Sacramento State’s Women’s Resource Center took stepstoward raising awareness of the issues surroundinghuman trafficking at their National Freedom Run/Walk,Sat. Nov. 19.

Human trafficking – the business of human exchangesand modern-day slavery for the sex industry andvarious areas of work including agriculture, domesticwork and marriage – is a universal issue, according toPat Grady, coordinator of the Women’s ResourceCenter.

“It doesn’t get a whole lot of publicity,” Gradysaid.

The purpose of the event, Grady said, was firstto raise the concerns of human trafficking and toraise money for the Polaris Project.

The Polaris Project, based in the United States andJapan, focuses on empowering survivors of humantrafficking and modern-day slavery, and creatinglong-term social change, according to their Web site.The crime of human trafficking is a serious matter,according to Grady. “It’s organized crime,” Gradysaid. “Women die as a result of this.”

“They take runaways from one city, transfer them tothe next city and involve them in a sex trade,” shecontinued.

But it is not just a sex trade, Grady said.

“Inreality, it crosses all fields of commerce andindustry,” she said.

Internationally, Grady explained, human traffickingfrequently occurs in developing countries. Poorfamilies are scammed into thinking that thesebusinesses will teach their daughters to get awell-paying job, Grady said, but they end up workingin sweatshops or as slaves. They are sexuallyassaulted and abused, she added.

About ten people participated in the event.

TheNational Freedom Run/Walk is a national event. This isthe first time Sac State organized the 5K walk/run.

Grady is not sure if it will become an annual eventbut said that the Women’s Resource Center will stillparticipate in many events similar to it, such asraising awareness of breast cancer.

Rupi Tamana, a nursing major at American RiverCollege, said human trafficking and modern-day slaveryis shocking.

“It still happens,” Tamana said. “Theyshould come up with something to stop it.”

Susan Saechao, a Sac State senior majoring in liberalstudies, believes that human trafficking is wrong andparticipated in the event because she supports raisingthe awareness of the problem’s issues.

“They’re using people for inappropriate things,especially children,” Saechao said. “It’s immoral.”

Saechao said more publicity is needed in order formore people to show up to these kinds of events.

“Butthis is a start,” she said.