Thursday, February 19, 2009 » Human Trafficking Week, hosted by the student organization Doulos, began Monday and will continue through Saturday with various film presentations and guest speakers. The week is designed to bring awareness about victims of slavery and call students to action.
According to Doulos president Andrea Rahman (jr), the main goal of the week is to show the correlation between action and hope. Especially following Missions Fest, Rahman emphasizes the importance of not getting overwhelmed by tragedies across the globe, but to let action turn into hope and to let that hope spur on more action.
'This week, Doulos representatives are handing out flyers listing 33 ways to take action, created by the organization Call + Response.
“Being college students it can be really disappointing and disheartening to think, ‘So I’m in college, what can I do for the next four years?’” said Rahman. “So we’ve been handing out a lot of flyers and [have been] focusing on the action aspect of it.”
Human Trafficking Week t-shirts are on sale this week at the Doulos table in the Student Center. Part of the t-shirt design emphasizes the international aspect of action, about networking and working with other communities, according to Rahman.
“[The shirt design] has different languages all saying ‘stop,’” she said. “The first one is German, the second one is English, the third one is Spanish and the fourth one is Dutch, and they line up to say ‘hope.’”
During Monday’s kickoff, students created journals for Bound 4 Freedom in the piazza terrace. Bound 4 Freedom is an organization created by a group of women in Anderson, Ind., that sells handmade journals to meet needs in the community.
Rachel Sparks (‘06) spoke about her organization, The SOLD Project, at chapel Wednesday and at an evening concert in the banquet halls. At the concert, Sparks screened SOLD’s film, “The SOLD Project: Thailand.” Atalissa’s Ocean, a band from Taylor University, performed before the video presentation. After the film, Sparks spoke about what SOLD is doing to stop child prostitution in Thailand.
Sparks hopes her journey with The SOLD Project inspires students to pursue their passions in the same way.
“I’m a firm believer that when you find your purpose in life – whether it’s to be a business person, an artist, a nurse, a pastor, a sports manager or working for a non-profit – you should do it and do it with all that you have,” said Sparks.
“Baht,” a short film about trafficking in Thailand, will play at the Globe Theater Saturday at 2 p.m. Following the film, will be a question-and-answer session in the banquet halls with Melissa Jackson, a representative of Rapha House, a home for girls in Cambodia. She will use this time to talk about her organization.