Fort Dodge Senior High’s Teens Against Human Trafficking club participated in the Red Sand Project. Red sand was poured into the cracks of the sidewalks and parking lot at FDSH to highlight the victims of human trafficking who fall through the cracks of our system.

“We poured red sand into the cracks to make them stand out,” said Ona Roe, TAHT art committee member. “We also chalked facts like ‘thirteen is a common age of entry into sex trafficking in the US’ and ’20-27 million people are trapped in slavery today’ on the sidewalks to draw attention to the issue.”

Roe said the club wants students to understand what human trafficking is and how to increase awareness about the issue.

“TAHT works to educate people about human trafficking,” Roe said. “Since anyone can be trafficked and anyone can be a trafficker, students need to be aware and recognize it.”

She continued by saying, “Human trafficking is everyone’s issue. It doesn’t discriminate by age, gender, race or class. We want our classmates to understand the issue does affect them. Our generation is going to solve a lot of problems in our lifetime, but we must work together to do it. We can fight harder with larger numbers.”

Throughout the day, Senior High students were seen taking pictures of the red sand, facts and statistics. They helped spread the word by tweeting, retweeting and using the hashtags #redsandproject and #fdtaht.

TAHT club sponsor Emily Whitehead said she is proud of the students’ efforts to bring awareness to this important issue.

“Their work brings a conversation to the school, the community and the nation about who are victims of human trafficking and what work can be done to increase awareness of the problem so we can work to end it.”