October 12 was a hot sunny day and in the midst of the stress caused by midterms, something was different, something was happening. On a corner of the Green near the Steinert Campus Center on the Fresno Pacific University main campus there were booths and a couple of tables with signs. More than 70 staff, students, faculty and guests gathered. Students walked by and wondered what it was all about. All of a sudden, cyclists wearing gear and riding bikes across campus approached and were greeted with applause and lunch boxes. They had come from Hanford as part of a 210-mile ride from Taft and Bakersfield to Modesto October 2-23.
Why ride so many miles under the hot Californian sun? Not just to see the beauty of the landscape—they were biking to raise money and invite others to join the fight against human trafficking. They are doing this because, as one cyclist said, it “takes everyone working together to make a difference.”
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is the luring of young people, usually aged 12-14, into prostitution, agricultural work and domestic servitude. Speaking to the crowd, Jessica Pittman, the founder of Central Valley Justice Coalition, explained that this $150 billion industry is the fastest growing crime in the world, a world in which “the church needs to lead the way in fighting injustice,” she said. Pittman also shared that Fresno has one of the nation’s highest rates of concentrated poverty and is the stop station between the human trafficking centers of Orange County and the Bay Area. Pittman also highlighted that it is a myth that trafficking happens only on the streets—it is something that could happen anywhere and that affects everyone, not only women.
Debra Wood, the CEO of Breaking the Chains, shared her story of being a survivor forced into prostitution in the 1990s. “No one knows about this issue,” Wood said. She also explained how she became trafficker and realized that “traffickers are also victims.” Wood invites the community to stop the demand so the supply ceases to exist.
The speakers invited students to go to rideagainsttrafficking.org and to visit the booths and interact with the bikers.
Bringing the ride to FPU
An event like this takes a lot of planning and people. The organizations involved included the Central Valley Justice Coalition, the Fresno Economic Opportunity Commission’s Central Valley Against Human Trafficking, Centro La Familia Advocacy Service, Breaking the Chains, Holy Family Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.
The rest stop at FPU for the cyclists was possible thanks to Marshall Johnston, Ph.D., associate professor of history; senior social work major Jessica Uriostegui; and Donna Callahan, MSW, assistant professor of social work at FPU. Plans were for every Episcopal Church parish along the route to greet the cyclists and the organizers thought the university would be the best place to welcome them to Fresno. One cyclist, Michael Fagans, is making a documentary called The Trafficked Life, which will be released in December.
What can we do?
Wood invited everyone to respond through prayer, donations and attending other events. “We are still responsible for doing things that will welcome shalom,” Johnston said. “We need to find the balance between hope and doing something now. Our job is to be in the side of Christ.”
As Christians, we can be guilty of having misconceptions about people who suffer, Johnston said. It is easy to think that this happens but “not next to me, not in the U.S., not in my backyard,” or that “if people have difficulties it is because they deserve it,” he added. “All of us make bad choices, we are all sinners.” Our community is called to help and to value dignity, it is what a Christian community is supposed to be like, said Johnston, who mentioned FPU offers a course focused on human trafficking.
It is important for the community to know the clues to detecting trafficking. “How uncomfortable are you willing to be? It is easy to ignore what is in front of us,” said Uriostegui, who is focusing her senior project on the topic. She will present her findings on Undergraduate Research Day, when students present projects in a variety of disciplines.
This is how a typical day in the middle of October turned out. It was a day in which the FPU community supported a cause, and was challenged to take action towards an issue that matters. It was a day when an event shed light on a topic that is easy to ignore, but once the community hears about it, the next step is only to take action.