Wednesday, February 1, 2017

End It Movement - Shine a Light on Slavery

            In 2017, there are still an estimated 27 million human beings that are currently enslaved. The End It Movement is a global effort to raise awareness and combat the different forms of modern day slavery such as bonded labor, forced labor and human trafficking. While it isn’t hard to get people to agree that what’s still happening in our world is horrible, it can be a battle to get people to help shine a light on the issue and realize they can help.
            The End It Movement (EIM) uses mainly pathos and logos, but it also gets some help from allies with a lot of ethos, to help make people aware, educated and ready to help in communities and on college campuses across the country. To gain more ethos, EIM has been helped by Rotary International, which currently has 1.2 million members worldwide and helped to exterminate polio from the modern world, to reach a more global audience. Rotary International uses their influence and their reach to help connect EIM with world leaders who are also working to bring an end to slavery.
            A lot of pathos is used by EIM and most recently the coalition put on an event to help raise awareness at Georgia College. In Atlanta alone, sex trafficking generates $290 million per year, making it largest sex trafficking hub in the nation. Despite the large number of victims and revenue produced, most students who attended the event had little idea what was happening in their own neighborhoods. EIM has created a social media presence to help educate people like the students at Georgia College. Every year they have a day to help “shine a light on slavery” where they ask people to simple put a red “X” on the back of their hand. Many put a picture of their mark on social media and add it to the campaign using #ENDITMOVEMENT or #SHINEALIGHT. The goal of the Shine a Light on Slavery Campaign is to get people talking, either on social media or in person when someone asks what the “X” is about.

            EIM uses simple logos to grow their campaign. The statistics alone make it hard not to justify supporting the movement, especially when learning that 1 in 5 victims is younger than18 years old and slavery is still occurring in 167 countries, including the US. Their easy-to-use website helps anyone interested find a variety of information, from ways to help, resources that are available to help spread the word on social media, to apparel to help empower women in Peru, a chance to hear the stories of survivors who were rescued and even a spot to donate to help those impacted by modern day slavery. EIM uses simple facts to persuade people to help.
            The End It Movement is trying to give a voice to those impacted by modern day slavery. Every day there are more victims that are being abused, sold and trafficked all around the world. The easiest way to help them is to make people aware of the issue and that’s exactly what the End It Movement is trying to do.
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