Model students catwalk for a cause

Imagine a scared young girl in Cambodia or Thailand. This girl, and the thousands like her, is a victim of human trafficking. Is there someway to help her?

There are numerous Hopkins students who have undertaken efforts to do so through their participation Dec. 5 in the Vision XChange sponsored event Hopkins Top Model.

Human trafficking is a booming industry, with an estimated $7 to $9.5 billion made annually from its exploits. The numbers are staggering: Anywhere from 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are moved across national borders for use in the sex industry.

A majority of the people trafficked are women and children from East Asia and the Pacific. These victims are sold into this life through organized crime, like escort services and brothels. Far from being a problem of the past, human trafficking is the third fastest growing crime industry.

These atrocities are not merely happening in underdeveloped and developing nations, but in the United States as well. The FBI estimates that American children as young as nine and old as 19 are being trafficked within the United States with numbers as high as 100,000.

The majority who utilize the women's services are married men, but ages can range from as young as 15 to as old as 90. Between 80 and 86 percent of the women are physically and sexually abused. A typical night for a woman trapped in this life involves engaging with 10 to 15 men per day while having to meet a minimum goal of $500 per night.

The results of participating in this industry are catastrophic to the emotional and physical health of the women.

Most victims of trafficking remain emotionally distressed by their experiences; coercion is the primary way to erode the women's resistance to enter this underground world.

So how does Vision XChange intend to use a beauty pageant as a method of combat? "We realized that a lot of the people who get trafficked work in sweatshops or unmonitored industries and a lot of these sweatshops make the clothing we enjoy so much. So we thought that it was only right that if we were going do another Hopkins Top Model," junior Sophie Lu, the artistic coordinator and member of the publicity committee for Hopkins Top Model, said.

The funds raised by Hopkins Top Model will be donated to The Emancipation Network (TEN), a consortium of organizations that work to combat human trafficking, specifically two overseas partners of TEN, the Development Education Program for Daughters in Cambodia and Communities (DEPDC, and AFESIP: Acting For Women in Distressing Situations in Thailand. Each of these organizations provides services for women involved in trafficking.

"We want to promote activism on campus," Lu said.

"There is so much apathy in the world and we wanted to combat that apathy. We love to buy things: our clothes, our iPods and our music. All of these things are produced by people, and we need to be aware of the where these goods come from." DEPDC agreed to allow Vision XChange members the opportunity to volunteer for two to three months this summer in addition to the efforts by students throughout the academic year.

Specifically, the AFESIP raids brothels with police enforcement and sets up hot-lines to help locate victims. This organization attempts to remove the women from these conditions and reunite them with their families as well as provide educational programs for victims.

"There is a demand of women and children prostitutes," Lu stated. "If there wasn't a demand, there wouldn't be a supply. Everything is rooted in our society; we should look inside ourselves to see how we are connected to the world and we should be knowledgeable about what goes on in the world and how it happens."

Hopkins Top Model will be held in the Glass Pavilion on Dec. 5; doors open at 7 p.m. and tickets are $5. Twenty contestants will represent various students groups on campus that have decided to participate in the admirable efforts to try to stop human trafficking. Those interested in learning more about Vision XChange and its role on campus should visit their Web site at http://the.jhu.edu/vx.