Don't Miss an Opportunity to Learn How YOU Can Help STOP Modern Day Human Slavery!

 (ORANGE COUNTY, CA) On Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 8:00 a.m. at Chapman University’s Kennedy Hall Room 237 A, Mark Taylor, senior coordinator for the US Department of State’s Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking will kick-off a day-long human trafficking conference co-organized by a coalition of organizations, including the Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Trafficking (VietACT) Viet Nam Human Rights Network, the Vietnamese Voters Association based in Virginia and co-sponsored by Chapman University and the American Association of University Women.

Through media stories, the problems of sex slavery and human trafficking of Vietnamese nationals to places like Cambodia have been exposed to the general public, but organizers of the 2nd Annual Anti-Human Trafficking Conference note it is also happening in California. And with more Vietnamese people living in Orange County than any other place outside of Vietnam, Vietnamese leaders in Orange County, California see the need to take an active role in ensuring that the trafficking of Vietnamese people to the US and abroad is eradicated. 

Organizers hope to increase awareness and rescue of trafficking victims through the conference symposiums, which are free and open to the public.  “We can’t do enough of this education—human trafficking of Vietnamese and other ethnic populations is a huge problem,” said Van Le, Program Manager for VietACT.  “Everybody benefits from conferences like this whether you’re a human rights leader, media person, law enforcement officer, student, or community leader, you will take away new information that will help save lives,” she continued.  Each symposium will collect community input on action steps to take next in the battle against trafficking in persons in California and in Vietnam.