172 TRAGEDY OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING TO BE EXPLAINED AT MTSU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 5, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Catharine Broemel, 615-336-1058

TRAGEDY OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING TO BE EXPLAINED AT MTSU
Major Issue of Wheeling and Dealing in People for Profit, Labor, Sexual Gratification

(MURFREESBORO) – Americans for Informed Democracy and the American Democracy Project will sponsor a panel on the issue of human trafficking from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, in the State Farm Lecture Hall on the MTSU Campus.
The scheduled speakers are Collette Berku, founder of Free for Life Ministries; Amber Beckham, former MTSU student and a Network of Emergency Trafficking Services (NETS) coordinator for World Relief; and Theresa Flores, a survivor of human trafficking.
The U.S. Department of State’s annual “Trafficking in Persons” report defines human trafficking as "(a) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery."
According to the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, the number of people in bonded labor, forced labor, child labor and sexual servitude at any given time could total as many as 12.3 million people.
The American Democracy Project Web site describes the program as “an initiative of 219 AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) campuses that seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates enrolled at institutions that are members of AASCU.”
Americans for Informed Democracy is “a non-partisan organization that brings the world home to the next generation of leaders through educational seminars, leadership summits, town hall meetings, opinion pieces, and global videoconferences,” states its Web site.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Catharine Broemel, president of Americans for Informed Democracy, at 615-336-1058 or crb3f@mtsu.edu.