By Lauren VerDuin
Staff Writer

Surprised and shocked were the emotions of Coppell locals as the news of a human trafficking house spread through the city. According to officials, Sung Chang was luring women to the country by offering them work in the U.S. Once the women were here, he would take their belongings and force them to work at a nightclub he owned in Dallas.

In October 2006, Chung was charged with one count of forced labor and another count of conspiracy to commit force labor.

“You don’t really think these kind of things happen in cities like Coppell,” senior Allie Quill said.

Take a minute and slowly count to 60. During the time that it took you to count that far, two children were sold into slavery, adding to the growing 27 million throughout countries such as Europe, Asia and even North America.

Coppell High School junior Kate Rohrbough is a member of Irving Bible Church who pairs with a specific organization, based out of Connecticut, called Love 146 that provides knowledge and solutions to this rising issue.

“Love 146 is an organization that helps raise awareness about the sex trafficking industry,” Rohrbough said. “Often times we put on charity events such as pancake breakfasts and gatherings to bring people together to raise money for this cause. We raise money for rehabilitations camps and provide people with prayer journals that allow you to pray for a specific girl that is a child slave. We want to expose them to a world that shows them the right kind of love and respect that they deserve.”

Human trafficking is a serious, developing problem that is not only an issue but also an “industry.” It is estimated that human trafficking pulls in an average of $32 billion annually. No one can deny the fact that that is a lot of cash. But how exactly is child slavery generating that amount of money? What even is human trafficking?

Human Trafficking is comparable to slavery. Most of the time the victims are young girls ranging from 11 to 14 years old who are bought and forced into labor or sexual exploitation. Malls, fast food restaurants, schools and after school programs are all common places for traffickers to make their catch. They lure these young women in by doing anything from kidnapping to solicitation by other women or girls recruiting on behalf of the sex trafficker. Some even act to be genuinely interested in a romantic relationship.

After the girls are in the trafficker’s hands, they are taken against their will to houses or human trafficking places called brothels. It is at these brothels that they are often times drugged and their bodies are sold to anyone willing to pay the price. There are some cases were they are engaging in sexual interaction anywhere from six to eight times a day.

This cruel and mind blowing action is not only illegal, but it violates these children’s lives. Each child that is thrown into this business is no longer a child. Their rights, dignity, as well as physical and emotional aspects are stripped from these girls. Their bodies become a commercial object and men buy them with intentions no one can even bear to imagine.

In the popular movie Taken, the dad enters this mysterious and dark set up of tents located at a construction site. Pretending to be a potential buyer, the father walks from room to room searching for his missing daughter. The conditions in which the women are living in are unspeakable and their physical state is disgusting, with drugs overtaking their ability to speak clearly. From beginning to end this movie depicts exactly what goes on in this horrible business.

Why is this still going on? Slavery ended with the 13th Amendment. But the answer is simple. Just because an act is illegal does not mean it still does not occur. The sad truth is that there are more slaves today than there ever were or have been in our world.

Love146 is an organization that uses their motives of prevention and aftercare to minimize human trafficking and one day work to solve this issue not only in the United States but internationally as well.

“We do a lot of prevention education here in the states and also in Europe with children. Through this we have opportunities to inform kids of what to look for and how to be aware of what is happening around you,” Love146 graphic artist Marilyn De Guehery said. “We train and certify locals who are looking to care for survivors because we want these victims to be placed in the best hands possible.”

The student body at Coppell High School can get involved too. While there is not a direct way that each student can stop this problem, there are options that will help keep the fight going against human trafficking.

“Task forces are something that Love146 has created that consists of volunteer groups in your local community and work to become experts on the issue and spread information,” De Guehery said. “These can be faith based or even purely students who want to be a part of ending human trafficking. We do have Love146 staff, but without our 300 plus volunteers, we could not do what we do.”

This organization along with many others works to make that 60 seconds 0 seconds. Stop the number of humans being forced into child slavery and stop human trafficking.