Students in the Global Problems class are going to be raising awareness about sex trafficking in Kansas on the Baldwin City campus next week.

This class, taught by Ryan Beasley, associate professor of international studies, is a way for students to examine the causes of global problems. Each year, students choose a global problem and do a demonstration that offers solutions to that problem. This year, the class decided to focus on sex trafficking.

“For me, that was one of the issues that I brought up, just because it’s something that, in the past few years, I’ve become really aware about, and it’s just a thing I really have a heart for,” junior Brooke Stock said.

Senior Will Duncan said since Wichita and Kansas City are two of the highest places of sex trafficking in the U.S., and it’s important to cover this topic.

“Most people, I think when they think of sex trafficking, would not think of Kansas being one of the top states for trafficked women, but it is,” Duncan said. “So, we felt that it was a topic that people would not associate with our area, when it is, in fact, a large problem in our area.”

In order to raise awareness about sex trafficking, the class, along with the World Information and Response Effort group, WIRE for short, will be hosting two events next week. On Tuesday, students will be able to attend an awareness demonstration in the Clarice L. Osborne Memorial Chapel, where they see how people become trafficked victims and what is associated with being trafficked.

The students also will be hosting a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Rice Auditorium. Kristy Childs, founder of Veronica’s Voice, an organization that helps victims of sex trafficking, will speak about what takes place for a trafficked victim, and being personally trafficked herself. Four musical groups and the Baker University Speech Choir also will perform.

Instead of asking for money, students are asked to bring toiletries, such as soap, toilet paper and toothpaste, that will be donated.

Even though sex trafficking happens globally, the point of these events will be to show that it’s a local problem, too.

“(Sex trafficking is) kind of a global problem that happens in lots and lots of places, that it’s possible to address in a local way, to have people feel like they can make an impact,” Beasley said. “Sometimes, global problems feel like they’re just insurmountable … people feel like they don’t have the ability to have an impact … I think it’s something that probably most students, and most faculty and staff on campus, aren’t even really aware of is going on so close by.”