To raise awareness of National Human Trafficking Day to the ISU community, Delta Sigma Theta sorority’s Alumnae Chapter will host the presentation “Human Trafficking: Is the Modern Day Slavery.”

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and is a nationwide initiative to raise awareness about human trafficking. Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar market and is the second-largest and fastest-growing criminal industry in the world, according to the sorority.

Human trafficking spans a large range of issues and can include anything from the illegal trade of human beings for the purpose of reproductive slavery to commercial sexual exploitation to forced labor.

Mechelle Salley, an ISU graduate and member of the Alumnae Chapter, played a major part in organizing the event.

“With this event, what I plan to accomplish, of course, is to bring awareness to the importances of having knowledge and getting involved,” Salley said.

One of her primary goals for the event is to help people learn how to “get involved” in an issue they might not know much about.

“I’m excited about peoples’ willingness to get involved,” she said.

The event will begin with a presentation by Chelsie Town, ambassador of Malia Designs and ISU alumna. Malia Designs is an organization that promotes fair trade products and aims to increase economic opportunity for women in Cambodia. It also makes donations to organizations that fight human trafficking.

The event will be an expansion of the event last year that took place in conjunction with Drake University, but the sorority hopes to expand to an international perspective.

“We decided to bring it back to talk about international issues in human trafficking,” Shelley said.

The presentation will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Oak Room of the Memorial Union. The session will end with a question-and-answer session and open discussion section.