ARLINGTON, Texas — In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl on Feb. 6 in Arlington, Texas, at least two north Texas organizations are working to curb the demand for sex trafficking associated with such prominent events.
Traffick 911, a year-old organization in Fort Worth, and Love146, an international group with local support, are planning informational events at churches and theaters prior to Super Bowl week.
They are enlisting churches, home groups and Sunday School classes to volunteer for such things as prayer walking, a rescue awareness campaign and flier distribution in neighborhoods with sexually oriented businesses and other areas prone to prostitution.
Prostitutes will be in high demand for the 2011 Super Bowl, which inevitably means the trafficking of minors, said Deena Graves, founder of Traffick 911.
With estimates of between 100,000 to 300,000 American minors being trafficked for sex each year, the United States is one of the leading demand-and-supply countries for child prostitution, Graves said.
Traffick 911 has launched a nationwide “I’m Not Buying It” campaign leading up to the Super Bowl to raise awareness of the problem. The group has representatives serving on two workgroups associated with a task force commissioned by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to combat human trafficking in the state.
At a news conference in Arlington on Nov. 30, Abbott said the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking reported “tens of thousands of women and minors were trafficked in the Miami area during the last Super Bowl.” (TAB)
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