Name: Emma Diamond
Social Justice Group: Human Trafficking
Date of Fieldwork: February 14, 2018
Name of Organization: Lifeway Network
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Lima James (Education and Development Manager)
Type of Fieldwork: Learning/Training
What I did:
My group invited Lima James to come speak to the eighth grade about Human Trafficking. She talked about what Human Trafficking is, how it happens, how to identify it, and other general things about Human Trafficking.
What I learned:
I learned a lot about Human Trafficking during this fieldwork. Lima taught me many statistics that I didn’t know and she taught me a couple signs of Human Trafficking. I learned that New York State is one of the top five states with the highest number of Human Trafficking cases, that Human Trafficking is the second largest criminal industry below drugs, and that Human Trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise. These statistics reinforced how important taking action against this issue is. A couple signs of Human Trafficking that I learned when Lima James came in to teach the eighth grade are missing a lot school and a child being on the streets during school hours or very late at night. Lima also taught the eighth grade how to sense if you yourself is getting into a Human Trafficking situation. Lima told us that two signs of a trafficker could be giving an extreme amount of compliments and gifts all the time. Lima made sure to make it clear that not everyone who compliments you or gets you presents is a trafficker, but that these could just be signs of one. She told us that it is very important to trust our gut in situations that feel creepy to make sure we don’t get ourselves into a Human Trafficking situation. Overall, Lima taught my Social Justice group and the rest of the eighth grade a lot about Human Trafficking that we didn’t know.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
This fieldwork helped me learn a lot about Social Justice. This fieldwork really helped me realize how important raising awareness about an important Social Justice issue is. Now that I know the signs of Human Trafficking I can help other people who I think might be in a trafficking situation and I can make sure that I don’t end up in a trafficking situation myself. Raising awareness and being educated about a Social Justice topic would be the difference between unnecessarily getting into a dangerous situation and staying safe. Overall, this fieldwork helped understand that just being educating people about an issue, can help abolish it.
