DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — An organization with a mission of lowering the concern of human trafficking held an event on Saturday.
A group called “Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution”, better known as “SOAP” is helping provide resources to hotels in an effort at combatting human trafficking.
The Dayton Chapter of SOAP held an informative educational session in helping the community learn what human trafficking is and hearing stories from survivors of those that have experienced trafficking. The initiative is focused towards victims of trafficking in hotels and the group is on a mission to help those needing help out of a dangerous and difficult situation.
Zola Howard is the Co-Chair of the Dayton SOAP Chapter and says the group will be traveling to different hotels in the Dayton area to drop off supplies.
“We’ll definitely be going to the hotels downtown; the Fairfield Inn and Suites, the Marriott,” Howard said. “We’ll be going to all of the hotels south of Dayton near the Dayton Mall, the hotels going north of town towards Huber Heights, Englewood.”
The organization will be delivering bars of soap and makeup wipes, which will have the telephone number for the National Human Trafficking phone number on it. The bars of soap and wipes are said to help in the effort to increase the survivor growth and help those get out of the trafficking situation and bring them to safety.
Howard says it is important to help those that need it, especially in Dayton, since people can travel long distances in very short periods of time.
“Going down I-75, you could be to Atlanta in 8 hours. You could be to Detroit in 5 hours. You could be to Chicago in 5 hours. You could be to Washington DC in 10 hours. In less than a day, you could cover the whole East Coast. It’s very important for us to know that and when we see that and recognize those signs. it’s important for us to do something about it.”
More than 100 people attended the event on Saturday.
If you are in need of help in regards to human trafficking, you are encouraged to call 1 (888) 373-7888 or click here for help.
