March Meeting Recap

Freedom Weekend was a great weekend of community awareness and fundraising! A huge thank you to Susan Oliver and everyone who participated, organized, planned, or donated items for this weekend.

On May 7, 2011, U-ACT will be raising awareness in various locations around downtown Indianapolis to educate and raise funds for TraffickJam 2011, a benefit to support Hard Places Community in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Please respond to this email if you are willing to help at TraffickJam on May 7! 

Love146 maintains a safe shelter in the Philippines for trafficked girls. Last fall, a small group of brave bike riders made the trek from Indy to NYC to raise awareness and funds for Love146. This year, the ride will be more localized…the bikers will be riding from Indianapolis, IN to Toledo, OH. In preparation for this year’s bike ride, the Love146 team will be hosting three events. If anyone is interested in participating in or planning these events, please contact Kaylin Linnemann at k.linnemann7@gmail.com.

The first Superbowl planning meeting has been scheduled for this month, so please watch for new and exciting opportunities in the near future! We will need your time and talents to make next year’s Indianapolis Superbowl a safe and slavery-free event!

We would like to extend a big thank you to LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) representative Wyatt Walker for attending and speaking at this month’s meeting. Wyatt showed a film called “Hiding,” which provides a brief background on LiNK’s work with North Korean refugees. Currently, the living and social conditions in North Korea are so deplorable that North Koreans are desperate to leave. This is not an easy feat. When leaving North Korea, citizens have two options: try to reach safety in South Korea by crossing the very dangerous DMZ, where snipers, guards, electric fences, and hidden land mines lay in wait, or travel through icy waters to China, where North Koreans are ignored, forced into hiding, or trafficked. 70-90% of all women and girls escaping North Korea thru China are sold into the Chinese sex industry, some for as little as $15. LiNK works on the ground in China and throughout Southeast Asia to help guide North Korean refugees escape lives of oppression and begin new lives in Southeast Asia, the U.S., or South Korea. To learn more about or donate to LiNK, visit www.linkglobal.org. If you would like to volunteer with LiNK within the U.S., contact Kira Wheeler at kira@linkglobal.org.