Each year, 600,000-800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders. Approximately 80 percent are women and girls.
Human trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income worldwide, exceeded only by drug trafficking. International organization Stop the Traffik has taken a stance on human trafficking by creating ground-breaking campaigns to educate and take preventative measures against the problem. Stop the Traffik’s story started in India, and consists of “more than 1,000 member organizations in 50 countries and tens of thousands of activists all over the globe,” who work together in order to build a traffik-free world.
Stop The Traffick’s most recent global campaigns featured the international Fashion (#fashionvictim) and Tea (#notmycupoftea) industries, making clear to the public that both of these profitable manufacturers are inadvertently supporting human trafficking. Through education and publicity stunts, Stop The Traffick hopes to break the poverty cycle, and build traffick-free communities. In addition to the #fashionvictim and #notmycupoftea campaigns, Stop The Traffick has also had a number of other campaigns that have gone viral. For example, in the Red Light district in Amsterdam, Stop the Traffik put on a flash mob of “prostitutes” that lured passerbys and sent a powerful message reading:
“Every year, thousands of women are promised a dance career in Western Europe. Sadly, they end up here. Stop the traffik. People shouldn’t be bought and sold.”
Take a look at the live video here:
These, Stop the Traffik, campaigns are truly brilliant and finally giving human trafficking the attention needed to make real changes world wide.