Despite an afternoon downpour drenching the 90th Street Triangle on Sunday, Sept. 29, people showed up to a protest against sex trafficking along a three-mile stretch of Roosevelt Avenue. Organizers would soon announce that the “Roosevelt Avenue in Crisis: Demand Change Now!” rally would be rescheduled for 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6 — again at the 90th Street Triangle.
Human Trafficking, a modern form of slavery, happens every day in New York City, with three international airports and other transportation funnels. People can learn to spot human trafficking and how to report it. Feb. 8 is the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.
Human trafficking doesn’t happen only in far away places where human rights are neglected. It happens around the corner. It’s modern-day slavery, say those working to stop it around the world.
This fall, several organizations are banding together to recognize what they’re calling the “unsung heroes” in the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking, by offering an award to three women religious engaged in anti-trafficking efforts.
Violet Babirye sits on the edge of the bed of her two-room home in the sprawling informal settlement of Kisenyi, Mbarara municipality in southwestern Uganda. Wearing a white blouse and black skirt, she painfully narrates the ordeal she went through in Kuwait at the hands of her employers while working as a housemaid.
Just over 10 years ago, Sister Margaret Nacke — a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas — was living in Belleville, a Kansas town known as “the crossroads of America,” where U.S. Highways 36 and 81 intersect.
The global network of women religious fighting human trafficking was offering a virtual tour of its work helping survivors as a way to mark the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
“Critical” anti-trafficking legislation overwhelmingly approved by the House in a bipartisan vote July 26 “will go a long way toward protecting so many vulnerable people from exploitation while providing tremendous support and resources to victims,” said one of it is sponsors, Rep. Chris Smith, N.J.
Protecting the human rights of people fleeing from or caught up in conflict zones must be as big a priority as providing them with basic material needs, said the leader of an international anti-trafficking network.
For the first time in 30 years, the NFL’s Super Bowl has arrived in Los Angeles — and with it, a fair share of the global media hype for which the annual sporting event is known.
