A traveling exhibition on display through April 9 at Texas Southmost College aims to dispel misconceptions aboout human trafficking and combat its prevalence by providing resources to help victims become survivors.
“Not Alone: Working Together in the Fight Against Human Trafficking” employs museum-style poster boards in English and Spanish that guide visitors through all aspects of human trafficking. The boards stand in the foyer near the Mexican consulate at TSC’s ITECC campus on Mexico Boulevard.
The Bullock Texas State History Museum developed the exhibition and the Cameron County Anti-Human Trafficking Network brought it here. Although under-reported, recent statistics suggest there are hundreds of thousands of people being trafficked in Texas at any given time, the two groups say in a news release about the exhibition.
On each board, a QR code allows visitors to view original videos featuring survivors and advocates who answer the exhibition’s guiding questions.
The National Human Trafficking hotline defines human trafficking as the business of stealing freedom for profit. In some cases, traffickers trick, defraud or physically force victims into providing commercial sex. In others, victims are lied to, assaulted, threatened or manipulated into working under inhumane, illegal or otherwise unacceptable conditions.
It is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 24.9 million people around the world, according to Polaris, the organization that runs the national hotline.
Wendy Davis, vice president for community impact at the United Way of Souuthern Cameron County, which helped start the Cameron County Anti-Human Trafficking Network through a grant, said the exhibition’s chief aim is to broaden awareness of and combat human trafficking.
The exhibition uses five guiding questions to help visitors understand the issue and how they can help:
>> What is human trafficking?
>> Who does trafficking affect?
>> Why are healthy relationships important?
>> What role does social media play?
>> What can I do?
While there is no graphic content, the exhibition contains definitions of sex trafficking and references to emotional, physical and sexual abuse that may be triggering for some visitors. Resources provided in the exhibition include:
>> Love146.org, which offers a variety of training for youth, caregivers and professionals.
>> Polaris Project, which operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and provides resources on sex and labor trafficking.
>> The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or NCMEC, an organization that works with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement and the public to assist with child abductions, recovering missing children and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitation.
