The importance of the education on human trafficking in society was discussed at an event by a president of a safe-house for post-sexual exploitation.
“I can say that I am one of the founders of Dawn’s Place, but in reality, Dawn’s Place found me,” Sister Terry Shields, co-founder and president of Dawn’s Place, a non-profit organization and safe house for those who wish to escape from being commercially sexually exploited where long-term healing and rehabilitative programs and services are offered, said.
“Human Trafficking: A Dawning Reality,” was held on Thursday, Feb. 5, in the Grace Hall Atrium. It was an educational event for the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.
Shield joined the missionaries at the age of 17 and has worked as a mid-wife and nurse with refugees all over the world. After her return, she co-founded Dawn’s Place, in 2007. The name “Dawn’s Place” was chosen in honor of a woman who was murdered as a prostitute, in Camden, N.J.
As Shields continued on with her speech, she cited shocking statistics and stories of those affected by human trafficking. “[The State Department] reckons that one out of seven run-aways will wind up being trafficked or prostituted,” Shields said. “There are more people in bondage today than when slavery was legal.”
She continued to explain that it is a $32-billion-a-year enterprise and that human trafficking is the second most lucrative criminal activity in the world- second to drug trafficking.
Shields then showed the audience dozens of mug shots throughout many women’s time in the cycle. This truly showed the audience how real this issue is by putting faces with names and stories. Some of these women may start as young as the age of 12-years-old.
One member of the audience was Danielle Kinckner, a freshman business major, who said, “I was surprised to learn how young the girls could be because I thought that it was only women.”
Shields focused on the fact that this issue does not only happen in poor countries, but our own local areas as well. One point that she wanted to make clear was how much love she has for the women in Dawn’s Place and how this could happen to anyone.
“Since words really do matter, I never refer to anyone as a ’prostitute.’” Sheilds said. “Rather, they had been ‘prostituted.’”
