Club dedicated to combatting human trafficking plans to spread awareness
(The Beacon)
By Brianna Hodge, Guest Commentary -- The Beacon
To my satisfaction, human trafficking is slowly becoming a social justice issue in which people are beginning to recognize and give more attention. For 4 years, as I have been learning about, researching, and advocating against this grave human rights violation, I have come across countless individuals who either scrunch up their nose in confusion at the term "human trafficking" or throw their hand up in denial that such a problem exists, especially whenever it is referred to as a domestic crisis. Much resistance has been thrown my way in previous years, but I am delighted to find more recently that increased awareness, acknowledgement, and passion to take action are prevalent amongst the general community.
Like any social issue, people tend to want to put a statistic on the problem, as though the number of individuals affected by human trafficking determines whether or not it is something to either be concerned for or care about. It is true, statistics do help sensationalize the problem, and when someone hears "Portland has the most strip clubs and sex shops per capita than anywhere else in the nation" or "Portland is number one in child prostitution", their heads turn and their wallets come out faster. In my opinion, there is something very wrong with that. Statistics are only a number and whether the truth is that 21 million people or 1 person is trafficked worldwide, human trafficking is still a grave violation of human rights that absolutely should not be ignored.
Oregonians Against Trafficking Humans (OATH) UP Chapter is a new club that I, along with a few other dedicated students, founded in order to encourage our community's involvement and commitment to advocating against the injustice of human trafficking which is prevalent in our local, national, and global community. It is my hope, with the presence and future efforts of the club, that every member of the University of Portland will have an increased awareness and a softened heart for all those affected by this form of modern-day slavery. Together, we can work to make sure our community recognizes and takes action to bring God's light into the dark and seemingly hopeless life the victims of human trafficking experience.
The club is planning to have a few meetings TBD this semester and will put on one event to end the year, but is mainly focusing on preparing for our official kick off in Fall 2011. The OATH Chapter Introductory meeting is Thursday, March 24 at 7 p.m. in Franz 026.
Brianna Hodge is a senior social work and psychology major. She can be contacted at hodge11@up.edu.
