Despite the onset of the evening snow, several Iowa State students braved the cold to make it to the Memorial Union on Wednesday night, and they were there for more than the fair trade handbags.

Chelsie Town, ISU alumna, led a lecture titled “Human Trafficking: Is the Modern Day Slavery,” in the Oak Room of the Memorial Union to mark National Human Trafficking Day to address the issue of the burgeoning human slave trade market.

Town feels that human trafficking is fundamentally wrong and has taken the initiative to raise awareness about the issue.

“As the atrocities rise in the world, I’m a firm believer that we have to make a choice,” she stated as she began the lecture. “Human trafficking is an issue that has rapidly become my burden.”

Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as “[a] crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means for the purpose of exploiting them.”

Human trafficking is a globally complex crime that takes on many forms including, but not limited to, forced labor, sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children, bonded labor, forced child labor, and child soldiers.

Town’s presentation opened with a short film exploring the concept of child slavery and the origins of human trafficking. The film was a documentary that showed how many parents are duped into selling their children into slavery by individuals who claim to be taking them to better job opportunities or an education.

In fact, according to Town, human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal market, at $32 billion annually, with an estimated 27 million slaves on the market today — more than all of the slaves sent from Africa to Western markets during the legal slave trade combined. However, even these estimates are only the tip of the iceberg, according to Town, who claims that as few as 1 percent are rescued.

She wanted to shift perspectives on statistics. People are not just a number. They are brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers when she described her first experience after learning about human trafficking after learning that the sibling of a close friend had been victimized.

“I knew her name, I knew her story, I knew her face,” she said. “I want you to see these not as numbers but as normal people.”

She also sought to clear up the misconceptions that slavery occurred only in in developing countries and that victims in the Unite States are from other countries. Human trafficking is prevalent in the United States as well. Places like massage parlors, residential brothels, truck stops and the streets are still harbors for prostitution.

It occurs even within our own state. Iowa itself has had more than 200 cases of sex trafficking, only four of which led to convictions.

“It think in Iowa alone it’s been amazing,” Town said. “Really, when I first started a year ago, it was on no one’s radar.”

Town claims that she has brought much more attention to the issue through her presentations and dialogues she has initiated. However, just being aware is not enough. She claims that even the smallest action is enough to make a difference.

“Inspiration is fleeting and unfaithful and unfocused,” Town said. “Once you are truly awakened, you can’t help but respond. People come up with really great ideas, but they’re stopped once they reach opposition.”

Town claimed that everyone can make a difference if even just to start a dialogue and be a voice. Slavery is not a thing of the past, and she said that it is important the people demand accountability and fair trade goods after realizing her own consumption.

“It really caused me to come to terms with my own selfishness, and yeah, I can be a human trafficker as well. It’s up to the people to make a demand for it,” she said.

Ashleigh Smith, graduate educational leadership and policy studies, plans to bring what she learned from the seminar into her own classroom in the future.

“There are thousands of people who don’t know about it,” Smith said. “It helps bring light to the situation. One of the best things you can do is education others about it.”

Kristin Marshall, double major in political science and speech pathology, was drawn to the event after seeing a film in the fall exploring sex in the film industry.

“I’ve immersed myself in information, but I still feel disgusted by the atrocities man commits against his fellow man,” she said. “Some of the stats still make me sick to my stomach.”

Marshall is looking forward to making a difference and even is bringing the film back to campus. She liked the idea that she still can help simply by using her own talents.

Town has been touring Iowa and attending conferences across the United States in her presentations, and was originally inspired to take action after someone visited her sorority here at Iowa State. Although she is a newcomer to the scene, she feels she has had a definite impact.

Town is an ambassador director for Malia Designs, a free trade company that employs women who are recovering from human trafficking to produce handbags made from materials like silk, cotton and even recycled rice bags.