The Stop Trafficking event in the Village Game room hosted by W.A.R.
Photo Submitted by Titilayo Okuwa.
A new student organization at Florida A&M University is devoted to educating students about sexual assault and sex trafficking.
Warriors Against Rape held its first event of the semester, “Stop Trafficking,” last Thursday, in the FAMU Village game room.
WAR partnered with the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity to draw a crowd of more than 50 students. According to Joshua Thomas, a member of the fraternity and one of the organizers, the goal of the event was to raise awareness about issues stirring up on campus and on social media.
“We were really just trying to raise awareness,” Thomas said. “Seeing everything that was happening during the break online, especially Twitter … and seeing signs of human traffickers coming into contact with students on campus.”
Thomas says more Greek letter organizations should have events like this. He says the event was a good way to spread awareness and it also had a nice turnout.
“I think it was a good turnout, we had people coming from the villages and upperclassmen all trying to become more aware,” Thomas said. “A lot of people have different types of stigma, but it’s good that we can actually bring this awareness in this setting without animosity.”
Representatives from Open Doors Outreach Network gave a presentation that included a video demonstration of scenarios for sex trafficking. Open Doors is a service provider that works with sex trafficking victims in the Big Bend area and came to the university to educate students about the realities of sex trafficking.
FAMU alumnae Ashlee McCarter and Heather Maravilla-Sewell, said that society must change the narrative of sex trafficking and create harsher punishments for consumers to effectively deter this crime.
“Humanizing the people would be great,” McCarter said. “It’s taking more action on the buyer instead of looking at the victim as a prostitute.”
Maravilla-sewell, a survivor of sext trafficking, said that she wants to tell more victims to come forward.
“Say something, find someone that you trust and open up to them,” Maravilla-sewell said. “If you’re not even sure if it’s trafficking but you’ve been molested three or four different times, just open up and find someone you can talk to.”