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On the hunt for antiques

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From a troubled past to a bright future, Hudson’s Uravage found solace through hockey

<p>DALLAS TWP. &#8212; Sean Farry kicked the brick wall over.</p><p>&#8220;You didn&#8217;t work together!&#8221; he told the two Misericordia University students who had just toted 10 bricks across the room and stacked them in front of a cut-out image of Pope Francis (more in a moment). &#8220;You need to do this separately.&#8221;</p><p>After sophomore Paige Wampole rebuilt her half of the wall and was told shoddy work meant half-pay &#8212; a quarter instead 50-cents for the day &#8212; Farry, the campus minister, walked off to hire two more &#8220;children&#8221; as brick layers.</p><p>&#8220;That was rude!&#8221; Wampole opined. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t put up with that in the real world.&#8221;</p><p>Well, maybe not. But then, she&#8217;s a U.S. citizen attending a private college to obtain what will likely be a lucrative degree in nursing. For a short while Thursday, she was pretending to be a stranger in a strange land trapped in the trade of human trafficking.</p><p>Participation was voluntary, though Campus Ministry Director Christine Somers said most students could get extra class credit for participating &#8212; a lure that seemed to work as a steady stream of underclassmen sauntered in to the room.</p><p>Farry ran one of five stops the students had to visit. Four simulated different aspects of human trafficking, the fifth offered students ways to advocate against the problem. Each participant started by getting an index card with a brief description of a real victim&#8217;s descent into the equivalent of modern slavery. It could be as simple as travelling to see a sports event and finding your money and ID cards stolen, unable to return home. The other side of the card explained what happened to that victim.</p><p>Students then took turns visiting each station. At &#8220;domestic service,&#8221; they had to wash a window, iron clothes or fold laundry while Student Success Center Director Jessica Randall routinely disparaged there work</p><p>&#8220;You missed a spot,&#8221; she told one student, who insisted it was on the other side of the glass. &#8220;Then go do the other side. I want it clean!&#8221;</p><p>While Randall mock-criticized the poor laundry-folding habits of her domestic help, at one point she conceded &#8220;Do you know how to fold fitted sheets? I&#8217;m really hoping someone knows how so they can teach me.&#8221;</p><p>Several students, including Wampole, admitted even the ironing was alien to them. &#8220;I never ironed clothes,&#8221; she laughed.</p><p>Not so for senior nursing student Thomas Hircock, who not only has ironed clothes, but has visited places where he saw child labor pressed into working at brick factories and mica mines.</p><p>It turns out his father&#8217;s job involves checking for human rights violations in supply chains of large companies. &#8220;It&#8217;s very sad,&#8221; he said, adding that a critical part of any solution is education, both of those who buy products without knowing the slavery behind the source, and those who get trapped in human trafficking.</p><p>&#8220;We advocate for building schools&#8221; in countries where such practices occur, &#8220;Especially for girls,&#8221; who are more frequent victims. And because the people who need to attend the schools are often living in very remote villages, help includes providing transportation to a school. And, no, that doesn&#8217;t mean a big yellow bus.</p><p>&#8220;We supply bikes.&#8221;</p><p>Oh, and that cutout of Pope Francis? &#8220;It&#8217;s from the ministry office,&#8221; Somers explained, adding that it fit the lesson. &#8220;He has spoken out often against human trafficking.</p><p>Indeed, on cardboard Francis&#8217; right shoulder someone had taped a piece of paper with one of his quotes.</p><p>&#8220;Human trafficking is a crime against humanity.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Shelbi Jones washes a window at Misericordia University during a Human Trafficking simulation Thursday. In this case, she was sampling the trade in domestic servants. Other simulations included sweat shops and child labor. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL031618human-traffiking1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Shelbi Jones washes a window at Misericordia University during a Human Trafficking simulation Thursday. In this case, she was sampling the trade in domestic servants. Other simulations included sweat shops and child labor. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Window washing to brick laying to sex trade: A hint of human trafficking