UNC Mirror

Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: News

Graduate student of higher education Jessica Stohlmann, left, senior journalism major Dana Miller, middle, and freshman musical theatre major DJ Schuett, right, participate in a discussion about sex trafficking in Asia.

University of Northern Colorado students were invited to a film about sex trafficking in Burma called "Anonymously Yours," done as part of SAFE Week in conjunction with the Assault Survivors Advocacy Program and other organizations both on campus and in Greeley.

"It was a pretty obscure subject that we picked to do," Kyle Mickelson of ASAP said. "It's one of those things that not a lot of people necessarily know a lot about, and in an effort to make our sex assault-free environment really comprehensive we felt it was a really good way to get the issue out there."

The film and discussion took place at Wiebking Hall Monday night and were focused on international issues instead of local issues.

"One of our members indicated that she thought it would be neat to do an international flair and a global perspective rather than just a local," ASAP Coordinator Deana Davies said. "We agreed, so we put tonight's program together as a film and discussion."

After the film, students discussed some of the sad and disturbing stories told in the documentary, such as a story told by ZuZu, a young girl sold into prostitution, who talked about an incident in which girls like her were dunked into a pond filled with leeches and kept there until they passed out.

Sponsors also talked about statistics about human trafficking in the United States and Colorado, and how to curtail such acts happening to young women. According to a 2003 statistic Mickelson cited, one in 47 impoverished children would be trafficked into the sex trade in the United States.

"(The film was) very powerful," said David Hosanna, who is a junior journalism major and was at Weibking Hall to view the movie. "It just made me contemplate, put a lot of things into perspective, and just makes you think 'what can you do?'"

Dana Miller, a senior journalism major, was also present at the showing and discussion of the film.

"It put everything into perspective," Miller said. "It made me really think about how lucky I am with what I have, and educating me onto what is going on everywhere else."

Both Miller and Hosanna had seen other films before on human trafficking.

"It just reinforced everything I felt about (human trafficking); that it's morally wrong and that something needs to be done about it," Miller said.

Both students also said a good way to curtail human trafficking, in the United States and abroad, is through education on the subject. Hosanna suggested showing films such as "Anonymously Yours" to U.S. businessmen who travel to countries such as Burma. (One of the stories told in the film involved American businessmen paying for sex.)

"Show them stuff like this so that they can see there is a face behind the commodity that is sex," Hosanna said.

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