• A Ball State group stood for 27 hours to bring awareness to slavery.
• Millions of people are part of an international slave trade both for sex and labor.
• Children are also part of the trade - 5.5 million children are impacted by slavery.
Sisters Jenna and Erin Kessler woke up Friday to stand at the Scramble Light and encourage cars to honk.
Jenna Kessler, a senior nursing major, and Erin Kessler, a freshman nursing major, joined members of the International Justice Mission to take a stand against human trafficking and modern slavery.
Ball State’s International Justice Mission hosted their second annual Stand for Freedom event last week, standing for 27 hours to raise awareness for people in slavery around the world.
“It’s a cause a lot of people don’t know about because we typically think slavery ended,” Erin Kessler said. “People don’t realize it’s happening. So promoting awareness for it is necessary so we can abolish it.”
According to Anti-Slavery International’s website, slavery is still very much alive today. Trafficking, descent-based slavery, forced labor, early and forced marriage, child slavery and bonded labor are all types of contemporary slavery. Currently an estimated 5.5 million children are impacted by child slavery, according to the site.
Daniel Carpenter, president of IJM, said while IJM began two years ago, he became more interested in the slavery discussion after hearing a speaker and writing papers on the topic while he attended IJM meetings.
“It’s just uncanny learning about some of the horrifying things that happen,” Carpenter said. “Girls, who aren’t even 13 are being raped and sold for money day after day. I don’t care what you believe, it’s hard to not want to do something about that.”
The organization stood outside the scramble light from noon Thursday, to 3 p.m. Friday in shifts holding signs that said “honk for freedom” and “What do you stand for?”
Organization leaders also had postcards available for people to fill out, requesting senators to help stop human trafficking. IJM is sending the postcards to headquarters to be hand-delivered to each congressman.
Carpenter said the main goals were awareness for slavery and the organization in general.
“Almost everyone on Ball State’s campus walks through the Scramble Light at some time within the 24 hours,” Carpenter said. “We just wanted to also get our name out there and grow Ball State IJM as an organization.”
University Singers and the football and women’s basketball team signed up to take shifts working with the group to bring awareness.
Carpenter said a few Muncie locals rode their bikes over to the Scramble Light during the event around 10 p.m.
They ended up talking to Carpenter about what was going on and stayed all night at the light, even longer than Carpenter himself. Carpenter said they found the cause interesting and wanted to learn more.
He said seeing the bikers stay the entire night helped keep him motivated to stick it out. He also said the group entertained themselves by a prayer vigil at 11 p.m., a cornhole set and hillbilly golf. Carpenter also took time to catch up on some homework.
He liked seeing people from “all walks of life” at the event and hopes to diversify IJM, he said.
“We have other members from different organizations, but mainly, our members are from faith-based organizations,” He said. “While that’s awesome, I would love to see more sectors of campus involved.”
For Carpenter, his faith helps him stay motivated about their cause.
“I think Christians can’t ignore that they’re called to seek justice,” He said. “I realize that, as much as I’m trying to advocate for these people in slavery, how much more do I have an advocate for me. I don’t think I was made to sit on the sideline of this issue.”
Lauren Chapman contributed to this story.
| SLAVERY BY THE NUMBERS |
| 27 million people are in modern-day slavery across the world |
| 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year |
| 1 million children are exploited by the global commercial sex trade, every year. |
| 50 percent of transnational victims are children |
| 161 countries identify as affected by human trafficking |
| $32 billion are the total yearly profits generated by the human trafficking industry |
| Source: abolitionmedia.org, freetheslaves.org, U.S. Department of State |
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