SPRING VALLEY, Ill. — If you or someone you know is being trafficked, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. Click/tap here for more information.
Around the world, it's estimated that there are more than 40 million people being trafficked, according to the nonprofit Truckers Against Trafficking.
That's why the organization is partnering with Walmart Transportation on its Freedom Drivers Project.
The project, which stopped in Spring Valley on Tuesday, uses a mobile trailer as an exhibit to show the public and professional drivers the possible signs of human trafficking.
Watch the video introduction to the exhibit below.
"It has stories and artifacts from survivors of when they were forced into the prostitution life. It's very, very heart-wrenching, just gives people an idea of really what's happening out there," Truckers Against Trafficking System Administrator Susan Dold said. "Also it gives good ideas for what anyone can do, not just the trucking community, but any person and what they can do to fight human trafficking in their community."
Walmart truck driver Antoine Sadler has been driving shipments for 27 years.
"Over the years, I thought it was a personal choice that somebody made," Sadler said regarding prostitution on the road. "But after getting the training and learning about what Truckers Against Trafficking do, it was just something else I had to do."
Sadler is now on the nonprofit's board of directors — joining the Freedom Drivers Project to educate the public on human trafficking red flags to look out for.
"You can see people with different tattoos, or dog tags or just anything that you will see when you're out on the road because they can be anywhere," Sadler said. "[A] trafficker can be your next-door neighbor. It could be somebody right there shopping with you. And they blend in to the point where you don't know what's going on."
A list of signs to look out for can be found on the National Human Trafficking Hotline's website.
The Freedom Drivers Project's next stop will be at the 2022 Walcott Truckers Jamboree.
Watch more news, weather and sports on News 8's YouTube channel