By Zoha Qader '17

On Wednesday, Notre Dame students wore blue in support of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. The event was planned by Notre Dame’s on-campus human trafficking awareness group, Students Against Modern Slavery (SAMS). As a community of justice advocates, the students felt it was their duty to stand in solidarity with the victims of human trafficking and educate others about the issue. 

Contrary to popular belief, slavery did not end in the 1800s. Modern slavery is known as human trafficking and includes the transportation, harboring, and recruitment of people by various forms of coercion or deception for the purpose of exploitation. Trafficking can range from sex trafficking to sweat shops. In order to raise awareness around this hidden issue, President Obama deemed January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in 2010. Since then, Human Trafficking Awareness Day has been observed on January 11th each year. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign has made blue the international symbol of human trafficking awareness.   

Students Against Modern Slavery has been educating the Notre Dame community about human trafficking for five years and have been quite successful in engaging the students in various awareness activities such as chalk bombs and a vending machine post it bomb. They also created the hashtag #wheniwas14 to raise awareness that the average age of human trafficking victims is 14. 

Modern human trafficking is one of the world’s most profitable industries. Many non-governmental organizations have worked diligently to stop these traffickers, but they are not able to make a significant impact due to a lack of support from the government. The hope of groups like SAMS is that by educating the public, government agencies can be convinced to lend their support.