The GIFT Box - Help Unwrap Human Trafficking In 2016

Source: London Olympics 2012 - UN

With each passing year, we see a growth in awareness of the plight of the less fortunate, particularly those suffering at the hands of human traffickers. We’ve written posts about the topic of slavery and Human Rights, but recently we came across the GIFT box project that is currently on view at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

Source: UN GIFT

The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking and STOP THE TRAFFIK worked together to create the GIFT box to raise awareness of the more than 21 million people forced into labor. The GIFT box project was launched during the London 2012 Olympics.

Since that time, STOP THE TRAFFIK partnered with other organizations and governments to build more GIFT boxes around the globe. To date, its journey has introduced over 55,000 people in approximately 100 locations across 6 countries to the issue of human trafficking.

At this time of year when gift giving is so much a part of the holiday spirit, it seemed fitting to write about it as we close out the year of 2015 to help this effort. The beautifully wrapped GIFT box on the outside reveals the horrors that plague the victims of human trafficking on the inside. The exterior promises a better life, an education, a good job, and a loving relationship, but the interior presents a very different reality.

Source: UN GIFT

Build human rights into the curricula at your school. The Youth for Human Rights website makes it easy to take any of the 30 principles all individuals are entitled to under The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and incorporate them into a learning environment. It offers teachers a wealth of resources that can be easily downloaded to use in the classroom. It also provides short video clips for each of the rights. If your school is has a 1:1 program, we encourage educators to use its free app with students.

Let’s make 2016 the year we all help to unwrap the dreadful truth about human trafficking.

For other resources, please see:

• Blue Heart Campaign To End Human Trafficking
• Teaching The "S" Word: Modern Slavery Resources
• Visualizing The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights
• Products Of Slavery: Teaching The Tough Lesson

Thanksgiving: Supermarkets And Fair Food

Source: Food Chains Trailer

With the Thanksgiving holiday less than a week away, many schools around the country enter into conversations with their students about being grateful for what they have, showing gratitude to others, and starting food drives for the less fortunate. The heightened awareness, while noble, should be an ongoing conversation about empathy year round, and not slotted into a month where we overindulge with too much food.

Source: Food Chain$

So this year, we chose to talk to our students about who supplies their food. We did not mean which grocery store. We posed the question: What does it mean "from farm to table"? Kids have mixed messages about farm life from rosy images in picture books, nostalgic views in commercials, or pumpkin picking during October in contrived environments for entertainment. We wanted them to know more about the people who supply fresh food to markets and manufacturers.

We showed our students the movie trailer for the new film Food Chain$, produced by Eva Longoria, that premieres around the country starting today. The full length film hopes to raise awareness about the human cost in supplying food and the plight of the farmworkers who endure the backbreaking labor to get it to us. While we may not be able to see the entire movie with our students, the trailer provides enough information for teachers to open up a discussion about the role of large supermarket chains in determining the price of food.



The power supermarkets have over revenue in the agricultural system is enormous. Supermarkets earn $4 trillion globally. Their drain on the revenue from the food supply chain has left farmworkers in poverty, while retaining huge profits for the corporations. Many farmworkers endure harsh work conditions, and in extreme cases, they have been held in debt bondage, or modern day slavery.

Many schools, including ours, participate in fundraisers for charities and causes, and we applaud all that educators and students do to help, but hopefully by raising awareness about fair food programs, we can collectively help break the chain. It's a fair trade for one of life's necessities.

For more information, please see: Food Chain$: The Revolution In America's Fields.

A Student's Voice For Change

As educators of middle school students, we continue to be inspired by their passion to have a voice in making a difference. This week one of our sixth-grade students did just that. Jack was touched by the motion graphic Sold and the video Youth For Human Rights – No Slavery that he watched on the class blog. He went home and on his own made a Tellagami to help raise awareness about modern slavery and the plight of children. We are pleased to present it here.


Our interdisciplinary unit on immigration just finished. It recounted the full story of immigrants who came to this country, including those who came by choice and others who came by chains. It just so happened to coincide with the United Nations International Day To Abolish Slavery on December 2.

Like so many, our students had no idea of the extent of modern day human trafficking. As a result of the exposure to this issue, many of our kids want to take this on as a mission to help. Learning about this problem transformed their thinking and their drive to do something about it. We could not ask for more as educators.

For more resources on modern slavery, click here.