Bracelets Send Message about Sex Trafficking

In an interesting editorial, one writer talks about the rubber wristband phenomenon to raise awareness. Despite how many bracelets are out there, he says, wristbands are still sending powerful messages and continue to spread the word. This report comes from The Daily Princetonian : “When I came across Princeton Against Sex Trafficking selling red bracelets in the Frist Campus Center, I couldn’t help but think the campaign was outdated. LIVESTRONG has sold over 80 million wristbands on behalf of cancer awareness since 2004, but after hundreds of spinoffs of every slogan and color, it seems we are only raising awareness of our own social consciousness. My silicone wristbands quickly piled up, eventually packed away in a drawer somewhere next to my sister’s old scrunchies. But PAST and the bracelets they sell are different. Rafael Grillo ’14 started PAST last April with the mission of educating Princeton students about sex trafficking and getting students engaged with nongovernmental orginizations and other charities working on the issue. The bracelet sale is the group’s first campaign, which will be followed by a screening of the documentary “Very Young Girls.” Additionally, a presentation by the director of Apne Aap, one of the main U.S.-based organizations fighting sex trafficking, will be held next week. My red bracelet traveled a long way before Grillo tied the strings around my wrist. The bracelets are handmade by Nepalese women and girls at a safe house near the Indian border. The safe house is a temporary home for girls either rescued from sex traffickers or girls who have nowhere else to turn. The bracelets are distributed in the United States by the Red Threads Movement, a student-run charity affiliated with Eternal Threads, a Texas-based non-profit that supports impoverished women throughout the world by selling their products in the United States. Eternal Threads buys each bracelet for 66 cents; after transportation and yarn costs, the girls make 50 cents in profit, well above the minimum wage in Nepal. (All of Eternal Threads’ products are “Fair Trade” certified). The bracelets are then sold in the United States for $3; profits made in the United States go directly to the funding of the safe house and anti-trafficking border units.” What kinds of messages would you send if you were to create a rubber wristband campaign?