Sarah
Blahovec and I are both freshman International Studies majors at American
University in Washington, DC. The two of us have just begun a project that
deals with an issue of world politics which we will present at the beginning of
April 2012.
Our project,
Human Trafficking: A Service-Learning
Project, will explore organizations that deal with advocating against human
trafficking, and helping to create anti-human trafficking policy. This blog, Forbidden Cargo: Exploring How Advocacy and
Policy Work to Give a Voice to Victims of Human Trafficking, is where the
two of us will keep a record of our experiences.
For our
project, we will volunteer our time at an organization in the Washington, DC
area and perhaps even shadow some of the employees of that organization. We
have yet to be connected to an organization, but when we are, they will lead us
in the direction we need to go for our project. In order to supplement what we
get out of this organization, we might try to contact other local anti-human trafficking
organizations as well as American University faculty.
As for this
blog, most of what we will share is our experiences as we dive into the dark
world of human trafficking. Even though we will be dealing with the advocacy
and policy side of the issue, and not with the victims themselves, the journey
will be an emotional one. The two of us started this project without much
knowledge of human trafficking, so we will both learn a lot about the issue as
the months go on.
