At the End of Slavery Night

Date this was actually completed: October 29th 2013

When I was in high school at Trinity Christian School in Canberra (Australia) I was part of the schools Social Justice League committee. It was a group of students committed to gaining a better understanding about issues of social justice occurring within our world and then taking a course of action by educating others outside of the committee and providing direct aid where possible.

This committee was responsible for hosting the "At the End of Slavery Night" and I was invited to come along.

Around 50 people ended up coming, each brought a minimum $5 that was later donated to the International Justice Mission- an organisation committed to combatting human-trafficking.

There was a food and drinks table set up which was comprised entirely of "fair trade foods and drinks" which meant that the production of such products for example tea and coffee, had not been unjust to any workers involved in the production process. Many major companies such as Nestle, exploit farmers and workers in developing countries for cheap labour and crops, not paying them what they are entitled. This range of food and drinks however, all came from companies registered with the fair trade organisation which aims at helping these farmers and workers. I thought this was really cool and learnt a lot about different products that I could buy in my local supermarket that would actually do some justice in other parts of the world.

The next item on the night's agenda was a screening of a film called "At the End of Slavery" produced by the International Justice Mission. The film took us inside the violent and ugly business of slavery, particularly sex trafficking in the Philippines, India and Cambodia. It included undercover footage, first-person testimonies of former slaves and some encouragement from modern day abolitionists about how we can help. I found the movie extremely confronting and was determined to try and help.

After we watched the movie we split off into groups of 5 to discuss what we had just seen. We then sat down and did something super cool... we wrote out hundreds of letters (between the 50 of us) to be sent to the hostels which home women and young girls who have been pulled out of sex trafficking and are now being rehabilitated. We wrote in the letters words of hope and encouragement for the girls, to let them know that there are people who know about the horrible things going on and there are people that care. Whilst the letters wont put an end to sex trafficking they certainly make a big difference to the victims that have gone through it and made it out the other side.

I found the night to be very moving and inspiring. Here are a few pictures:

This is of a poster by the food stand which helps explain what the fair trade products are all about

These two photos of are of the letter writing, probably my favourite part of the night