Students walk to raise awareness of child trafficking

An organization called Stop Child Trafficking Now sponsored community events in more than 35 U.S. cities to promote child trafficking awareness.

On Saturday, members of the Orlando community gathered at Lake Baldwin Park for a two-mile walk around the lake in order to raise awareness of the issue in the Central Florida area.     

Participants were asked to create teams and walk together. So when Caroline Berkey, a senior social work major, received a flier advertising the Orlando walk, she organized a group of 10 UCF students called Social Workers Against Trafficking.      

"I really like to help people, being with people, learning from people," Berkey said. "I'm especially interested in populations that are oppressed."     

Berkey said she first learned about the issue of human trafficking in a class last semester. In her research, she discovered that the United States is a prime destination for trafficked victims.     

She said trafficked victims are especially vulnerable when they are being sold into a system of slavery.      

"Victims are just helpless, and people are profiting from trading human lives," Berkey said. "Lives aren't a commodity that should be traded."

According to the Stop Child Trafficking Now Web site, child trafficking is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world. The organization focuses on eliminating the source of demand for children by identifying and putting perpetrators in prison.     

Amy Towells, one of the organizers of the event, said her passion started four years ago when human trafficking was discussed on The Oprah Winfrey Show. That particular episode described child trafficking that was occurring as close as Fort Lauderdale.

"I was dumbfounded," Towells said. "I wanted to start a full-time organization, and then I found out about Stop Child Trafficking Now."

Through her work she met Sharee Hendricks, another of the event's organizers. Towells said they organized the event in two months, although neither of them had ever organized anything like it before.

Hendricks said she was unaware that human trafficking was occurring in the United States until attention was brought to it in her church. She said she was particularly moved because she is a mother and works in the education system with children.

"If we don't stand up for the kids, who will?" Hendricks said. "They can't stand up for themselves."      

Speakers at the Orlando event included Tomas Lares from the Florida Coalition of Human Trafficking and Drew Kesse, the father of Jennifer Kesse, a UCF alumna who disappeared in 2006. Drew Kesse is the president of the Florida Missing Children's Day Foundation.      

Kesse said the United States should not be known for using and abusing children.

"It's time for us to take back our communities," Kesse said. "We have to do better."     

Students Candice Wilson, Shantile Blackburn and Kendia White went to represent the Sigma Epsilon chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.

Wilson said when she went to a meeting to learn more about child trafficking, people were shocked that it was occurring in the United States. She urged students to research the topic and learn more about what is happening in their own backyards.

"This isn't happening in just third-world countries," Blackburn said. "We need to prevent it from happening to our own children."      

Jamila Pereira, a junior micro & molecular biology major, organized students from the African American Student Union and the University Christian Fellowship to attend the walk.     

Pereira said the issue touched her heart and now she is trying to raise awareness about it.     

Drexler James, a freshman journalism major, came as part of the AASU.      

"Kids shouldn't be sold into prostitution or be stripping," James said. "It's sick and wrong. Kids should be enjoying their youth."     

Towells said college students can have a significant impact on the issue. She said they are especially important for outreach in middle and high schools because younger students look up to college students.      

"And this time we have a whole year to plan for the next one," she said.     

Berkey said the Orlando event felt very "grassroots" and that she hoped more people would attend next year. She plans to graduate this year but said she will continue to fight human trafficking.     

"It's important to be aware of different issues and trends that are happening in the world such as this," she said. "Issues like this are under the table—people don't even know they're happening. It's important to have a global sense because we need to know what we're dealing with, and how we can best use our skills and our passions and our education to better the world we live in."