany the flags was a sign that explained that each flag represented 10,000 people and a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This event was really powerful; it really brought into perspective how massive this issue is and how badly we need to take action. One person enslaved is horrific; 27,000,000 people enslaved is inexplicable. This event was also used to advertise for our “Trafficked” event.

On Thursday March 31st we organized an event entitled “Trafficked”. For this event we set up the main gathering room in our campus center as a maze. For the first half of the maze students went though an interactive experience where they heard the story of an individual that had been trafficked. There were two sides to this section. One side students followed the story of a young girl who had been taken while riding her bike alone in South America. On the other side students followed a woman who thought she was being offered a job in the Czech Republic, however was forced into prostitution upon her arrival into that country. To go though these experiences members of our human innovation team lead groups through these tragic stories. Each room was set up according to the section of the story hey were hearing and there was an audio recording of someone speaking as if they were the woman that went though that experience. This allowed students to see the living conditions in which modern slaves are living in, the hardships of their daily lives, and to come into personal contact with this injustice. In the beginning of the maze each student also received a card that gave them a new identity of someone whom had been trafficked. At the end of the interactive section students were able to read what happened to their characters.

Once students had the opportunity to better understand what human trafficking  we wanted to show them how they have the ability to take a stand and make a change. To do this we had a “response area” of the maze where students encountered numerous ways to combat human trafficking. We had an art section, a letter writing booth, a social worker form Milwaukee who has worked with child sex workers in the area,  information about human trafficking in Milwaukee, a fair trade shopping booth, a prayer booth, slavery in Asia booth, and how you can make a change in the medical field. This event overall was very successful. We had over 120 students go though the maze, we raised over 400$ for World Visions Bangladesh project from selling human wrong shirts, and we wrote over 85 letters to our congress members asking them to support the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

On April 4th Jesse Eaves, policy advisor for World Vision, ended our semester campaign. Jesse spoke on why we do Social justice and why it is important to let our representatives in Congress know what is important to us. This was a great wrap up to our campaign and a great leaning experience for Carroll’s future social justice initiatives.

This campaign has been full of a ton of hard work from all of the members of Carroll’s Human Innovation Team. It has been wonderful to see how when willing God will use you in mighty ways. Carroll’s Justice group on campus has already begun planning events for next year to bring awareness and action towards stopping human trafficking and other forms of injustices around the world.

You’re on your way to chapel and suddenly you hear someone shouting and then you turn to look and not only is it someone shouting, but its someone shouting and tied to a tree. The more you move closer you start to see that it’s not just shouting and someone tied to a tree, but you can make out words from the shouting and then you move closer and you can make out that its more than just words there words creating a poem, a poem about a women who can’t seem to find the light in the darkness, a poem about a women who has been trafficked, just like thousands of other women each year who enter the sex trade unwillingly. Recently the innovative team at Regent University put on a slavery demonstration apart of their human wrong week to expose the millions of people held captive in human trafficking.
The students picked the busiest day during the week, which is on a Wednesday around noon, when the entire school is making its way to university chapel. Imagine walking into chapel and seeing your peers tied to trees and the steps asking to be freed for a low price of $20. This is exactly the scene that accord outside of our chapel, a table was set-up with glass jars and numbers taped to them corresponding to the number the victim was holding with a statistic written on the back, which the victims had to read. “32 billion dollars profited off of human beings.” “1/3 of women are raped, trafficked, etc in their lifetimes.”
This is a great way to raise awareness and funds for your chapter and any organization you hold dear.

Slavery Demonstration Video

Last week we finished the Dance for Justice, a swing dance marathon we ran to help both raise awareness about human trafficking and combat it. During that week we chalked up our entire campus with facts about human trafficking, used a Facebook viral campaign, and made our Human Wrong story cards into necklaces that we passed out around our campus.

During the marathon we ran a human trafficking simulation in which we lured over 150 college students into a locker-room with the promise of free pizza. After being trafficked, we explained to the students more about the issue of human trafficking and ways to combat it. The goal of the exercise was to show them how easy it is to exploit those who live in under developed nations into the slave trade.

Currently part of our team and myself are in Washington D.C. working with a non-profit that deals with sex trafficking in the United States. Thus far in my time in D.C I have learned a lot about the role of social stigmas as they pertain to why human trafficking is neglected as an issue both in our nation and abroad.

Tomorrow we are going to the Dirksen Senate building to listen to the presentation of a bill designed to increase funding for combating sex trafficking in the United States.  After we finish spring break I will be writing a few articles to breakdown our campaign and give you all an idea of how you can run similar ones.

At Columbia University, we have been planning a campaign titled “I Am An Abolitionist.”  Centered around a week of events in early April, the Campaign seeks to spread awareness of modern slavery to all corners of campus, making the issue an inescapable reality for any Columbia student.  Our events include a speaker panel focusing on trafficking in NYC, a mock slave auction taking place in the middle of campus, a “Concert to End Slavery” featuring bands from Columbia and around the city, and a screening of Call + Response featuring director Justin Dillon.  Through this series of events, we aim to empower each Columbia student with the knowledge of slavery and to drive each individual to claim the title of Abolitionist.

Recently, our work has focused on the mock slave auction and the concert.  For the mock slave auction, we are writing a script that integrates true instances of slavery into a dramatic performance representation blurring the lines between slavery of the past and slavery of the present.  For the concert, which will be the final event of our campaign, we are reaching out to some of our favorite local bands and creating a program that will not only point to the existence of slavery in today’s world but give hope for the future and empower attendees with the tools to be abolitionists.

In addition, we have been filming footage for our full-length documentary film, which we are making in order to document the trials, tribulations, successes, failures, difficulties, and joys of trying to put together a full-scale Abolitionist campaign at a University.  We hope that this documentary can inspire other students who have similar passions and want to take on similar projects on their respective campuses.

Step 2: Pick a group to traffick, contact the group’s leaders, and plan a time to do the simulation. We decided to traffick the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at WVU.

Step 3: Come prepared with materials to share with the group you are trafficking, such as Human Wrong t-shirts bundled with matching story cards.

Step 4: Start the simulation with something unexpected. For instance, turn off all of the lights, and shock your audience by talking down to them and treating them like slaves.

Step 5: Act like traffickers, forcing your new “slaves” to perform a task, such as picking up mounds of trash, or moving furniture.

Step 6: Label your slaves. Make them identify personally with the issue.

Step 7: Recruit insiders to read real accounts of slavery.

Step 8: Particularly if you are trafficking a Christian group, share what the Bible has to say about the oppressed.

Step 9: Share details about your upcoming campaign, and list practical ways that they can partner with you. Additionally, share ways that they as individuals can fight against slavery.

Step 10: If possible, ask the group’s staff member or chapter president to wrap up the event, and encourage the group to become involved.

Step 11: Close in prayer with the group, focusing on God’s heart for justice.

Step 12: Celebrate this victory with your Human Wrong team, and continue planning!

Photos by Nicole Carline

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/

The students were really moved by this film. This morning on campus students were still discussing how the stories and images form this film were still on their minds. This film really allowed students to encounter the issue of human trafficking on a personal level. Hopefully this will cause them to be curious about the other upcoming events dealing with human trafficking.

When this film was over I looked to my friend on my Right and said: “Tonight 300 more people know about the issue of human trafficking; we really do have the ability to create change.” This is an encouraging beginning to our campaign and we hope that our next two major events have just as big if not bigger impacts than this! I can not wait to see what the future holds.

Nathan C.