SDSU-IV to screen ‘Sold’ movie
CALEXICO — The public is invited to attend a screening of the movie “Sold” and panel discussion about human trafficking at the San Diego State University-Imperial Valley campus on Wednesday.
The feature film depicts the story of a young sex trafficking victim who is taken from Nepal to India and who eventually escapes from the brothel where she had been enslaved.
Following the movie’s screening, a discussion will take place about human trafficking in general, as well as its impact in the Valley, said Monica Ketchum, a part-time SDSU-IV history lecturer.
Wednesday’s event is being presented by the campus’ Borderlands Institute, with assistance from the Imperial Valley Unity Coalition, which was created about two years ago to raise awareness about human trafficking.
“The border regions are particular to issues surrounding human trafficking and sex tourism,” said Ketchum, who is also a coalition member and fulltime history professor at Arizona Western College in Yuma.
In the Valley region, trafficking humans for labor is seen more often than trafficking related to the sex industry, Ketchum said.
Sex tourism often relies on the recruitment of young girls who are then prostituted to tourists who often seek out underage children, she said.
Human traffickers often will recruit girls as young as 13 to 14 years old for work in the sex tourism industry, Ketchum said, adding that the average age of girls entering prostitution is between 12 and 14 years of age.
The Unity Coalition started about two years ago with a grant from the Catholic Charities’ House of Hope and is now making preparations to host its second annual human trafficking summit, with the help of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, a San Diego-based alliance of dozens of agencies and nonprofits aiming to combat human trafficking.
The local coalition started with about five members but has since grown to include representatives from the county District Attorney’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations, Ketchum said.
“We really are charged with raising awareness and working on making sure we have services for victims of trafficking,” she said.
The coalition is also currently working on an outreach initiative that would educate parents and students about the techniques used by traffickers to recruit potential victims, Ketchum said.
The movie screening and subsequent panel discussion will start at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, at the SDSU-IV library, 720 Heber Ave., Calexico.