July 19—Northwestern student, Rebecca Lackey, was recently featured in the World Mission Prayer League magazine, Fellow Workers, for her involvement in human trafficking prevention.

As a part of an annual dorm celebration event, Lackey and the 17 other women on her floor chose to support Breaking Free, a non-profit that educates and provides services to women and girls who have been victims of abuse and commercial sexual exploitation (prostitution/sex trafficking).

[Excerpt from Fellow Workers]

The climax for dorm life for any third-floor resident occurs in mid-February with the school-wide celebration of Knuha Day. On this day every hall is required to decorate their doorways in support of a certain organization with a certain theme, along with a choreographed dance for the whole student body. As the RA (Resident Assistant) of my hall, all the planning, coordinating and scheduling of this event fell to me.

After months of frenzied planning the big day finally arrived.

The first pair of doorways facing each other represented forced labor. On the right was a girl working a sweatshop making clothes for American stores. Across the hall from her sat a girl spreading coffee beans out on the ground to dry in a coffee plantation. The next set of doorways held two child soldiers who had been kidnapped from their homes in Africa and forced to fight with rebel armies. The third set of doors showed young girls who were dirty, bruised and chained to bedposts caught in the sex industry.

The final door on the right was that of Breaking Free and the contained a solitary girl standing in victory with broken chains hanging from her wrists and joy in her face. Across from her there was a table with various Fair Trade products and a call to visitors to act against slavery by not buying products that are manufactured with slave labor.

Lackey, among many other students on campus, are actively involved in the fight against human trafficking, working with on-campus groups such as Writing in the Sand, which partners with local non-profit, Breaking Free.