Bringing Hope to the Voiceless
By Meahgan Pear nonfiction
There he was; a sophomore in college, who, on a mission to complete his general education requirements, signed up on a whim for a Women’ s Studies course. What he didn’ t expect was for it to change the course of his life, and start him out on a journey he would never forget.
Now, a senior at the University of Michigan, Luke Hassevoort is a lot like other 22 year-olds his age. He’ s your typical college student who enjoys spending time with friends, and loves to watch and play sports( a football and softball fan at heart). But, there is one thing that sets him apart.
He’ s dedicated his young life to working toward a just society.
It was back in that Women’ s Studies class that Luke first realized what it was that he was passionate about. He always had a kind heart, and valued helping others, but it was in that class where he was first exposed to the horrors of human trafficking.
“ I had learned about human trafficking in my Women’ s Studies class, and when I came home after that semester I talked with a friend of mine whose youth pastor was working on a project related to this very issue,” explains Luke.“ He was looking at the connections between pornography and the demand for human trafficking, and the way pornography potentially shapes our views of sex and sexuality in harmful ways.”
Through talking with his friend’ s pastor, Luke quickly became involved with this new project and organization called Hope for the Voiceless( HFTV).“ Hope for the Voiceless is just a group of people who are passionate about anti-human trafficking, and we felt we needed to respond in some way.”
And that way, recalls Luke, was addressing the issue of demand.
“ We had the skills and abilities to address that conversation. We’ re not social workers or therapists, but we knew we could be advocates.” Through HFTV, Luke and the others have devoted their time talking with people from all walks of life about the root causes of human trafficking. Things like strip clubs; pornography; objectification of women in media, advertising and reality TV; escort services; and even things like spring break wet t-shirt contests.
“ We’ re living in a culture that, sadly, embraces the objectification of women, especially in the media,” explains Luke.“ Sexualization( a form of objectification where a person’ s worth and identity is reduced to their sexual being and physical bodies) in advertising, pornography – it’ s all a fabric of exploitation. And it creates this natural progression to human trafficking.”
It’ s this natural progression, and increasing demand, that HFTV is committed to stopping. They’ re focusing on exposing these root issues that condition people to exploit others on many different levels.
“ As a county, it’ s getting more and more progressive. We’ re dehumanizing women. There’ s no one answer to changing this,” says Luke.“ Legislatively things need to be changed. Punishment for trafficking needs to be stronger, the prosecution of Johns needs to be enforced, and emphasis needs to be placed on providing support for survivors of human trafficking.”
And that’ s exactly where HFTV hopes to bring in change. Luke, and the others at HFTV have dedicated their summer to traveling across the country creating a documentary showcasing how people can get caught up in these dangerous behaviors that lead to human trafficking.
“ We were thinking about what we could do to reach the largest audience, and realized documentary films are a great way to do this,” says Luke.“ Through this film, we hope to show how someone can go from Point A( being a husband, father, mother, etc.) to someone who is buying sex.”
The documentary will focus on personal interviews of current convicted sex offenders and men / women who have been arrested for soliciting sex.
“ We want to pick apart this process and see what things are influencing them and what we can do to address these demands.”
The documentary is a multi-year commitment, but HFTV knows that it could really help bring this topic of demand to the forefront of the overall issue of human trafficking.
“ These were things that I never thought were connected to human trafficking. For us to be able to show all these things, that as a culture we actively engage in and could have grave consequences, is essential.”
HFTV and Luke have already set out on their journey to document these stories, and are grateful to be able to share their experiences with the world. But, they know that it will take more than just their efforts to really make a difference.
“ Think about your passions and what you’ re good at,” encourages Luke.“ Trafficking is so interconnected with other issues – homelessness, poverty, crime – we all need to work together to stop this, and together we can make a difference.” And Luke has set a great example of this.“ As a man, I feel a bit culpable in a lot of ways, and I feel like working with HFTV is a lot like redemption,” explains Luke.“ Hearing stories about girls who’ ve come out of human trafficking and to see them come out of that and have that redemption is really powerful. This is a really big problem to tackle – but there’ s a lot of victories along the way.”
2