Here’s what you can do as a student (High School or College):

Learn
Acquire as much knowledge as you can about the international and local status of human trafficking

United States Federal Law (Trafficking Victims Protection Act 0f 2000) defines human trafficking as:

• sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or
• the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

Be Vigilant

Learn the Red Flags and recognize a victim of trafficking:

• Living with Employer
• Poor Living Conditions
• Multiple People in Cramped Space
• Inability to Speak to an Individual Alone
• Employer Holding Identity Documents
• Signs of Physical Abuse
• Submissive or Fearful

Signs of Commercial Sexual Exploitation. Look for a combination of:

•  Physical evidence of abuse
•  Post Traumatic Stress
•  Change in appearance (expensive clothes, etc.)
•  Exhausted, uneven sleeping patterns
•  Unexplained absences from school, home, etc.
•  References to someone taking care of her
•  References to unexplained sources of money
•  New “friends” are older and not available

If you come in contact with someone you believe may be a victim of human trafficking, try to find a safe way to ask them these questions:

• Why did you come here?
• Who arranged your travel?
• How did you get here?
• Do you owe money for your trip?
• What did you expect when you came?
• What did you end up doing?
• Were you scared?
• Do you have any papers?
• Who has them?
• Are you in school?
• Are you working?
• What kind of work do you do?
• Are you paid?
• Do you owe money to your boss or someone else?
• Can you leave your job if you want?
• Where do you live?
• Who else lives there?
• Where do you sleep?
• Are you scared to leave?
• Has anybody threatened you to keep you from running away?
• Has anybody ever hurt you to make you stay?
• Has your family been threatened?

Raise Awareness

What can you do to get other people to care about the issue? Get Creative! There are so many ways to raise awareness about this issue, and it’s not a hard one to ask people to care about, since it’s such a black-and-white issue – humans cannot be treated as objects!

Human trafficking is an abomination. It is an affront to human rights and the rule of law. As students, we cannot continue to ignore this crime while people, particularly young women and children, are being taken, terrorized, raped, and murdered every day.

It is up to you to raise awareness about this issue in your community – wherever that community may be: in your school, online, your church, your neighborhood, club . . . everywhere! It must remain an important part of our public discussion, like the economy or the war on terror.

Anything we can do together helps:

• Read a book about human trafficking and if it inspires you to act or if it's enlightening, recommend it to friends.
• Host a human trafficking documentary at school, church, or any public forum.
• viewing at your place of a documentary about human trafficking.
• Organize a seminar, conference, or forum (or even an organization) at your school.
• Start an organization in your community to fight human trafficking nearby.
• Volunteer with a non-profit organization committed to human rights, ending human trafficking, and/or fair trade. To find the right organization, ask them these questions.
• Write letters to your local newspaper editors and let them know your community cares about this.
• Gather signatures on a strong petition urging legislatures and criminal justice officials to take effective action.
• Posts articles about this issue on Facebook, Twitter, and every online social network you can. Remember, any action is a step towards emancipation.

Connect
Make sure everyone you know, knows about human trafficking . . . and then make sure everyone they know, knows about human trafficking . . . and so on, and so on.

On your Campus
Connect with those clubs that have human rights and relief as their goal (eg: Amnesty International, UNICEF). If your campus or high school doesn’t have a chapter, start one!More specifically, if your school doesn’t have some sort of Students to Combat Human Trafficking club, start one!

Regionally
Look at your local government’s website and see what initiatives are being take to combat human trafficking in your state à if there are none, tell someone that there should be!  This horrible crime takes place to some extent in most states!Investigate as to whether there is some sort of state-wide coalition to fight human trafficking (for example, in Rhode Island it is RICAHT- Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking).

Online
Use all your social networking resources to spread the word to your friends and everyone you know. Get them to come to AhavaKids.org or any of the organizations listed on this site.