Three students are holding a presentation Thursday night to inform and inspire other students to end human trafficking.
Gabi Ramirez, freshman advertising and public relations major from San Antonio, said the presentation will feature a guest speaker, original slam poetry by Ramirez, a video, and discussion.
The speaker is Linda Egle, the founder of nonprofit Eternal Threads, which helps women in underdeveloped countries. She will talk about the Red Thread Movement, which specifically helps women in human trafficking through the sales of red bracelets.
The video is called “The Candy Shop: A fairytale about the sexual exploitation of children.” Ramirez said she and her team members wanted to play a video that was more than just statistics, but not too graphic. She said this video uses the metaphor of a candy shop to describe human trafficking.
“It shows the individual has the power to make a difference,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez, along with classmates Catherine Swedlund and Myra De la Rosa, created the event as a project for their environmental science class. Ramirez said their professor assigned them a final project to choose an environmental or social issue to research and inform other students about it.
“It’s anything that you can get your hands on and not only learn but also reach out to other students and empower them,” Ramirez said.
The girls chose the project because they were all interested in the topic. Ramirez said she wanted to take the project seriously, but she knew the topic would be difficult to address.
“People shy away from it because they feel like it’s too big of an issue,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said she hopes the presentation will educate fellow students and possibly inspire some to action. On Friday, the group plans to get students to wear red in support of the movement against human trafficking.
The presentation will take place in Onstead Packer Biblical Studies Building Room 114 from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday. The group is in the process of getting it approved for an SFE credit but that has not been confirmed yet.
