Awareness campaign

THE call for immediate action to stop the rampant situation on sex trafficking and exploitation through prostitution is getting louder. One of the latest groups that made a stride to help address the issue is the Psychology Department of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of the Cordilleras.

An immediate action taken by the department was by hosting lately a forum dubbed “Labor Trafficking, Sex-Trafficking and Exploitation through Prostitution: A Citizen Response” at the University of the Cordilleras with researcher American national Jeanne Cross serving as the speaker.

More than 80 students from the College of Accountancy, College of Business Administration, and College of Arts and Sciences taking up the subject Sociology participated in the forum that made them be more aware about trafficking which is the process of transporting a person by deceit, coercion, or force for the purpose of commercial sex acts, and other types of forced labor.

According to forum organizer Professor Wilmalyn Awingan there is a need for people to be aware about sex trafficking and that there are people suffering because of prostitution and one of the main reason is because of poverty.

“Poverty is a reality in our society. There are people living with diapers but there are also people living without,” Awingan said.

It was mentioned in the forum that in Samar because of poverty the women who are below 18 years old enter into prostitution. But their situation is even aggravated by being victims of sex trafficking.

In the study conducted by the speaker it was also found out that there is also one sex parlor in Baguio that was raided and fortunately saved some women who are 18 years old and below.

Apart from awareness campaign highlighting the research presented by Cross saying that more people are trafficked into forced domestic servitude from the Philippines than any other country in the world, the forum also persuaded everyone to stand up and help end this social problem abusing the innocent women and children.

Awingan said one way of addressing the problem is by informing male friends not to be a perpetuator of sex trafficking and not to patronize night establishments offering sex workers and entertainers.

The forum also paved the way for the Psychology Department to link with KALINGA, an NGO accredited by Baguio Health Department that caters to the needs of the entertainers both psychologically and spiritually.

A social problem such as prostitution which has been in existence since time immemorial is difficult to solve. But if no man will ever dare get their services then the trade will also stop including sex trafficking.

Awareness campaign on sex trafficking is important because educating people about it means finding a solution to the problem.

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