(UnitedVoice.com) – There are more than 27 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. Many of those victims are trafficked through regular travel routes. A moving company is trying to make a difference and save people.
Good Greek Moving and Storage has more than 600 employees and moves people all over the country. That puts the company in a unique position to possibly identify human traffickers. For that reason, it partnered with Place of Hope, an anti-trafficking organization, to train its employees to be first responders.
Place of Hope’s experts are teaching the moving company’s 600 employees how to recognize human trafficking victims and their perpetrators through their Superhero Movers Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Founder Spero Georgedakis spoke to reporters about his efforts to stop the horrible crime, explaining that his employees are “at truck stops and rest areas,” as well as other places where victims are often trafficked from. He said he wants his employees to keep their eyes out and “identify these situation[s] where [they] can call 911 or the authorities that help in that area.”
Aneudy Vargas, one of the company’s employees, was part of the first group trained by Place of Hope. They said that they often think about the question of how they would feel if it were their child who was being trafficked.
“That’s something I can’t even answer, I can’t imagine,” Vargas said.
Jamie Bond Ciancio is one of the experts who works with Place of Hope. They applauded the effort by the moving company because it only takes one person to recognize “something that looks wrong and [call] for help” to save a victim’s life.
Ciancio talked about one of the survivors Place of Hope worked with. They were only 11 years old when they were first trafficked, and their trafficker had control of them until they were 26. Ciancio said that the “girl could have been saved from years and years and years of trauma” if someone had noticed and said something.
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