Fashion show fights against slavery

When Jennifer Kimball began to research human trafficking for a school project, the more she learned, the more she was horrified.

"People are bought, sold, moved around. There are forced rapes," said Kimball, a University of Missouri-Columbia student. "There are two forms: sexual exploitation … and forced labor. These can be children. They can’t leave, can’t say no, they don’t get paid. They are told their families will be killed or injured."

With the knowledge that modern-day slavery is taking place overseas and in America, Kimball decided to do more. Along with other MU Women’s and Gender Studies Undergraduate Group members, she helped organize "Stop Traffic Now," an organization to combat the practice of trafficking.

The group tonight will host a fashion show to raise awareness and money for their three-day human trafficking conference scheduled in March. Some proceeds also will benefit The Shelter, a home for victims of domestic violence.

According to the U.S. Department of State, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders, and millions more are enslaved in their own countries. About 80 percent of victims are women, and about 50 percent are minors.

Jill Hilbrenner, an MU journalism major, also helped organize the show. She said many trafficked people venture to a prosperous nation to help their families financially, but upon arrival they are held against their will and not paid for their work.

"A lot of people don’t even know it happens, and it’s not just something that happens elsewhere," Kimball said. "As citizens of Columbia, there is something we can do."

Kimball and other organizers have been working on the fashion show since the summer. They e-mailed students in the Textile and Apparel Management Department to recruit designers.

When Ashley Allen, 21, read the e-mail, she began to research human trafficking. "It really surprised me," she said, noting that she has seen pictures of workers chained to sewing machines. "Just being in college, I’m kind of in my own little bubble. The fact that I’m going to be in this industry and the textile industry is a main area" for trafficking "into sweatshops, that bothers me."

Allen has four pieces in the show, including two children’s outfits. One is a red-and-white outfit, using colors in the national flags of Singapore, Cambodia and Malaysia, which are hotbeds of human trafficking. On the jean Capri pants, she sewed the word "Kebebasan," Malayan for "freedom."

A T-shirt Allen designed features the phrase, "Mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins should be free to work, free to laugh, free to dream and free to be."

MU student Jaclyn Marcacci features her three-piece "Strictly Unrestricted" line, which shows a transition from rags to riches, symbolizing a survivor’s journey.

Designers and organizers said they hope the show will raise awareness of an underreported problem.

"It is a really big deal, not just internationally, but domestically," Marcacci said. "It needs to be stopped. It needs to be ended."

Kimball said interested people can also register for the March conference at www.stoptrafficnow.com.

"As human beings, we need to know and be aware that these atrocities are going on, especially in our own community," she said, adding that some trafficked women come to Missouri under the pretext of mail-order brides. "I can’t understand how you couldn’t care."