Thursday, April 17, 2008

Activist Practicum

I really enjoyed students' Activist Practicums which they shared with us in our class today. Everyone presented their own ideas which I find great. They all touched on very important and in the mean time interesting topics which our society faces nowadays. Problems like sexual assault, exploitation of children, physical health vs. appearance, and etc. are serious issues which influence not only mankind, but the whole world.

I was impressed by Caitie's presentation about children's sexual abuse. It was definitely disappointing for me to find out that so many children, especially in Atlanta, were victims of such exploitation. The statistics which she presented to us exceeded my worst expectations. I could not believe that even eight or ten-year-old girls were targeting and forcing to satisfy men's needs and this continues to develop. I was also surprised by the fact that this is happening even in America, because this is one of the countries or may be the only one with the flawless Law System. My expectations about the javelin delinquency were not justified. The sizes of children's pornography are insane and the Government should keep doing everything in the name of kids' care-free children hood. I really respect the support which different organizations give in order to remove children's exploitation. I think that if we want to overwhelm such problem, we have to establish more alliances like these.

2 comments:

cait said...

I'm glad my presentation left an impression on you! I was nervous about presenting today and it's good to know that I got a message across, so thanks for saying that :). One of the most important parts of this issue is merely awareness. Initially, all it takes is simple exposure and education to begin to make a change in the world. I didn't realize before that presenting is one of the biggest parts of our activist practicum projects. More than our individual experiences, we are learning things to relay to our classmates and more importantly to the friends, fellow students and people all around us on a daily basis in daily conversation. If no one even wants to talk about sexual exploitation or slavery, then obviously, the problem will not change at all. I'm glad we can all start these conversations with each other.
There are many steps that we must take to overwhelm a problem like this. But it is also important not to be overwhelmed by it ourselves. This is not one man or one group's burden. Instead it is everyone's world. And by each doing the small things that we are effective at, in good ways, we can all change how things are.

ADP said...

I really enjoyed your presentation too! I have learned a lot about human trafficking on a global level, but not so much on the local level. I am really glad you illustrated the harsh realities of human trafficking in the city of Atlanta. As residents of this city, we should be aware of the problems that are occurring. Most importantly, your presentation created this awareness among our class and now we can act on what we know. In addition, I'm happy to see Mayor Shirley Franklin addressing this issue with a specific campaign. This is a horrible problem and the city of Atlanta and its residents need to act in order to alleviate the problem.