Street Art Brings Awareness to Child Trafficking Crisis

Using Art To Show The Truth Of Child Trafficking

Street Art For Mankind's latest installation uses detailed murals to draw attention to the over 20 million victims of child trafficking worldwide — and especially to the ones in your own backyard. A street walk through the installation was commissioned by the nonprofit to use art to tell real stories of victims of child trafficking. Survivors say that art can lead towards action on the issue.

“I was trafficked to New York when I was 12 years old. I was on my way home from a movie theater with my two friends from sixth grade. And we ran into these two boys that we knew from my middle school that basically brought me back to their place and got me really drunk. And. Brought. They brought down an older man, who told me that I wasn't going to go anywhere and that I now belong to him. From there, he locked me in a closet in an abandoned house and put me in prostitution from that point forward. I could read to you stats and facts all day and you might get bored. But one thing that murals and paintings and performances can do is really capture your attention somebody can bring their artistic sense or their guilty pleasure of art and do that while at the same time educating themselves about trafficking and spreading awareness about it.”

10% of all child trafficking victims are subjected to child prostitution according to Ark of Hope For Children. Survivors like Thompson believe recognizing the intersectionality of problems like child trafficking is the only way to stop it.

Brut.