Media Credit: Love 146 Website
By: Kaitlyn Boisvert
Posted In: News
There is a relatively new club on campus, and although like most clubs it encourages members to have fun and form close bonds, it is on a very serious mission to change the world for the better. The club is Love146, based on the organization of the same name, and its sole purpose is to end sex trafficking, a major issue that is very prevalent and should be acknowledged and addressed.
According to the Love146 website, 27 million people are enslaved world-wide by sex-traf-ficking. It is the second most lucrative crime in the world, and it generates around $32 billion annually. Many of those sold are children; the website reported that over 1.2 million children are trafficked annually, 100,000 of them from the United States. Every minute, 2 children are forced into sex trafficking.
The official Love146 organization began when co-founder and president of Love146 Rob Morris decided to take initiative and look into the issue of sex trafficking. After learning swaggering statistics about the crime, the group visited a brother in Southeast Asia, disguised as sex tourists, to see first hand the reality of modern day slavery. What the group witnessed shocked them, and inspired them to start the organization and fight against the crimes.
On the day they visited the brothel, Morris and his followers were put in a room, where they were able to see the little girls being sold through glass windows. All the young girls sat together, watching cartoons on a television screen. Each had the life drained from her eyes, staring at the set with blank, hopeless eyes. Each girl only had a number pinned to her dress as a source of identification.
Amidst this scene, there was one thing that struck Morris’ attention, and that was the only girl who was not focusing her attention on the television. “She was staring out through the glass at us,” said Morris on the Love146 website. “I don’t know her name, I’ll never know her name, but I’ll never forget her number, and it was ‘146.’” While the other young girls gazed passively in acceptance of their cruel fate, this one girl was different. “There was still a fight in her eyes,” he said.
That girl became the inspiration for Love146. She represents the multiple numbers of children forced into sex trafficking, and it is her legacy that inspires Love 146 to fight for the voiceless victims. Ever since it started in the year 2004, Love 146 has built two core program areas to combat the issue of child sex slavery and exploitation, Prevention and Aftercare, and has strove to educate people about this issue that must be resolved.
Salve Regina student Marie Foti, President of the campus club devoted to Love146, first heard of Love146 in her freshman year at a concert. An advertisement for the organization was displayed, and Foti was very shocked and disturbed by the facts of child sex slavery. She then grew passionate about fighting against the cause, signing up for Love146 newsletters, and eventually speaking about the issue of sex trafficking after mass in the campus chapel. She and her friend Mary Grace Donaldson next proposed the idea to form an on-campus organization promoting Love146, and the two spent a year working together to bring the vision to life; drafting a proposal and a constitution. After a lot of hard and diligent work, Love146 was granted club status at the beginning of this semester.
“As a club, our main purpose is to raise awareness about child sex slavery and exploitation,” said Foti. “Through legislation, education, and advocacy, we hope to help abolish child sex slavery and child trafficking.”
Although the club aspires to educate people about an important issue, it does not require dues or donations, and members manage to have fun and form close friendships. It plans to host movie nights, bring speakers on campus, and hold fundraisers to support Love146. Foti encourages everyone to join, for more members would help the club in raising more awareness and fighting against the issue.
Love146’s motto is that “love protects, defends, restores, and empowers.” In the process of sex trafficking, the child is treated as a sexual and commercial object and a victim of coercion and violence. It is a form of slavery that can severely harm the child; emotionally and physically. Love146 aspires to end sex trafficking as well as save and tend to all those who have been a victim of this lucrative crime. It is fighting against a cruel act that should not exist in the world, and helping the victims heal and see the hope and beauty that exists in the world.
Rob Morris and his companions were unable to immediately respond and rescue the children from the brothel on that unforgettable day, because they were part of an undercover organization and would have needed evidence to carry out a raid and justice against the brothel. Shortly after their visit, however; a raid broke into the brothel and rescued all the children inside, but the girl with the number 146 was no longer there, according to Morris. “We do not know what happened to her but we will never forget her,” he said on the website. “She changed the course of our lives.”
Although her whereabouts are unknown, the girl with the number 146 pinned to her dress represents the millions of children enslaved by sex slavery, and it is her story that shall inspire Love146 to continue fighting for the voiceless innocent and bring justice to the world.
