The UN Gift Box at New York City’s Union Square: Raising Awareness to Stop Human Trafficking
February 4, 2014
The UN Gift box, spearheaded by the UN NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons (of which MIA at the UN is a member) ended its first US-based advocacy campaign 2 February in New York City.
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| The Gift Box |
For two weeks, as visitors flocked to the City in the days prior to the Super Bowl, a larger than life Gift Box was displayed in lower Manhattan to raise awareness about human trafficking. One hundred fifty volunteers participated and, despite the biting cold weather, successfully received over 2,000 signatures for the petition to stop trafficking.
The Gift Box sat on the corner of 17th Street and Broadway in Union Square. People walking by were entranced and curious about what might be inside the huge box decorated as a gift. But once inside, they encounter stories and photos of women who have been trafficked in the U.S. Volunteers standing by distributed information about trafficking, including the number of the national trafficking hotline and a small card describing how people can recognize the signs of human trafficking.
Passersby were overall curious about the box and supportive of our efforts, taking interest in the information provided them, and moved by the stories in the box of women sex trafficked across the U.S.
The Gift Box is an innovative project created by Stop the Traffick and the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), originally launched during the 2012 London Olympics. GIFT boxes are walk-in pieces of public art that people encounter at street level and invite people inside with promises: “Earn more money and support your family.”
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| Devin Tellatin MGA UN Intern volunteering at the Gift Box |
Once inside visitors are exposed to a very different reality - human trafficking. The project is currently showing in Brazil, Slovakia and the United Kingdom and has the potential to be displayed in other countries around the world.
I was a Mercy volunteer at the Gift Box. Volunteering for this project was both rewarding and informative. Before the Gift Box opened in mid-January, all volunteers received five hours of training at USFund UNICEF where we became “mini experts” on the topic. We learned that more than 27 million people are trafficked worldwide and many of these victims are psychologically tricked into the hands of traffickers with promises of a better life, decent paying job, or love.
Gift boxes are often full of surprises and this one was no exception in raising awareness of the tragic and worldwide exploitation and subjugation of human beings.
Messages to: Devin Tellatin - MGA Intern at the UN
