At the University of Richmond, students froze while walking, tying shoes and checking cell phones in an effort to spread awareness about worldwide human trafficking. Students Stopping the Trafficking of People (SSTOP) sponsored the demonstration in honor of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, January 11; President Obama’s proclamation of this month as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

“I thought it was kind of fitting that we would just stop in order to symbolize stopping the traffic in the way that people’s lives are stopped by traffic,” Elam said. “Then, to take a couple of minutes out of the day to help people understand that you know, there are 27 million people enslaved in the world.”

“We did a freeze event, kind of like a flash mob, in order to bring awareness and to have people stop and visit us,” said Mary Hampton Elam, chapter president of SSTOP. Around 20 students stopped in the forum walkway and remained frozen for three minutes. (The Collegian, January 11, 2012).

Unbelievably, slavery is reality for millions of women and children enslaved to sex trafficking and red light districts. Suffering under indescribable oppression and abuse, they live in fear and hopelessness. Every two minutes a child is trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the U.S. (U.S. Dept of Justice).

Slavery has never been easy to talk about, but the depth of this evil makes it even more so. We must be  willing to stand boldly and speak for those who have no voice.

Start your stand today.
1. Register and come to the showing of Nefarious: Merchant of Souls,  http://nefariousdocumentary.com, January 28^th, 7 pm, at Vineyard Church of Overland Park.
2. Forward this blog to all you know, encouraging them to register.