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Growing out of a study of slavery and the abolition of international
sales of human beings 200 years ago, students at Fort Lauderdale Prep
launched an intensive study of human trafficking which is still going on
in the world. According to State department estimates, 600,00 to
800,000 people are trafficked across national borders each year.
These
students first attended a special showing of the movie, “Amazing
Grace” which told the story about human bondage and one man’s twenty
year effort to end it and was the inspiration for the well-known hymn.
This was followed by intensive research on the subject, the beginnings
of a fund raising drive to aid in ending this ugly practice, the
development of a
10’ by 15’ mural (click to view), and an assembly featuring notables
from agencies concerned about the problem.
Lauding the class’ accomplishments, articles and photographs of our FLPS
students with their projects were published in the
Sun-Sentinel
(click to view).
An additional accolade came with an insert into the
110th Congressional
Record (click to view) by Congressman Ron Klein, from Florida. Praising the efforts of
these FLPS students, Klein commended these students “on their efforts
to raise awareness on this issue and their passion and motivation are
worthy of emulation.”
Also,
the United States State Department and the U.S. Department of Education
have become interested in this project, planning to forward pictures of the
mural to other agencies and countries all over the world. Secretary of
State Condoleza Rice was told about our project and said “Fort
Lauderdale Preparatory School is a Star School.”
The
work of this class and the end result of this study is a wonderful
example of what education is all about.
In
order to continue to raise awareness of this critical issue and to
further the schools fund raising initiative, the school has designed a
commemorative
T-shirt (click to view) that will be
offered for sale (click
to purchase) through the school
website.
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