Trade As One

Throughout the year, Trade as One participates in events all around the country that seek to raise awareness and provide practical next steps on a whole host of issues. Last week, Trade as One was present at an event in Oakland, CA around the issue of human trafficking.

Many people living in the United States feel very distant from problems such as human trafficking. Aside from the occasional news article or Frontline special, it is difficult for many of us to contemplate the reality of a growing modern-day slave trade. Even when faced with the grim facts, how can we react?  What is there to do?  Many of you choose Fair Trade as a way to combat this crisis. Others get involved in activism, awareness-raising, work with local organizations fighting trafficking here in the US, and some of you even take short term trips to hotspots.

Nate and Laura Davis, of the non-profit organization Free Is a Verb, confronted those very same questions several years ago, and recently decided to uproot their lives in Oakland, CA in order to move to the Phillipines to fight human trafficking. As part of their fundraising efforts, they put on an event last Thursday, May 20th called “Taste for Freedom” at Mills College Student Union.

Guests from around the Bay Area sampled food and wine, participated in a silent auction, and learned about ways to help stop human trafficking, in the Bay Area and around the world. Ten organizations dedicated to abolishing human trafficking, including Trade as One, were represented at various tables around the room.  Other organizations, such as Because Justice Matters, California Against Slavery, Freedom House, Garden of Hope,  and the International Justice Mission offered educational materials and petitions against human trafficking in the Bay Area.  As the night progressed, hosts Nate and Laura Davis spoke to the crowd of their passion in fighting slavery and injustice.  They also shared a list of small actions that each American could take to fight human trafficking, including donating time and money, signing California Against Slavery’s petition, and buying Fair Trade products, especially products that are made by those escaping sexual slavery.

We so happy to know Nate and Laura. If you’d like to see more about our producers in the developing world who use enterprise to fight slavery and trafficking, click here.