2014
UN Gift Boxes at the Commonwealth Games
More than Gold, an inter-denominational Christian organisation, in conjunction with Stop the Traffik placed the UN.Gift Boxes around Glasgow city centre to raise awareness of human trafficking and modern day slavery. Each box highlighted different forms of modern slavery: forced labour, domestic servitude, forced street crime and sexual exploitation.
At total of twenty six Soroptimists from all over Scotland took part staffing two separate boxes: thirteen ladies from Scotland North clubs.
Between the two UN Boxes – which were sited in Sauchiehall Street- we obtained over 500 signatures for Stop The Traffick ‘transparency in the supply chain’ petition which will be sent to the Scottish Government. This means we chatted with over 500 people about MDS in all it’s forms.
In central Glasgow we raised awareness of the work of Soroptimists and our activities have been well broadcast through social media…Twitter and Facebook.
Most of the participants have Stop the Traffick – T shirts, which will be great for campaigning in our own cities and towns around Anti-Slavery Day and Human Rights Days.
Michael Connarty MP was the key speaker at the Soroptimist International Regional meeting in the Queen’s Hotel, Dundee, on Saturday June 14th. He up-dated his audience of over 50 Soroptimists from across the North of Scotland on the progress of the Modern Slavery Bill which is currently being progressed through the House of Commons.
He told us that he had been concerned about the trafficking of people for many years prior to becoming the Vice-chair of the Parliamentary Group Human Trafficking. His particular concern is altering the law so that trafficked individuals who commit crimes under duress are treated as victims not criminals. He also spoke at length on the need for companies to trace all their products back through the production chain so that they can ensure that neither child nor forced labour has been used at any stage. Companies could be rewarded by an ethical ‘kite’ mark which would make good business sense.
As women who are concerned about the treatment and welfare of women, Soroptimists across the UK and World-wide are campaigning to raise awareness of Modern Day Slavery. You can find out more on the face-book page ‘wake-up world to modern day slavery’
