DAVENPORT, Iowa — January is known as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month and for Sara, it's important to talk about the crime that impacts nearly 27 million people worldwide.
"Human trafficking is the buying and selling of another human being using force, fraud or coercion, to control their victims into getting them to engage in commercial sex acts or labor services," Sara said. "I think that there was a time where it wasn't talked about enough but we are seeing more people become aware."
Sara is a survivor of human trafficking and wasn't aware that she was being trafficked until joining Braking Traffik. Since then, it's been her goal to share her story and spread awareness of the issue.
"It's so important to be able to have a place that they can come to and for the community to be aware and involved in. Then they can also direct those survivors where to go," Sara added. "A lot of times, human trafficking goes unreported due to either they're afraid to leave their situation, how are they going to survive on their own or they're afraid of their trafficker."
Sara says youth are often the most vulnerable to human trafficking due to their age, making it easier to persuade them. Sara provided some important red flags to look out for if a person might be being trafficked.
"Some warning signs could be like, being unusually fearful. They're afraid of law enforcement or speaking to law enforcement, not making eye contact, sometimes they may have another person that's always present with them," Sara said. "If they think that they see human trafficking or they come across someone that seems destroyed or is needing help, they can always just, you know, ask that person."
During this month, Sara hopes to see more people become aware of human trafficking.
Some bridges will be lit blue to share awareness such as the Davenport Sky Bridge (Jan. 7 to Jan. 14) and Muscatine's Norbert F. Beckery Bridge (Jan. 8 to Jan. 13). Some businesses will also be raising funds to support survivors such as QC Fuel, Old Towne Bakery and Coffee Apothecary.