This Wednesday, A21’s Global Freedom Summit is coming to Millikin to help educate students about human trafficking with their newly released film.
On November 5th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, A21, a global non-profit organization, will be showing a free movie to spread awareness surrounding human trafficking.
A21 works to abolish slavery in the 21st century and has been working to provide intervention and aftercare services to human trafficking survivors in multiple countries. The organization also hosts an annual global Walk for Freedom to raise awareness of human trafficking.
This year, A21 launched a hybrid event: the Global Freedom Summit. This event’s goal is to make learning about human trafficking more accessible and widespread.
The Global Freedom Summit will show a one-hour film to help motivate communities to act in the fight against human trafficking, allowing anyone to register to host their own screening.
Millikin’s showing of the film is being hosted by students in PO323, a human trafficking class, as well as the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University.
Attendees can visit an educational table at the event to learn more about human trafficking, write postcards to their local legislators or sign petitions to Congress at the activism table, and play a dice-rolling game based on true stories of trafficking survivors.
There will also be booths to donate to Millikin’s Human Trafficking Research Lab, A21, Freedom Studio—which employs human trafficking survivors to create soaps, bath bombs, and other products—and other non-profit human trafficking organizations.
This opportunity began with Dr. Laura A. Dean, professor of the human trafficking class and director of Millikin’s Human Trafficking Research Lab. Dean recalls first connecting with A21 over a decade ago while she was living in Ukraine researching human trafficking.
“I actually first met them when I lived in Ukraine; they were an organization that was operating,” Dean said. “[A21] had a shelter that rehabilitated victims… so that was kind of the first instance of me encountering this organization 13 years ago, and the head of A21 Ukraine is a super good friend of mine.”
One of the groups that helped make the Global Freedom Summit possible was the human trafficking class social media group, which ensured both students and the Decatur community knew about the upcoming event. In their small group, they created an Instagram page (@millikinfreedomsummit), a Facebook event titled “Global Freedom Summit” under Millikin University, and press releases.
“The goals have been to get as many people as we can aware of the event to gain more attendance,” Ella Michel, a junior criminal justice and sociology major, said. “[We wanted to] get out that press release and make sure WAND, Herald & Review, and the Decatur Tribune got it, basically every news source we can get.”
In addition to focusing on her personal goals, Michel’s experience in a class about human trafficking has deepened her understanding of why education about human trafficking is so important.
“It’s important to know what human trafficking is and how to recognize it,” Michel said. “There can be someone you know being trafficked, and you don’t know. So, it’s important to raise awareness, especially with the political climate that we have right now.”
If you want to learn more about human trafficking, you could start locally in your own community at Millikin’s Global Freedom Summit on November 5th at 6:00 p.m. in the UC Ballrooms.
