by LINDSAY TIGAR
Associate Editor for Editorial Content

Editor’s note: This is the final part in a two part series about human trafficking. Full versions of the parts are available online.

Fifty dollars can buy students at Appalachian State University a week’s worth of groceries, their monthly water bill or a tank of gas.

However, across the world in Asia and Europe, in the United States and in North Carolina –the same $50 can be given in exchange for a labor or sex slave.

E. Benjamin Skinner highlighted the $50 exchange in his book, “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern Day Slavery,” published earlier this year. 

The event is sponsored by Equality Now, the Appalachian Women’s Fund, the High Country Women’s Fund and Westglow Resort & Spa.

Tickets are $20 for regular admission and $50 for box seats.

American feminist and political activist Gloria Steinem returns to the High Country after speaking at Appalachian last semester to moderate a question and answer session after the presentation.

Former director of the women’s studies program, Maggie McFadden introduced Steinem last year when she spoke at Farthing Auditorium Feb. 4.

McFadden believes Steinem has been a pioneer in advancing equality for women across the nation and globe.

“Steinem has led all sorts of issues affecting women,” McFadden said. “Sex trafficking is a global issue now, and affects everyone…Poor women in Europe or Asia are recruited for ‘jobs’ in the industrialized West, which turns out to be sex work jobs. This is a global problem, often financed by big businesses in the U.S. and Europe.”

Martha McCaughey, Appalachian professor and current director of the Women’s Studies program hopes Steinem’s presence at the event will prompt more to attend.

“Gloria Steinem’s visit to our campus last year influenced many, some of whom had never before learned about the impact that the women’s movement has had on our society,” McCaughey said. “Her presence at this event will certainly prompt more to attend and realize that the issue of sex trafficking is a serious one.”

Rick D. Suyao, director of marketing at the performing center, respects Steinem as one of the leading proponents against sex trafficking which mainly brutalizes women and children.

“She is a feminist advocate, she’s probably the most famous one out there,” he said. “Her beliefs and commitments are to stand up for all women’s rights. And sometimes, it overlaps with children…hopefully we will get a good crowd [for Steinem’s moderation] and stir conversation and get people talking about a really ugly issue.”

Suyao hopes the presentation of the film and Steinem’s presence will get students and community members to take steps to end the violence.

“It’s important to talk about issues like this. Right now, the news is dominated by the economy and stock prices, so a lot of things like this get pushed to the background,” he said. “I have a daughter myself, so it hits home. This could happen to anyone. Any woman who is vulnerable is at risk and what they do to these children, it’s scary.”

Pam R. Lach, program coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill organized the second conference UNC held concerning human trafficking.
Chapel Hill partners with several colleges including Mercer University, where students are trying to shut down brothels and train police to treat prostitutes and sex trafficked persons as victims, not as criminals, Lach said.

Lach encourages students to become aware and start looking for warning signs of trafficking in their respectable communities.

“It’s right here, it’s under our noses, we don’t always see it, but it’s happening almost everywhere,” she said. “If you started looking for it in your own community, you would find it. We don’t want to endanger students, but if you look beneath the surface, you will see it. The problem seems remote and invisible, but when you raise awareness, you’ll see and start noticing signs and that’s the first step to doing something about it.”

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