IWU Students Take Stand on Trafficking

Stephen Cady, son of General Publisher Don Cady, and Mike Kaiser are among hundreds of Wesleyan higher education students who have joined the effort to end human trafficking. A study trip in 2009 to Kolkata (Calcutta), India, gave them first-hand knowledge of the worldwide problem.

Stephen, a 2009 Indiana Wesleyan University graduate, tells his story.

Mike and I flew 8,000 miles during Spring Break 2009 to see the work of Freeset and Sari Bari, businesses in Kolkata, India, that are helping women forced into prostitution by trafficking or poverty find dignifying employment and establish them within restorative communities. It was Saturday when we first arrived at Freeset to meet our host and get an idea of how to navigate the city. The four-story building was dim and quiet, unlike the outside streets whose bustle and energy carried in through the open windows. Still, over hot chai, our conversation was easy, slow, and uninterrupted.

Over the weekend we stepped into the bustle and toured the city. As we found our way to the tourist places of Kolkata—the Ganges River, former palaces of the British Raj, Mother Teresa’s tomb—our senses fell siege to the rich smells, vibrant contrasts of color, warm Indian culture, and overwhelming poverty.  The scents tickled and warmed the insides of my nose as we watched men, women, and children sit and walk on the streets, shop at bazaars, and scavenge through trash. We guarded our passports and wallets on bus and subway rides crammed person-to-person with thousands of people going their own way, and we passed beggars on almost every corner.

I struggled with the seeming arbitrariness of good and evil on the streets, of struggle and fortune in Kolkata, and globally. I wrote in my journal, discouraged: “Hope in the work of Christ being effective to change this world feels silly. It is the hope that has led many to doubt [their faith] when faced with the reality of suffering and the power of evil in this world. But I pray that I would never lose the hope.”

The contrast could not have been much greater as we approached Freeset on Monday— from the street you could hear joyous laughter of women and two floors of sewing machines tapping away. As we toured the facilities again, we were showered with loud “namastes” to exchange greeting at each room. The top floor was lively with finishing and packaging, and on the mezzanine above, women were screen printing bags and t-shirts. The “business of freedom,” as they call their work, is exciting and fast paced but joyful and beautiful.

Inside those walls I saw glimpses of unspeakable joy and, outside, suffering that was also real, and maybe larger. I repeatedly asked Mike who, among other things, is a talented writer, “How will we tell this story when we get back?”

It took me a while, but this is the story I have to tell: that freedom is real, that there is hope and restoration, that I’ve seen it, and that it exists for you, too.

There is a mission and it needs bodies; it needs people, anybody, you.  Personally,

I have taken action by joining an organization called Bound For Freedom. Our cause is to help victims of trafficking, and we contribute to the fight against trafficking by banding together groups of students against trafficking. Students are creative, and students are consumers. So in studios, we channel talents in art and design, writing, and business into the creation and sale of bags, journals, and jewelry. By sourcing these products through partners, like Freeset or Sari Bari, who are already helping sex workers claim freedom, we are empowering the organizations to expand their mission. By retailing them on college campuses in bookstores and coffee shops, we are spreading the message of freedom to mass audiences.

Bound For Freedom strongly believes in the words of Isaiah, repeated by Jesus in Luke, that we are here to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim liberty to the captives. We believe that the captives will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. We yearn to see them build up the ancient ruins, repair the ruined cities and devastations of many generations.

We believe that as we participate in God’s heart for justice, we participate in his holiness. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.