Helping ‘shut out human trafficking’

In April, Newman University staged a number of activities, speakers, events and presentations to help draw attention to one of the fastest growing epidemics affecting the nation and the world today – human trafficking.

The events that made up “Shut Out Human Trafficking Awareness Week,” April 11-16, were designed to educate the public about human trafficking and to help combat it and bring it to a stop.

An estimated 21 million people around the world are victims of human trafficking and forced labor. About 5.5 million of them are children and 80 percent are female. According to the U.S. Department of State, up to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, with as many as 17,000 coming to the United States.

Shut Out Human Trafficking Awareness Week was sponsored by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports and the United States Fund for UNICEF,
in collaboration with the Newman Athletics Department and the Gerber Institute for Catholic Studies. Newman was one of only 10 universities nationwide selected to host the week for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Events included a silent auction that featured products and services donated by Wichita businesses, as well as presentations on fighting trafficking, a Fair Trade Products Day, a panel of Wichita experts on trafficking, athletic games that included a pre-game prayer on trafficking, and a Christian concert on Founders Plaza.

“You don’t think about it, but it’s happening,” said Director of Athletics and Vice President for Student Affairs Vic Trilli. “All the things that you don’t want to talk about are happening right in front of us.”

For more information on the Newman fight to “Shut Out Human Trafficking” including videos, visit go.newmanu.edu/traffic.