Addison’s passion for ending Human Trafficking

As a community we are evaluating which communities outside of Redemption we want to commit to see thrive. For Addison Arbini, her commitment was towards anti-human trafficking. One way she has committed towards creating healthy community is by participating in A21’s Dressember campaign for the past few years.

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I started my journey of fundraising for Dressember and my quest to do my part in stopping human trafficking when I was in fifth grade. After learning about the Civil War in school, I began asking questions– which led to me finding out that slavery still exists today. That discovery crushed me. Ever since then, I’ve been working to do my part to end modern day slavery, also known as human trafficking.

One of the ways I do that is by participating yearly in Dressember. Dressember is an organization that is centered around abolishing human trafficking. There are four concepts that Dressember is founded on that help work toward that goal: advocacy, prevention, intervention, and survivor empowerment.

The act of advocacy can be as simple as wearing a dress (or tie) everyday of December, using it as a talking point to raise awareness and money. That money goes to multiple programs including prevention services which educate and help people at risk of being trafficked.

Unfortunately, those services cannot save everyone, which is when intervention services are needed. There are programs that help rescue trafficking victims from harsh situations. After being in harsh situations, aftercare helps those survivors with therapy and other sources of making them feel whole again.

There are ways that you can participate in helping such a worthy cause. You can begin advocating for Dressember and wearing a dress or a tie everyday of December and posting pictures to raise donations. You can also be aware of certain signs that are commonly shown with human trafficking victims. If you encounter people showing signs of physical injuries and abuse, avoiding eye contact, social interaction, and authority figures/law enforcement, seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interaction, having tattoos/ branding on the neck and/or lower back you can call the human trafficking hotline 1 888 373 7888 to report it. You might just save a life.

Thank you for reading and I hope that this will inspire you to make change in your world and help end the multi-million dollar industry that is human trafficking.