Local Oasis students join global STOP THE TRAFFIK launch from UN building in New York

A local Oasis Academy is spearheading the call to action to support STOP THE TRAFFIK and START FREEDOM. Oasis Academy Enfield is asking all students in all local schools to sign up and become part of a united global voice in seeking to stop human trafficking. Today, one person every minute is trafficked.

STOP THE TRAFFIK will launch their “START FREEDOM” campaign with a webcast from the United Nations building in New York on Wednesday 14th October. The webcast will appear on the website at 9am. Academies, schools, youth clubs and individuals can sign up by logging on to www.startfreedom.org. The global campaign caters specifically for young people, and students from across the range of Oasis Academies will be actively driving it forward. The live broadcast from New York will launch the campaign, which will culminate in the START FREEDOM week in March 2010.

Principal of Oasis Academy Enfield, John Walton said, “Slavery in the 21st Century – not many people would believe you, but people trafficking is a fact of our modern world. At Oasis Academy Enfield we have brought to the attention of our students the horrors and disgrace of slavery and their message is clear. STOP THE TRAFFIK. If we can help any other school or organisation in our area engage with this campaign we will be happy to do so.”

Kadisha James-Fergus and Kimisha Lynch from Year 9 at the Academy said “Our Academy has done everything it can to raise our awareness of people trafficking. Through our links with Oasis projects around the world and during trips and visits we have come to learn what an enormous problem it is. We have also realised how little other people know about the issue. We thought slavery was a thing of the past but it is even worse today than it used to be.”

United Nations special advisor on community action against trafficking, Steve Chalke, said, “It never ceases to amaze me how passionate some of our young people are when it comes to issues of conscience. Whilst the subject matter is extremely harrowing, it is great to know that the young people of the UK are motivating each other to get involved in this very serious matter, and looking together to make a difference to people’s lives.”