Mariana Haddad

UWRT 1102

Multi-Genre Piece

This multi-genre project was created for a specific audience, and these are the

potential victims of Human Trafficking. It is important to inform the people that

could possibly be attacked by this crime that it exists. By knowing the procedures

and protocols it will be easier to protect the victims and help them recognize raise

flags, until the point that this industry can be reduced. The purpose of my Inquiry

project is due to the lack of information on Human Trafficking it is becoming more

common, especially in Charlotte, NC, in other words, it is important to spread the

word about this un-spoken crime to get everyone involved helping. By targeting

young adults as my audience, I had to find an easy way to reach them all at the

same time and in a way that they would listen. I wanted to post information that

even though they were not looking for it they would stumble upon it and learn. I

chose drawing a comic strip that could be posted on Facebook, Instagram or even

twitter, which shows how easy it is to get into this business. And my second piece

is a speech created for high school students to hear and reflect on how if they are

not careful they could end up as victims. This speech will be distributed to most

school in the US, maybe in the future to the world.

For this topic it was crucial to find reliable source, because its a topic that deals

with statistics and numbers and it is important for them to be accurate. Sources

that helped were the WCNC, Justice Ministries of Charlotte, and most importantly

the hotlines, that proportioned accurate values of victims. Human trafficking is very
big in Charlotte, NC, and there is very little information being taught about it.

Rachel Browns article on WCNC titled Charlotte #1 in NC for sex trafficking"

proposes that it is important to raise awareness on the matter. To do so, it will be

addressed in seventh and eighth-grade classrooms. Anybody can be targeted and

most of the victims falling prey to this issue did not originally know what they were

getting themselves into. By talking about it openly it will allow young women and

men to not put themselves in sketchy situation because now they know how it

could turn out. Charlotte is actually the number one city in the state of North

Carolina for human trafficking. (Brown, 2016). After the victims were able to

escape or were saved by someone that witness the crime the is a non-profit

organization called Justice Ministries whichs mission is to combat sex trafficking

and sexual exploitation, but not only do they help solve it, they also provide a future

for young girls that have gone through big life changing events like this one. They

help house them until they can do it for their own. It is important that someone is

taking care of the victims after this tragedy has happened to them. It is important to

make them feel welcomed in society again. The average age of entry into

prostitution is 12-14 years old. It is shocking, but this is happening in the USA and

it is happening in your state. (Justice Ministries, n/d). As I kept reading I found a

great example to help spread the world, and what fascinated me was that this was

initiated by teenagers with the sole purpose of helping. They are inspiring how

these kids have taken initiative to talk about this devastating topic. An anti-

trafficking school club started in order to raise awareness through the school. This

club has not only influenced its members but also many other school clubs with

PowerPoint presentations, talks and guest speakers. They hold a bi annual event
where more than 300 high school students attended and some people from the

community. Katie Talbott, the teacher that supervised this beautiful activity say My

husband also is an educator. He and I used our gifts and created a curriculum on

human trafficking for middle and high school teachers. The curriculum covers the

types of human trafficking, resources on prevention, PowerPoints, a discussion

guide for Theresa Flores The Slave across the Street, assignments and quizzes

and many other links and ideas to help students get involved in stopping human

trafficking. We should follow her example and teach what we know and help

spread the word.

By tackling human trafficking with a comic strip and a speech awareness will be

raised immediately. The comic strip will reach the whole world because that is how

social media works and I believe it will have the most success. This genre piece

works with the visual mode of communication because the drawing tell a story. The

speech is part of the linguistic mode of communication and aural to those that hear

it, but most importantly they both include Pathos. They stir emotions in you to make

you understand the gravity of this issue. They are meant to make you angry and

frustrated with what is going on, and get you to act.

References

Talbott, Katie. "Anti-Trafficking Education in High Schools." End Slavery

Now. N.p., 28 Oct. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.

"About." Justice Ministries Charlotte. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

Brown, Rachel. "Charlotte #1 in NC for sex trafficking." WCNC. WCNC, 07

July 2016. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.