It started with a book and led to a University of Georgia freshman creating a nonprofit organization to end human trafficking.
“When I was in middle school, I picked up a book about sex trafficking,” said Isabelle Tudor Schwartz, a 2020 graduate of John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, who founded Traffick Talk, a non-profit that uses education as a way of fighting sex trafficking. “I didn’t know what it was.”
Written by Patricia McCormick, the book “Sold” is a National Book Award finalist and focuses on a 13-year-old girl sold into sex slavery in Nepal.
The book shook Schwartz as she was confronted with the unthinkable, but what bothered her even more was that sex trafficking was a subject people didn’t want to address or think of.
“I started talking about this with my family. I needed someone to have conversations with,” she said.
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At first, she thought people didn’t talk about it because they didn’t know about it, but she quickly realized people didn’t talk about it because it was uncomfortable to them. Also, many still have a misconception that it only happens in other places not in Augusta.
She learned more after her mother, Martha Anne Tudor, introduced her to one of her professors at Augusta University where Tudor was working on her master’s degree. The professor, who also had an interest in fighting human trafficking, gave Schwartz information and connected her with resources.
Schwartz started speaking out about sex-trafficking while still in high school.
She gave talks to a variety of groups including those in schools and churches. She tailors a presentation appropriate to the group she’s addressing.
“I talk about what sex trafficking is,” she said. “I talk about social media and ways to stay safe.”
While COVID-19 has curtailed much of her in-person work, the international affairs major said she hasn’t lost her vision. She recently started an Instagram profile @TraffickTalk, and one of her major goals is to get sex trafficking education into schools. At the Instagram page, there’s a survey about sex-trafficking and schools.
Schwartz wants to find out the extent of sex trafficking education in schools nationwide. As a recent graduate, she said she had no formal education about it. Much of what she learned was on her own.
“I realize that so much is doable,” she said. “I’d like to see all 50 states require sex trafficking education in schools.” Schwartz said she knows hers is an ambitious goal, but she believes it’s important and doesn’t see it as an impossible one.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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