As part of an ongoing effort to educate the community about human trafficking, the Rotary Club of Muscatine partnered with Muscatine Community College and sponsored a poster competition for people aged 16-22. The age group was specifically identified to be a top priority after a training given by a human trafficking victim during Human Trafficking Awareness month. “What was most compelling about her presentation was hearing her say she would not have known that the words “human trafficking” described what she was going through as a teen. And she was clearly being trafficked. We took this message to heart and focused our efforts on having teens develop a poster that we could use in our community that addressed our teen population”, explained Carolyn Levine, member of the Muscatine Rotary Club and representing a state-wide group, Rotary Against Slavery Action Group (RAGAS). “It was also important to have the poster in two languages for our community”, said Levine. The languages could be chosen by the participant. All selected Spanish as their second language.
The winners were: Ava Barrett (first place), Mia Gonzalez (second place) and Zoe Barrett (third place). Ava attends Wilton High School and is concurrently enrolled at Muscatine Community College. She had researched human trafficking for an earlier school project and found out about this contest from her high school counselor. Miya attends Columbus Junction High School and was told about the contest by her art teacher, Jesse Gomez. Her poster was hand-drawn, using colored pencils and paint. The judges encouraged her to continue to develop as an artist. Zoe is currently attending Muscatine Community College and has plans to transfer to complete a degree in cyber-security.
The Muscatine Rotary Club intends to use the poster designs in the future to help spread the word that human trafficking happens here and victims can be of any age, race, gender or nationality. For more information, see dhs.gov/blue-campaign. To see the three posters, go to Rotary Muscatine Facebook page.
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