Human Trafficking Awareness Day

By presidential decree, Jan. 11^th was made National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. End Slavery in Tennessee held a contest with daily questions posted on Twitter and Facebook from Jan. 1-11.

Names were drawn from all correct answers on Jan. 11^th. Our winners were: Bria Blessing (in the Ukraine!), Lorre Leon Mendelson and Barbara Leech, both from Tennessee, all of whom got to select from an array of gift items made by survivors of human trafficking. Congratulations to our winners and thank-you to all who participated!

We also joined in the Power of One campaign, launched by our friends in Knoxville at the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking (CCAHT), by wearing white in each of our three monthly volunteer groups. Photos from these meetings will be included in a video that CCAHT is making to show the solidarity of people across the nation in ending the travesty that is human trafficking.

Teen Traffick Jam!    

Stopping Traffick

Work has begun on our new teen oriented website, which will be at teentraffickjam.com when completed. The site is designed to warn young people about the lures used by traffickers, to enable easy sharing of this information with friends, to engage teens in abolitionist work themselves and to encourage reporting of suspicious activity in their peer group. We're developing a network of churches that will take this information and get it to the appropriate local agencies.

We are also working hard on a multi-media prevention presentation for schools and other youth venues to use here in Tennessee, as well as to share with churches nationwide who want to protect the youth in their own communities.

I'm really excited about the potential of this website and these presentations to protect our young people, and I hope you are too! We all know that prevention is even BETTER than rescue and aftercare.

To support these initiatives financially click here. Please put ESTN: Prevention in the "designated for" line. Everything you give will be doubled through a challenge grant!

College Corner

Volunteer State
 

A group of six students in Ms. Judi Truitts communication class at Volunteer State Community College chose to do a service project on Human Trafficking, which was a real change from the usual mentoring or trash

collecting that service days provide.

Working with Karen Karpinski from ESTN, the group set up an information table in the lobby of the Wood Campus Center during the busy lunch time. They made bracelets and distributed them with End Slavery flyers and other information pamphlets.  Cookies and candy covered the table to entice students, but the real success came from the passion of these six remarkable students. 

In their determination to spread awareness to as many students as possible, they invited their entire class, along with the instructor, to visit the table.  Professor Ben Jobe and Jamie Blurton also stopped by. 
 

Kudos to Skylar, Sandra, Sarah, Caycee, Devon and O'Brian who helped bring much needed awareness to fellow students about the facts of human trafficking.  They all pledged to join the new Sumner County End Slavery Group and will continue being abolitionists!

Belmont University                              

Recently, students at Belmont University had an opportunity to show their compassion and share some encouragement to recovering victims of human trafficking and slavery, by writing letters of encouragement to these survivors.

Students were excited about the chance to get involved. Some had heard about the event and our cause before, and some were just passing by, but all chose to write letters filled with genuine care and concern for part of the community that is so often left in silence. It was a true success and we thank Jenny White for organizing the event.

Meet Lindsy!

Introducing Lindsy

Lindsy Anton is a native of Houston, TX, the oldest of five children and daughter to two oral surgeons.

After high school she headed to Nashville, TN to attend Belmont University, where she developed a passion for helping victims of human trafficking.

After a summer working with Houston's YMCA International Services Department, helping rescued victims become integrated back into society and developing resources for these survivors, Lindsy decided to pursue her long held dream of a law career to defend trafficking victims.
 

She is now finishing up her junior year at Belmont and will travel to Sweden this summer to draft her senior thesis on sex trafficking. She hopes to join Florida State's law school next year.

This dynamic young woman is interning for End Slavery and working to give the organization a larger college presence as she continues to spread the word and educate anyone and everyone about modern-day slavery.

A Glimpse at Global      

 ITeams newest Anti-Slavery team is scheduled to begin work in late February or early March in Sydney, the brothel capital of Australia. The team's first worker will be American, Kelsey Talbott (pictured) who will help pioneer this ministry. Kelsey says in her blog: "We are praying for all the pieces and people to fall into place over the next couple of months, with strong prospects and some great ideas."

Kelsey is currently working through all the paperwork needed to get a visa and learning the language. You thought they spoke English in Australia, you say? Here are a few translations from Kelsey's language learning experiences:

Brekkie (breakfast), sanger (sandwich), bickie (cookie), mozzie ( mosquito), postie (postman), garbo (garbage man), kip (nap), snag (sausage), squizz (look- as in 'take a squizz at this'), bingle (car accident), ridgie didge  (original, genuine).