My project was about Child Sex Trafficking and why is it a issue. Which for us and as it should for many it should be a big issue because this issue gets ignored and pushed away to side as if it was irrelevant. Our action to help this issue was by selling candy bags and raising money to donate to an organization (MISSSEY) which is in oakland. We chose to sell candy bags specifically because we know a lot of student at our school likes candy and we took advantage of it by adding a note to each candy bag talking about child sex trafficking and why is it important to get our message spread.
Before this project I thought being an Upstander was to speak up for what’s right. Which speaking up for what right is also part of this project but that not the only thing we can do to be Upstanders. As I know now you can be an Upstander in many different ways. What I mean by that is for example, as a group we chose to sell canding bags and post on our instagram which woke up people to get our message through.
So Before this project started I knew that Child Sex Trafficking was an issue in Oakland but I wasn’t aware how often it happens. So I learned that as a young teenager in Oakland when I walk on the street I don’t/won’t feel safe due to knowing that I can also be one of these children that are being sex trafficking in an instant. So as an upstander I also learned that us as young kids by doing the littlest things and spreading the word can start to make a change. So young people like me can start to feel comfortable in the own community.
So I’m hoping for our next steps as an upstander is to go to Noah which is our after school teacher and get one of his friends email that works at MISSSEY so we can give them there money because we have not yet heard of them. By emailing them we can give them there money. Beside this I want to continue using the instagram and keep posting.
Sometimes in a neighborhood things can become very rough and hard especially when there is no one there to listen and you can open up to. If you have a community filled with people that has the same mindset everything will be smoother and better cause everyone will already have a understanding of what is going on in the area.