Our November meeting was held at The Village Hotel when we welcomed guest speakers from the Yorkshire Soroptimists Anti Slavery Sub Group. Val Jenkins and Elizabeth Hughes gave a very interesting and informative talk on the work of the Anti-Slavery Sub Group. They told us about The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) and the ‘Blue Blindfold’ campaign, whose slogan is “Open your eyes to human trafficking – its happening here’. Also how the Sub Group had produced literature, including cards and bookmarks to hand out to young women. The bookmarks very cleverly list good and bad points in relationships. The Sub Group have also put together ‘comfort bags’ containing toiletries, clothing and female essentials to give out to victims of assault.
We were pleased to see several members from the Beverley Club who are also members of the Anti-Slavery Sub Group. Jenny Heptonstall told us about the plans of the Beverley Group to set up a stall in the Princes Quay Shopping Centre in Hull on the following Saturday. The Anti Slavery Sub Group were setting up stalls in various shopping centres in our region on the same day to raise awareness of trafficking and domestic violence, to give out the bookmarks and other information on the ‘Blue Blind Fold’ campaign and on Soroptimisum.
If you would like more information on Human Trafficking and the Blue Blind Fold campaign visit the following websites:
http://www.blueblindfold.co.uk/ & http://www.soca.gov.uk/about-soca/about-the-ukhtc