Montevallo To End Modern-Day Slavery

by Max Greene

Students and professors locked inside a cage? If you were to walk in front the University of Montevallo's cafeteria, that's just what you would find, each one of them begging for donations to be let out. But talk to any one of them, and they would all have a light heart about it.

Freedom Week is a week dedicated to help end modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Running out of the Ecclesia ministry of the Church at Shelby Crossings, students and faculty alike are asking for donations not only to bail them out, but also to help charities like She Dances and International Justice Mission bring about the end of sexual and labor slavery and trafficking.

"We are trying to end modern-day slavery, in which 27 million people are currently enslaved throughout the world, both in the U.S. and abroad," says Abby Betts a Freedom Week volunteer. "That's just too high of a number for us to live with, and we're trying to bring an end to that as swiftly as possible."

Freedom Week, the mission to help end modern-day slavery.

While trafficking and slavery are a big problems around such countries as India, Greece, and Russia, Betts says that it is a problem even within our borders. "The Superbowl is one of the highest peaks of sex-trafficking in the U.S. per year, which is terrifying. And you don’t really think that should go hand-in-hand. But I suppose it’s the large crowds, and just chaos, and large amounts of drinking. I guess women will be most susceptible to being abducted, and it’s just really sad."

The community of Montevallo are coming together for the cause however. Though seeing a professor locked up in a cage may just be an added bonus.

"So far I've had more students paying to keep me in than get me out," says Dr. Kevin Hope, university physics professor. "But I have to admit, I sort of go that way and try to get them to pay to keep me in anyway. I think I have more success that way."