Freedom Week, Ecclesia's Push to End Modern Slavery

By Jacob Bobst

 Just about every Montevallo student knows about Freedom Week, Ecclesia's push to end modern slavery. Every year, they fill the school with wooden cut out slaves, to remind us that slavery is still a thing that not only exists, but happens right under our noses. Every years, faculty and students are locked away in cages, and only cold hard donations will allow them to bust out...or keep them in even longer.

A Freedom Week design

A grim reminder that slavery still exists

Freedom Week began three years ago with Montevallo's religious student organization, Ecclesia, when they went to a convention in Atlanta and discovered that the Birmingham area is one of the top hot spots for the modern slave trade in the country. Since then, they've worked with She Dances and Freeset, organizations dedicated to ending slavery in the modern era. She Dances is a local organization that runs a safe house in Honduras, and Freeset is a company that works to free women in Kolkata from the sex trade by employing them.                       There were several Freedom Week events, including a viewing of the documentary Passion Freedom Film, and Freedom Night, where representatives from She Dances and Freeset talked about slavery, and Montevallo alumnus and even played music for them.

Freedom week is looking to stay a normal part of the Montevallo year, and to help us help make the world a better place.