KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Volunteers are working to educate East Tennesseans about the reality of human trafficking by encouraging people to take action for those in society who fall between the cracks.
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, more than 22,000 cases of sex trafficking have been reported in the past ten years.
Over 100,000 new escort ads are posted online everyday and thousands are for children being sold for sex. Research shows 87% of sex trafficking victims are under the age of 25.
Activist groups across the world are working to stop this, including here in East Tennessee. The Red Sand Project is just one group that has volunteers in our area.
Wednesday night in North Knoxville, volunteers gave parents an interactive outlet to make their young kids aware of a problem facing every community in East Tennessee.
Dozens of people in Knoxville joined in the world wide Red Sand Project filling in cracks on the side walk with red sand to bring awareness to human trafficking.
To a bystander, the event looked like a bunch of people putting sand on the ground. It was, but for a good reason.
"Trafficking is an issue that lot of people like to pretend doesn't happen in our community and this is a great way we can raise awareness about this issue," said Kate Trudell, Executive Director of the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking.
Trudell said the first step to ending this problem is to acknowledge that it's happening.
"This event is a way to engage the broader community in a really easy activity and something that just brings us all together," she said.
A simple bag of red sand proved to be the perfect metaphor parents needed to teach their young children.
This is how Mark Howard explained what they were doing to his 7-year-old son:
"The sidewalk is where we all live and we're free to go everywhere we want. But these little cracks, if someone falls in that crack, they can't get out. There are people that want to keep others in those cracks," said Howard. "So teaching him that by kind of symbolically filling in the cracks with the sand, we can help those people kind of rise out and the be instrument to get them back on their feet."
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Knoxville mom Annabel Haynes brought her three young kids to learn more about trafficking after she learned about its prevalence in Tennessee last year.
"I just want them to know that they can make a difference, there's something they can do and hope to instill that responsibility in them," said Haynes.
Howard and Haynes hope the deeper meaning of playing in the sand sticks with their children as they grow.
If you think you've witnessed signs of human trafficking you can report it anonymously to the Tennessee Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-855-55-TNHTH.