Recently I got to talk with Natasha Bennett, president of the International Justice Mission chapter at WWU. She tells us what led her to fight for the end of human trafficking, about the upcoming Just(is)Love event on February 24th at 6:00 in Norway Hall, and about how we can get involved.

What made you choose to come to Western Washington University, and what do you study?

So I only applied to Western. I don’t really know what made me want to come here, but I didn’t apply anywhere else, and once I got accepted, I knew that it was the place for me to go. I’m in the Human Services major and will graduate in March.

And what are you hoping to do with your Human Services major?

I want to work in aftercare with victims of human trafficking. I also want to collaborate with communities globally on how there can be preventative and protective care for their own people from traffickers, if that makes sense.

You’re currently the president of the IJM club at Western, you are involved with local anti-trafficking organizations, and have organized several educational events about human trafficking, like Just(is)Love. What led you to be so passionate about this issue?

That’s a great question. So, long story short: when I was 18, it was my first year at Western, and I read an article about domestic minor sex trafficking in Whatcom county. I was just so shocked that it happened where I was going to school, with students who were near my campus. It broke my heart to a point where I was just sobbing on my bed. It was in that moment where I realized, If this broke my heart so badly, why wasn’t I doing anything about it?

And so whenever I had a project in class where I was given freedom to pick my own topic, I did research on human trafficking. And I looked out in the community to figure out what people were already doing and got in contact with them. It led me to a police officer in Bellingham who was an IJM investigator. He introduced the club to me, and I just kind of kept going from there.

What are two things you think Western students should know about human trafficking?

Wow, that’s a really good question. I’ll try to do two.

I would definitely say that human trafficking happens with a lot more manipulation and coercion than people expect. Basically, people with greed using their power to exploit vulnerable and poor people. That’s the reason it stays hidden, because we don’t talk about what it really is. And people try really hard to keep it behind closed doors.

On the same token, it’s really hard to think about it because it’s such a big and systemic issue — it seems like there’s nothing we can do about it. Students need to put hope into something and try to see the bigger picture that there are people out there that are hurting and nobody’s talking for them.

So, those are the two things: one is that there’s huge systemic power structure that bleeds into literally every system that we have. And two, because nobody’s talking about it, nobody’s caught for it. I mean there are some people talking about it, but there needs to be more.

The Just(is)Love event you are organizing is coming up on February 24. Tell us about it: what is Just(is)Love, and why should someone go?

So Just(is)love is an event that I created three years ago. I had realized that human trafficking existed, but I didn’t really know what it was. So I compiled a lot of information and stories and created 10 performance pieces that talked about 10 different types of trafficking from 10 different countries.

People should come to get a broader picture of human trafficking than they have. A lot of people know about child soldiering, or about sex trafficking, but who knows about domestic servitude or organ harvesting? You’ve heard about sweatshops, but you didn’t know that was considered human trafficking. The event is about giving people a better understanding of the exploitation that’s happening in this world, because unless you know something’s going on, there’s nothing you can do about it.

So what can someone expect when they come to the Just(is)Love event?

They can expect a performance. They can expect worship music because I believe that bringing hope back to God is one of the greater things we can do. There has to be hope in such a dark subject, and who better to bring hope than the God of Justice and the God of Love? So yeah, expect worship and performance and information about what is happening in Whatcom County and how to get involved.

One more question: back to Western specifically, what is something that students at this college can be doing differently to fight human trafficking?

I like the term “motivating students to action.” There are so many ways that things can happen, like getting involved with Rally for Freedom, where you make a five-minute phone call to a senator to say, “hey, I care about this [the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery],” so that we can fund organizations that are fighting human trafficking. Or you can donate to organizations, or you talk to your friends about it, or you can do research on your own, you can just straight-up get involved with an organization. It’s about finding different ways that students can even do a small thing to create a bigger change.

Thank you, that's really helpful. Anything else you’d like to share?

Yeah… for me, opening the door to human trafficking is facing one of the darkest parts of this world. It’s where humanity can go to its worst. So as people get involved, they shouldn’t forget about the joys and the little things that the world can offer. For me, that’s my faith and finding joy in having fun. There has to be a balance between speaking into something super dark and not letting that take away from how beautiful life can be.

Just(is)Love is on Saturday, February 24th at 6:00 in Norway Hall. Admission is free.