Social Media for Social Change: We Fight On

Authors

Heather Soldonia, University of Southern CaliforniaFollow

Date of this Version

2011

Document Type

Article

Comments

Presentation for 2011 Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, September 29 - October 1, 2011, Lincoln, Nebraska. Copyright © 2011 Heather Soldonia.

Abstract

Anti-trafficking crusader Sunitha Krishnan once said “my biggest challenge is your blocks to accept these victims as your own.” That challenge is the inspiration for this online community. The purpose of redGNAT is to “Reverse Exploitation Daily through a Global Network Against Trafficking”. The purpose is to create an online community of NGOs, counseling providers, pro bono law services and other resources. This part of the online community will be a type of directory (i.e. Petfinder.com) and serve as a collective that increases in value as it increases in participants and content. Ideally, members will organically link together within their own niche specialties and gain strength by interacting and cross-pollinating campaign strategies. In another part of the online community each NGO will be able to nominate a survivor. Each day a survivor will be featured on the front page of the online community with a short video clip telling their story and expressing their primary “need” for reclaiming their life (i.e. securing a work visa, finding housing, getting a job, returning home, etc). Similar to Kiva.org, a survivor will be sponsored and/or connected to the most relevant resources for her next step forward through the latter mentioned collective and the independent members of redGNAT. redGNAT will not be ready for launching by the conference date but we hope to be in beta version. Ideally, the audience will be inspired by the new on-line approaches virtual communities present for on-the-ground approaches in an effort “to accept victims as your own.”