No More, No More
As like as any other student here,
the first problem we faced before walking inside "No More, No More,"
A Human Trafficking Program at UCSD, we struggled with parking. POOR describes
the whole situation. Anyway, we walked down to the venue, Atkinson Hall Auditorium. The setup was simple, homie, and beautiful.
The staff/volunteers were nice, funny, and respectful.
We entered the hall thirty minutes late, obviously. Almost fully
packed, we were fortunate enough to sit at the upper-middle seats. Pradeep K.
Khosla had just finished speaking, UC San Diego Chancellor, and Carrie Hessler
Radelet, President & CEO of Project Concern International (PCI) started
talking. He descried the project thoroughly, including surprising stories and
interesting numbers worth mentioning.
Women being abused, children being tortured. Radelet witnessed too many
horrifying scenarios, were a woman, a child, or a worker is used in one way or
another to do something against their will. Furthermore, he mentioned that 70%
of Mexican workers, here in San Diego, were facing some form of discrimination.
Following that, a conversation between a variety of intellectuals, in
academia, law enforcement, and entertainment were introduced. They touched on a
few of long-standing issues. They discussed social inequalities and how
communication could be the heart of the problem. Then, Ramesh Rao, the Director
of Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego, emphasized on the importance of
volunteering. Also, he complemented the students for remaining human in such an
advanced society.
Finally, more than half of UCSD students volunteer their time to put The Other before themselves, according
to Suresh Subramani, the Global Director of Tata Institute for Genetics and
Society.
Personally, some of the stories deeply touched me. All of the numbers alarmed
me.
I'm very optimistic.
Yet, I think we're just warming up for the first mile.
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