Prostitution - Slavery - Forced Labor - Sex Trafficking - Child Slavery - Labor Slavery - Human Trafficking - Modern Slavery. Serious words. Terms that don’t feel they could possibly apply to modern Arizona. Sadly, they do. Every…single…day. The great thing is Arizona Rotarians are not simply recognizing that these insidious activities occur in Arizona but are stepping out to do something and lead their communities in raising awareness and reducing the threat of harm to their children.
1. Our fellow Rotarians at the Rotary Club Verrado over in Buckeye are a great example. David Faragher, 2020-21 club president and club Anti-HT Committee chair, Todd Halberg, have worked with District Global Grants coordinator, Dale Gray, to create the first steps in a community campaign, “An Educational Child Prevention Trafficking Program for West Valley of Maricopa County”.
RC Verrado is working with the Southwest Family Advocacy Center, Global Connection International, the law enforcement agencies of Buckeye, Goodyear, Avondale and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department. The campaign will include child slavery prevention education and awareness events for parents, community leaders, educators, youth and other community members.
To kick-off this effort, they recently hosted a Zoom meeting with a local anti-human slavery law-enforcement officer and Stacey Sutherland of TrustAZ - whose mission is to provide “education, resources and collaborative engagement on issues involving human trafficking” (https://www.facebook.com/trustarizona/). Their presentation on sex trafficking in Arizona is very revealing and RC Verrado’s eyes are wide open…and they are excited to help open more eyes in their communities! We are excited for the communities they will be impacting through this district grant.
2. Dale Gray has also shared a second event upcoming at the Phoenix Dream Center on October 24th, 10 am ‘til noon - the Phoenix Human Trafficking Awareness Art Walk. Over fifty human trafficking survivors are hosting this walk at which they will share “painted and hand-crafted artwork that expresses the heart of survivors and their hope for recovery. Together they have created hand painted canvas artwork, hand drawn custom clothing, jewelry, Christmas cards, birthday cards and much more.”. The Phoenix Dream Center is located at 3210 NW Grand Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85018. For Art Walk tickets and additional information see: (https://phoenixdreamcenter.org/artwalk/).