What’s Your Response? is a local movement dedicated to addressing modern day slavery that has gotten some local press recently. Kester Smith, pastor of Immanuel Austin, shares more of their story:
There are tragedies that we stumble across on television, in magazines, online, and in the paper that we are able to process, despite how horrific they might be –- Hurricanes. Floods. Fires. Even the injustices that we ourselves perpetuate; things like war and poverty, we have somehow gotten used to.
But some tragedies seem to come out of nowhere and blindside us. That was how a group of us felt when we discovered that there are 27 million people in slavery in the world today. That those slaves aren’t just living in places whose names we can’t pronounce, but right here in the United States. Right here in Texas. Right here in Austin. It was a fact so shocking that we found ourselves initially paralyzed. It was a fact so shocking that those we told about it hesitated to believe it. It was a fact so shocking that we set out to discover what we could do. What might our response be?
As we engaged in conversation with those who know the issue and have history fighting this injustice, we decided that our first response would simply be to spread the word and raise awareness. We knew that people wouldn’t be willing to fight the problem until they began to realize the gravity of the problem. We formed a group called What’s Your Response? and began brainstorming possibilities for bringing attention to the issue of modern day slavery. And so, on August 8, What’s Your Response? took to the streets for our first “coaster crawl” to bring awareness to the issue of human trafficking in Austin. A turnout of nearly 50 individuals gathered at BookPeople bookstore, organized into groups, and went around town distributing free stacks of campaign coasters to various bars, coffee shops, and restaurants. In just a few weeks we have seen that the word is spreading and that people are wanting to know more about what they can do to end slavery.
The fact is that each person who becomes aware of the reality of modern-day slavery brings us all one step closer to helping prevent the horrors of it. And even though this first initiative may have been a crawl, it really was a big step in increasing slavery awareness in Austin.
What’s Your Response? is a grass roots movement and so every person and every response gets us one step closer to ending slavery. We need your ideas, your energy, and your time. We believe all people deserve freedom, dignity, and hope. We are committed to ending modern day slavery. We invite you to respond.