When one hears the word “slavery,” they may think of something that was abolished two centuries ago. The organizers of an event tonight want the public to know that slavery is still very much alive, but in a different form. Today, there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world.
Sex trafficking awareness event today
When one hears the word “slavery,” they may think of something that was abolished two centuries ago. The organizers of an event tonight want the public to know that slavery is still very much alive, but in a different form. Today, there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world.
Lexie Woodward, interim Oregon director of the Not for Sale campaign and an international studies senior at PSU, has helped bring a presentation to campus to help raise awareness about sex slavery.
Last summer, Woodward attended a two-week Abolitionist Academy event that shows attendees how to better understand human trafficking. This event was part of the reason Woodward got involved in Not for Sale. This is also where she first encountered Nola Brantley.
“The Academy had a speaker almost every day and she was my favorite. She’s young and hip and kind of badass and I think she can really get through to students. She’s not like your typical speaker,” Woodward said.
Brantley, who was a victim of sexual slavery, will be the keynote speaker tonight. Charles Moore and Luke Armstrong from an organization called ITEMP, or the Institute of Trafficked, Exploited and Missing Persons, came all the way from Guatemala to speak.
Woodward wants students to know that they do not need to be well educated on the issue of sex trafficking to attend this event.
“[We want] to get students and members of the community that don’t really know that much about trafficking. Charles and Luke are going to do a 45 minute, ‘trafficking of slavery 101′ [presentation]. So anyone who doesn’t know anything can come. The first hour will be for them,” Woodward said.
After the first hour, Brantley will speak about her experiences with sex slavery and give information about an after-care facility she started in San Francisco, Calif., for victims of sex slavery.
“Slavery never ended, it simply evolved. The price for a slave is more than it was two hundred years ago. One could argue that it is more gruesome and horrific than it ever has been in all of human history,” Woodward said.
She also stresses that it is important for the people of Portland to be aware of this issue because Portland is a hub for sex trafficking. Most people do not know that Portland is ranked as the second-most active place for human sex trafficking in the nation.
“There are of course structural issues that make Portland such a big hub [for sex trafficking], but it is our lax attitude about strip clubs and stuff like that, and not making a connection between a strip club and a sex slave. We really have a high tolerance for prostitution and that’s part of the problem,” Woodward said.
In addition to the array of speakers tonight, there will also be original student artwork on display that is slavery-related. Woodward said that when she began the competition for student work, she received a lot of submissions that weren’t exactly what she had hoped for.
“I got a lot of submissions that looked like they were for the slave trade 200 years ago, which just goes to show how bad we need this event. A lot of people I don’t think understand that the slavery today is very different from how it was then,” Woodward said.
She also wants to urge people to join the Not for Sale Oregon Chapter on Facebook to keep up to date on new information and events. More information about the campaign is also available at www.notforsaleor.org.
“Just come. We got fair-trade coffee donated, it’s free, so there is really no reason not to come,” Woodward said.
The High Price of Cheap Sex
Smith Memorial Student Union, rooms 327, 328 and 329
Today, 7 p.m.
Free to attend
