Five projects using different mediums to explore human trafficking

The World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30 seeks to find justice for the approximately 21 million people who are trafficked annually around the world. To raise awareness about modern human slavery, we are launching our latest augmented reality piece, “#STOPtrafficking2016,” on our app ARc Stories this Friday. It is a partnership with the ATTeam from the Red Cross Pancevo, part of the Red Cross Serbia. Here are five other projects around the world that are using different technologies and mediums to shed light on the issue.

 

The CNN Freedom Project launched in 2011 to put an end to modern day slavery by highlighting the voices of people affected by human trafficking. In addition to video pieces on survivors of trafficking, the Project also devotes stories to those combating human slavery around the world. One is 2015’s the #FlytoFreedom campaign, which encouraged people to make a paper airplane, write a pledge on the plane of how they will help end modern slavery and share it on social media.

The Polaris Project is a nongovernmental organization that works to prevent modern day human trafficking. The Project, which was founded in 2002, is one of largest in the United States working on this issue. It provides support for survivors, a global safety net to combat cross-border trafficking of persons and help for workers trafficked into the United States with temporary visas. The Polaris Project uses its Youtube channel and other platforms to share the stories of survivors. A video from last year used animation to show the prevalence of slavery. It also posts survivors’ stories on its website.

WITNESS is an organization that trains and provides support for citizens journalists around the world to help them use video, a widely available platform, to share what is happening in their community. The organization has focused specifically on how video can be used to expose human rights abuses, including human trafficking. Recently, WITNESS put together a field guide for those working on the ground on how to capture human rights abuses in ways that their videos can serve as documentation and possibly lead to social change.

 

In India, an estimated 1.2 million children work in the sex industry and tens of thousands of girls go missing each year, many trafficked into prostitution. Last year, artist Leena Kejriwal launched Missing, a national art project, as a memorial to those affected by slavery. Silhouettes of young girls were painted in more than 150 urban locations, with most in Kolkata, which has a large red light district. Kejriwal has explored this issue throughout her career and is now growing the project to include iron and fiberglass sculptures in 10 Indian cities.