Love Sticks Around

Our biggest event of the year, Love Sticks Around, is here. We can’t wait. See you there!

Click here to find out why we named this year’s theme Love Sticks Around.

A Dorm Special

Love Sticks Around, our second annual benefit concert and biggest event of the academic year, is in two days! The team has been working hard to produce a wonderful show for all of you. On Monday, we got the chance to publicize the concert in Haskell, where the RAs generously organized a hall snacks event where Love146 could talk about our work!

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

We prepared chocolate fondue,

displayed an interactive survey,

and continued our Childhood Memory Project! 

We had such a blast. Special thanks to the RAs for helping us organize this!

The Abolitionist Curriculum

Two weeks ago, the Love146 Tufts Chapter began its Abolitionist Curriculum. For one hour on Sunday nights, we go through  facts, read articles, watch videos and have discussions- all in an effort to fight ignorance and raise awareness on child sex trafficking. Our goal is for our Tufts Chapter to be educated, equipped and empowered for action!

Our first session! Glad to see lots of new faces 🙂

Last Sunday, we delved deeper into the topic of domestic trafficking and exploitation in the US. It was a topic that hit close to home, since most people usually only associate child sex trafficking with developing countries. It was shocking to find out that almost 300 000 US Children are at risk for trafficking into the sex industry (US State Department) and that the average age of a US trafficked child is 12-14 years old (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).

To better understand the causes and nature of the problem in the US, we watched the following videos, The Making of a Girl and Teen Prostitutes in the US:

Some points from our discussion:

The Girls: Many of them were tricked into exploitation because they thought the pimps were showing them the “love” that they lacked in their life. The pimps would first shower the girls with praise and attention, and then later simply make use of them to earn money. We realized how powerful psychological control can be- it is not so easy for the girls to just walk away from the exploitative situations when they have no where to turn to,  and when the only “real” relationship they have in their life is with the pimp.

The Pimps: Apart from psychological control, they also use violence to threaten the girls, as well as drugs to keep them addicted and unable to run away. We also noticed how technology is making it so easy for the pimps to advertise the services they have to offer, and how easy it is for customers to just do a search on the Internet to find a prostitute.

The Law: It may seem like trafficking should not be happening in a city where there there is law enforcement and a strong legal system, but that is usually not the case. Police officers don’t always see the girls as victims of exploitation but as criminals, prostitutes who are offering services out of their own free will. Sometimes, the girls, instead of the pimps, are arrested! We read an article on Massachusetts’s  new bill against human trafficking and were encouraged by how the law will now crack down on the pimps and johns instead of the exploited children, but were still surprised that the bill was only signed last year- and that there are still many states that don’t have such laws yet!

Although most of the things we learnt were depressing,  those who attended the session were encouraged to find out more about trafficking in their own hometowns and think about next steps to take. We ended the night more determined than ever to fight child sex trafficking.

If you are interested in learning together with us, join us at Eaton 204 on Sundays, 8pm, for the Abolitionist Curriculum!